There are Many Types of Online Casino Bonuses

Good online casinos have a large selection of excellent games, to be sure.  They also have a long list of bonuses that new and veteran players can avail themselves of to enhance their playing budget.  Here is an introduction to eight types of bonuses.  Each introduction has a link to a longer explanation of that bonus.

Casinos use bonuses as a marketing tool and players use bonuses to grow their account.  Bonuses afford players the chance to play with the casino’s own money.  Bonuses at online casinos are also one of the many reasons that the return to player rate at online casinos is higher than at land based casinos.

One feature of all cash bonuses is the play through requirement.  This is a factor of the bonus that you have to wager before you can withdraw winnings.  The reason for this requirement is clear: without it players would register, take a bonus, and immediately cash out.

The play through requirement ranges from as low as 30X to as high as 65X.  This is quite a range; the lower end of this range is far more user-friendly.  It pays to read the terms and conditions of all bonus offers to find out the play through requirement.

Welcome Bonus

One way casinos attract new players is by offering them a substantial welcome bonus.  Welcome bonuses can take several different forms and we’ll cover all of them in this introduction to casino bonuses and in the more expansive links.

Some welcome bonuses are a series of match bonuses for the first three to six deposits.  Some welcome bonuses begin with a no deposit bonus offer that gives players the chance to “roam around” the casino with a little of the casino’s money in hand.  Casinos have begun to include free spins in the welcome bonus package.  Free spins can be a stand-alone bonus feature or they can accompany a match bonus for a deposit.  Finally, casinos are now offering a free chip bonus to new players.

Players are under no obligation to make all of the deposits covered in a welcome bonus offer.    

1^st Deposit Bonus

The main two points in your first deposit bonus are the percentage of the bonus and the maximum amount the bonus can reach.   A first deposit bonus of 200% is an excellent offer.  If the bonus is “up to” $1000 or more, that is also a very substantial offer.

The 1^st deposit bonus may be one part of a much larger set of welcome bonuses.  You have no obligation to deposit again.  The casino makes a good bonus offer to get you to start playing.  A good casino has great confidence that once you start playing you’ll find so much excellent casino action that you’ll stay at the casino.

Match Bonus

This term refers to a bonus that matches your deposit.  In many cases the match bonus is for a larger amount than your deposit but casinos often call it a match deposit anyway.  So, technically, a match bonus is for 100% of the deposit but can go much higher.

A match bonus is more often a bonus that the casinos offer for any and all reasons.  Many casinos offer a match bonus on Monday, the day that many players are busy getting back to work and are putting off playing until later in the week.  So, the casino offers a bonus to at least get you thinking about playing their games.

An important aspect of any bonus offer is that you can take the bonus one day and use the money to play on a different day.

This is one of the beautiful aspects of the many match bonuses a casino offers.  As we said, they often offer a bonus on Monday.  Many casinos offer a weekend bonus, a holiday bonus, a birthday bonus, an anniversary bonus, or a bonus just because they want to.  At some casinos, a bonus offer might just pop up on the screen.  So, it’s often a good idea to have the casino open even when you aren’t playing.

No Deposit Bonuses

In the highly competitive online casino market, with thousands of casinos vying for your patronage, many casinos have begun offering a no deposit bonus to new players.  A no deposit bonus is usually a modest sum of money that you can use to sample the many games the casino offers.

There are four different types of no deposit bonuses: cash only, free spins only, a combination of free cash and free spins, and free play. 

Casinos usually restrict their progressive jackpot games so that you can’t hit the big jackpot with no deposit bonus money but you can still discover many of the games the casino offers.

A casino awards the no deposit bonus after you’ve registered with the casino and before they ask for a deposit.  It doesn’t happen often but, after using their no deposit bonus, some players don’t deposit at the casino.  You’re under no obligation to deposit after you take a no deposit bonus.

