Published on July 18th, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi
0The Ultimate Casino Bonus Guide
If you think you can take advantage of live casino bonuses to make a quick buck, you’re highly mistaken. Casinos hold on to their house edge like Gollum holds his ring, even when they offer bonuses for new players to join and existing players to keep playing. They use wagering requirements and many other terms and conditions to create a house edge and prevent blatant abuse of their bonuses.
But what if I told you players have been using bonuses to increase their bankroll regardless of these limitations? They pore over the terms and conditions with a magnifying glass, understand them, and finally choose the best casino bonuses based on various factors. You can do it too with this ultimate guide for making the most out of live casino bonuses.
But first, the 5 different types of bonuses you should know about.
Welcome Bonuses
Welcome bonuses are promotions designed to allure new players into the casino website. They promise free spins or extra cash in your casino account if you complete the required action — sign up to their website, fund your account, or join a game. Many live casinos offer different welcome bonuses on different games to cater to players with different preferences.
While most welcome bonuses are disguised to serve payers and designed to benefit casinos, once in a while, a few pop up that do favour the players.
Deposit Bonuses
Deposit bonuses are somewhat like welcome bonuses except you can only redeem them by funding your casino wallet. What this means is the casino will add money to your wallet if you do it first. Many players turn this free money into real money by playing various online slots that are less risky.
You can also find zero deposit bonuses, though they’re relatively rare. While they won’t provide a big amount, you can still use them beneficially to learn the rules and strategies of a new game.
Reward Points
Reward points are casinos’ special programs to reward players for betting real money. Players earn points through these programs depending on the amount of money they bet. Once they’ve accumulated enough, players redeem these reward points, called as comp points, and convert them into real money.
Reward points can either help you keep playing more games or make up for any losses you’ve accrued.
Referral Bonuses
Live casinos offer referral bonuses to players to bring in more customers. It’s another way players increase their bankroll by using live casino bonuses. Players are given huge bonuses depending on their ability to get new referrals and are then allowed to use their strategies to turn these bonuses into big payouts.
Referral bonuses are also quite rare to find, but they offer benefits for both the person who is referring and the one who is being referred.
Weekly Bonuses
Many of the top live casinos offer their regular players weekly bonuses for increasing their bankroll and helping them play for long periods. Players can take advantage of this offer by reloading their wallets with only a small amount every week.
Once they receive their weekly bonus, they play conservatively as long as they can and only top up their wallets if they want to continue.
Besides the bonuses mentioned above, live casinos also offer VIP programs, cashbacks, and live tournaments among other promotional offers. But as a player, keep in mind that these bonuses always come attached with terms and conditions.
Whatever the reason for a casino to set these restrictions, here’s how you compare the numerous bonuses you’ll come across.
1. Bonus Percentage
You’ll find that live casinos offer bonuses in terms of a percentage of the deposit. Many websites offer huge percentages, but the bigger the bonus, the more the wagering requirements. These requirements will give you a smaller chance to cash out and increase your chances of going broke.
So aim for a bonus percentage of 100-200%. It is considered to be perfectly balanced since it is high enough to give a good amount but low enough to repel high wagering requirements.
2. Max Bonus amount
When you come across phrases like “200% bonus up to €50”, do not be misled by the bonus percentage. What this means is that your bonus will get doubled, but only up to a maximum amount of €50. So always look out for the maximum bonus limit in terms and conditions of games to make sure you know exactly what you’ll get.
Here’s an important tip: you can contact the customer support of the live casino website to ask them for a better bonus offer, and they just might give you a better deal — no promises though.
3. Max bet size
You might wonder what would happen if someday you got a good live casino bonus, got lucky in your games, placed a huge bet, and beat the house by making huge payouts? Casinos have bet size limitations just for this purpose; to prevent their losses in case of lucky player circumstances.
So it’s important that you look for the maximum bet size that’s allowed to place in a live casino game and stick to it, else you might not be able to walk away with your winnings.
4. Wagering Requirements
If you get a bonus of €50 and the wagering requirement is specified as ‘20 times’, then you need to spin for a total of €1000 before you can cash out your balance. Casinos set such wagering requirements mainly on deposit bonuses to engage players in some gameplay before they leave the website. Meeting these huge wagering requirements may seem next to impossible, but you can easily pull it off with a little patience and expertise.
Casinos also limit how certain games contribute towards wagering requirements. Games with a lower house edge rarely count towards the wagering requirements, so check the list of games you can play with your bonus amount.
Parting thoughts
Armed with this extensive knowledge of identifying the different types of live casino bonuses and choosing a suitable one by analysing its underlying terms and conditions, you are now ready to venture into the wild west of the casino world. Good luck, cowboy!