As online gaming enters a new era in which sports betting may be added to the set of possible games and bets players can make, it has become necessary for almost all online casinos to use bonus codes so the casinos and the players can keep track of all their action at the casino.
What is a Bonus Code?
If an online casino offered only one bonus once in a while and had no other promotions in parallel with the one or two bonuses, it wouldn’t necessarily need to use bonus codes. But online casinos face tremendous competition within their industry. There are thousands of online casinos all vying for gamers. One way to attract new players and to retain the loyalty of veteran players is through a large number of casino bonuses and other promotions.
In order to keep all their promotions straight, online casinos require gamers to enter a bonus code (or, as they are sometimes called, a promo code) when the gamers want to access the promotion or bonus. The code follows the casino’s internal account number so that correct account gets all the credits it deserves from the bonus or promotion.
Types of Bonuses
There are many types of bonuses and it would seem that it wouldn’t be necessary to require gamers to use a bonus code to access them; it seems on the surface that you just roll one bonus game in with all the others.
Here’s why bonus codes are so important. Whenever a player receives a bonus, he or she has to make a set amount of bets in money terms, not in bet terms, before they can withdraw any of the bonus money. This has various names depending on the casino but the idea is the same in all of them so here we’ll call it the play through requirement.
If you take a bonus on the weekend and also on Monday, how does the casino know when you’ve finished the play through requirement for each bonus? The only way to do so is to have a specific number, which we’re calling the bonus code, and to connect that number to your account number.
By the way, a play through requirement of 30x or 40x the bonus is fair. Anything higher is starting to be unfair. This is one of the things players should look into before joining a casino.
Also by the way, this is one of the biggest advantages that online casinos have over land based casinos. Gamers usually spend a few days at most at a land based casino. It would be very difficult to play enough to complete the play through requirement at a land based casino. At an online casino, gamers have plenty of time to play through the requirement.
Cash Bonuses
Every online casino offers a cash bonus to new players. This generally called the Welcome Bonus or Welcome Package. After the initial bonus, players can often get a weekend bonus, a Monday bonus to start the week, a Wednesday bonus to help get through the slow moving mid-week days, a birthday bonus, and no reason at all bonus and so on.
Promotions
Most casinos have a loyalty or comp points promotion. This is a two faceted promotion in which players get points for playing and then can convert the points into bonuses. Most online casinos allow you to collect loyalty points while at the same time working off the play through requirement.
So, it’s quite easy to see just how important bonus codes are; they are the digital method by which the casinos keep track of the tens of thousands of casino bonuses they have handed out to gamers.
Many casinos now run a promotion around new games they are introducing that month. These new games are almost always slots. The promotion might be for free spins on the new game or a promotion based on the game. Naturally, this is all marketing on the side of the casino but it represents great gaming value to players too.
Many casinos run monthly or weekly promotions. In these cases, you’ll enter the promo code to participate in the promotion. Many online casinos also run tournaments. These are usually for slots as well. Since some casinos have as many as twenty slots tournaments going at any one time, the promo code is of great importance there too.
Discovering Bonuses
If you Google online casino bonuses and go to news, you’ll see many new bonuses and promotions being offered at various casinos. The new technology that has made instant play so popular now makes it easy to get a bonus from a number of casinos and to play with their money. Of course, except in no deposit bonuses, you’ll have to put up some of your own money to receive a cash bonus.
The important thing to remember is to enter the correct bonus code. In that way, you’ll be sure to get the most gaming for every dollar you deposit.
There are so many online casinos coming every week, so many land based casinos being built, so much news about new gambling opportunities such as sports betting that we often lose sight of the fact that bonuses are also newsworthy and the bonus codes that allow us to take advantage of all these bonuses and promotions are the simple method by which the casinos make order out of what otherwise would be chaos.
