Bonuses, Bonuses All Around…But Which One To Pick?

Picture the scene. You’re in the club, and I’m your wing-man. Obviously, the girls are flocking to me first. But when I’ve had my pick, you look around and see so many pretty girls. How on earth are you supposed to pick just one?!

It’s a lot like bonuses in online gambling. Bonuses make me happy, like a nice big cigar after a hard day’s work. Or like a stunning barmaid with a top that couldn’t be cut any lower. Bonuses are always attractive, but sadly, you can’t have them all.

Some bonuses are all dolled-up and dressed to impress. But when the makeup comes off, they’re actually pretty ugly. And by the time you find out, it’s usually too late…

You have to choose a bonus like you’re choosing a partner. And you’ve got standards, right?

I’ve developed a system for finding the best bonuses with the best terms, so you can be sure you’re getting the good stuff and not the dogs. My aim is to help you pick bonuses that you could take home and introduce to your mother…not the bonuses you’d rather forget.

It’s instinctive, so I’m not going to give you instructions. Just follow what feels right – just like sex, it’s all about what feels natural. I’m not giving you a blueprint here – just do it!

Being serious for a second, there are some bonuses and casinos where you will lose your money with a 100% probability you’ll feel burned. If you’re at all new to this, and even if you’re not, there are dangers lurking around every corner. This isn’t like buying from a cookie shop – you’re dealing with casinos here, and not all of them are sweetness and light. So read on with your eyes open – it will save you a lot of hassle and probably wads of cash in the process.

Very Important – Wagering Requirements

Wagering requirements are as important to your bonuses as the expiry date on a carton of milk. You’d be a fool to buy milk that was past its sell-by date, and the same applies to bonuses and their wagering requirements.

The wager gives you an idea of whether you’ll be able to play through a bonus, or whether you’ll lose your money. Like, it’s almost a guarantee either way. Casinos have wagering requirements in place to protect against abuse…but in some cases, it’s almost like them abusing you.

As a starting point, I wouldn’t recommend taking a bonus with a wagering requirement of over 40x. The optimum is 20x, although these are pretty hard to find nowadays. By the way, it’s good to remember that sometimes the wagering requirements also apply to your deposit amount, as well as the bonus. If you see «d+b» next to a bonus, you need to be sure that’s what is going on. These are even worse for you, and much more difficult to meet profitably.

A little example. Say you find a casino with a 100% bonus up to 100$ with wagering requirements of 20x d+b. That means to play through the amount, you need to bet:

$100 deposit + $100 bonus = $200×20 = $4,000

So that means you’re going to need to bet $4,000 before you can withdraw any of your deposit, your bonus or the winnings from it. Pretty difficult, if you ask me.

But if the same 100% bonus up to $100 with a 20x wagering requirement doesn’t include the deposit, you only have to playthrough the bonus with a total bet of $2,000. That is half the size!

So I want you to always read into bonuses – don’t just accept them at face value. If the wagering requirement is d+b, or if it’s just too high to begin with, you’re going to find life much more difficult than it needs to be.

By the way, these examples are at least reasonable. You might think that 40x d+b is such a terrible deal, you’d have to be a mug to accept it. But it isn’t even the worst I have seen. In fact, some casinos have the balls to set their wagering requirements at 50x or even 100x d+b. Can you actually imagine that? To get your $100 bonus at 100x d+b you’re going to have to wager:

$100 deposit + $100 bonus = $200 x 100x = $20,000.

That’s $20k spend for a $100 bonus. And you don’t win all the time either. There’s simply no way you can achieve this profitably, so the bonus is actually worse than no bonus at all – it’s a dead weight around your ankles, dragging you to the bottom of the ocean.

So like I said, keep your eyes open, and let me point you in the right direction for bonuses that are at least achievable and good value. Don’t wake up next to something ugly in the morning…it just isn’t worth it.

Let’s have a look at some of the different types of bonuses you’ll come across on your travels.

Welcome Bonuses – A Golden Hello

Every online casino starts with a welcome or sign-up bonus, designed to pull you through the virtual door. This is like those schemey guys standing outside nightclubs, trying to entice you in with free drinks. It’s the exact approach casinos use to encourage you to play with them.

It’s the primary type of bonus you’ll come across, and the bonus that pretty much no online gambler will register without. The casino industry is a tough, competitive place for operators, it’s dog eat dog and they have no choice but to compete with each other to find new players. That means for you, there’s a constant battle of bonuses and inviting welcome offers, all designed to get you to click on the dotted line…

Once you’re through the door, you’ll never get another welcome bonus. It’s a one-time thing, and you can’t be welcomed twice, so you’ve got to make your entrance count. It pays to get the right deal, and to make sure you’re not actually hampering your chances of success with dodgy wagering requirements.

Welcome bonuses come in various shapes and sizes, with almost every online casino offering to match your first deposit. Expect anything from 50% to 500% of your bonus to be matched, although the standard is 100%. In other words, they’ll usually take the amount of your first deposit and double it, up to a maximum limit. So, if you deposit $200, the casino will give you another $200 in bonus credit, which will appear in your account balance.

In some rare cases, you’ll get sign up bonuses in the form of free spins. You can use these for playing slots. The timeframe for using these free spins is limited to around a week on average, and there may only be one or two slots games eligible for you to use your free spins. Some of the more generous casinos will welcome you in with a combination of a deposit bonus and free spins. These are my favourite type of welcome bonuses, but they just don’t appear often enough for my liking.