When casinos began offering no deposit bonuses, the bonus was always for a small sum of money.  Now casinos are looking to free spins as another type of no deposit bonus.  When a casino offers a free spins no deposit bonus, it usually chooses the slots game that the free spins are for.  These slots are chosen carefully by the casino.  They are usually a game that the casino feels many players will play for real money once they’ve had a taste of the action they can enjoy with that game.

A free play no deposit bonus is simply a period of free play time the casino allows before it asks you to deposit.

Free Chip

In most cases a free chip bonus is the same as a no deposit bonus.  Each casino, of course, has its own way of describing and naming its bonuses.  Casinos that accept several different currencies often convert all the deposits into casino chips.  Many games are played using chips because the game developer wants players from all over the world, using many different currencies, to play their games! 

In this way, many gamers confuse the term “chip” with the wagering amounts in their home currency.  So, you should always keep in mind that a casino may convert your currency into chips. 

Thus, a free chip bonus is a bonus in casino chips.  If you win, you’ll win chips and if you don’t win, you’ll only be losing chips.

Free Spins

We spoke about free spins as a type of new age no deposit bonus.  Here we’ll expand a bit on the idea of free spins.  Many bonus offers these days, for new players or for promotional reasons, include free spins.  Casinos have found that many players love getting free spins in selected slots games.  So, many bonus offers for the many occasions the casino uses as a reason to offer a bonus, will include free spins or will be only for free spins.

Free spins are also the main feature of the bonus rounds in almost all slots games.  The regular game in slots offers the many great characters and symbols with wild symbols and multipliers and many other excellent ways to win and to enjoy the story.  The big action comes in the bonus rounds after you get three scatter symbols and the game showers free spins on you.

The bonus rounds are for a lot more than “just” free spins.  You get multipliers and many ways the wild symbol can help you score a big win.  Sometimes, the bonus round opens with a choice: more free spins with a lower multiplier or fewer free spins with a higher multiplier.  There are forums for online gamers and this point has been debated for a long time.  Some players prefer more free spins while other players prefer a higher multiplier.

High Roller Bonus

A high roller is a player who can afford to gamble far more money than the average player.  A true high roller usually gets invited to join the casino’s VIP Club and then the high roller bonuses come pouring in.

The first high roller bonus comes from increased match bonus percentages.  High rollers may get 200% or more for a deposit.  In the casino’s Loyalty Club—which is called different things by different casinos but in all cases means that wagers are converted into redeemable points—high rollers enjoy a higher redemption rate than average players.

High roller bonuses also come in many different forms.  VIP’s receive a personal account manager who learns about the high roller, his or her family, important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, likes and pleasures apart from casino gaming, and devises many promotions exclusively for the VIP’s in their charge.

So, a high roller might earn the bonus of a luxury cruise, theater and concert tickets, excellent seats at important sports matches, or any other bonus their account manager can come up with for them.

Exclusive Bonuses

As with many other casino terms, an exclusive bonus may mean one thing to one casino and something else to another casino.  Here we’ll try to cover the types of exclusive bonuses that all or at least almost all casinos offer.

The first exclusive bonus is the welcome bonus which we covered above.  It is exclusive to newly registered players.  After that, there are many other types of bonuses, some offered to all players generally and some offered exclusively to some players.

If today is your birthday, you’ll be offered a birthday bonus.  If it isn’t your birthday, the casino has other bonuses to offers but you’ll have to wait patiently for the exclusive birthday bonus to come your way.

The same applies to the exclusive anniversary bonus.  Unmarried players can choose from many other bonuses but not the exclusive anniversary bonus.

Every casino runs a loyalty program of some sort.  In these programs, when you’ve reached a given level of loyalty points, you can convert the points into a bonus that is exclusive to players with that level of points.

High rollers automatically qualify for exclusive high roller bonuses.  These may be bonuses for a higher percentage than regular bonuses; for instance, 200% instead of 100%.  High rollers enjoy many exclusive bonuses such as gifts, tickets, trips, cruises, and more.