Make sure you read bonus terms and conditions, and take particular note of country restrictions. Players from some countries just can’t claim their bonuses, no matter how hard they try, because they are excluded.

It’s like getting to the party and being turned away without an invite – there’s nothing you can do, and you’re probably in for a miserable time as a result.

There are also cases where casinos set additional requirements other than just registering and depositing money. There can be a bonus code needed to activate a welcome bonus too, plus a number of other terms.

In a nutshell, you’d have to be pretty dumb not to check the terms and conditions. Most new players don’t, and they get their fingers burned. I’m here to stop that happening to you.

Reload Bonuses – Like A Free Refill

Once you’ve made your first deposit, you might feel like you are done with bonuses. WRONG ANSWER.

Online casinos don’t just want you to deposit once, they want you to deposit time after time as you play through their games. Reload bonuses are similar to welcome bonuses, usually matching the amount of your second, third and additional bonuses. The only difference between a reload bonus and a welcome bonus is the timing. Welcome comes first. Then it’s time for the reload. Obviously.

I remember talking to executives from my time at the casino. They see the reload bonus as a chance to turn a one-time gambler into a long-term player.

And I can assure you, they hope you lose it all.

They actually laugh about players losing money, and curse those players that do well.

To be honest, that was part of my reason for getting out of that job in the end. I want to be on the other side, helping players like you take these massive companies for as much you can. They won’t miss the money, and I’d like to wipe some of those smug smiles off their faces while I’m there.

Some casinos design special bonus programs that include a series of reload bonuses. Generally in these cases every additional reload bonus diminishes in size. Let’s say the first bonus doubles your deposit, the second gives only 75% to your deposit, then 50% for your third deposit and so on.

As the match percentage decreases, casinos usually allow for increasing maximum bonus sizes. For example, the first match bonus might be limited to $200, but the second will be increased to $400, and so on.

The same wagering rules usually apply, so if you’re getting a terrible deal with your welcome bonus, it isn’t likely to get much better on your next deposits. By contrast, if you follow my advice and get yourself a 10 out of 10 bonus deal, it will pay well for each of your successive deposits as you move from first time player to loyal gambler. And you can thank me later.

Cashback Bonuses – A Consolation Prize

Who likes losing? Definitely not me. Casinos bet that you probably don’t like it either. Here’s how they sweeten the pill. Cashback bonuses make losing feel more pleasant. With every wager lost, there’s at least that small glimmer of hope, in the form of a cashback bonus – an incentive for you to keep going, even when the going gets tough.

Casinos can choose to pay back a certain amount of a player losses, for example 5% or 10%. Unlike other types of bonuses, cashback often doesn’t require any wagering. It’s cashable and can be used for bets or withdrawal instantly. Sweet.

But be careful. As with all things, some casinos are more obstructive than others, and you might find your cashback bonus is non-cashable or otherwise restricted to a couple of games here or there.

The net loss over a predefined time period is used as the basis for calculating your cashback amount. Say you’re playing with a 10% cashback, paid for net monthly losses. If at the end of the month your loss is $200 then your cashback is $20 ($200*10%). If you have a net profit on the month, nothing is paid back, but you’re already laughing ‘cos you made some money, honey.

Free Spins – No Such Thing As A Free Lunch?

I remember when I was a kid, my older relatives would always say ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. They obviously haven’t encountered free spins, or else they’d know that’s a lie.

Free spins are one of my favourite types of bonuses, because you don’t have to spend your own money to win. They come in the form of a number of free spins, available on certain slots. Anything you win on those spins is free money, and while it might be subject to wagering requirements, often there are no wagering requirements at all. So it’s literally free cash in your hand, in some cases.

Free spins are typically available as part of deposit bonuses or no deposit bonuses, with the latter being more popular with players. The best free spin bonuses don’t limit your selection of games, but usually you are subject to some kind of restriction in terms of the qualifying games for your spins. In many cases, you’ll only be able to use your free spins in a single slot – anything else is considered generous by industry standards.

Often free spins are a part of a welcome package for new players. They come with the first deposit bonus as an added extra. Free spins are also popular for promoting new slots. This is how casinos draw attention to newly released games, and introduce them to a larger audience. Both players and casinos benefit from that.

No Deposit Bonuses – A Player’s Next Best Friend (after Godwin)

Imagine if you could take advantage of these bonuses without having to deposit. No prizes for guessing that’s what a no deposit bonus does, genius, and they are a great tool for players looking to get an introduction to online casinos. Especially if you are testing the water with a new casino you haven’t played with before, this can be an useful bonus to have on your side.

Casinos don’t tend to like these bonuses, since there is no guarantee they’ll get any money out of the player. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that casinos like to get their hands on your money.

Bonuses are usually cashable, but the wagering requirements are obviously pretty stringent – no casino will let you waltz out easily with piles of their cash in your pocket.

Usually you’ll have to make a deposit of a minimum amount before you can cash out any winnings from no deposit bonuses. In the process, you’ll also activate your payment method for future withdrawals.

Some players reject no deposit bonuses and for good reason – the limitations and conditions can make wagering requirements just too high in some cases. But for a number of players, it’s a totally risk-free way to get started, so a decent enough bonus to use to your advantage if you can handle all the shit that goes with it.

No deposit bonuses won’t be worth a fortune, and they hardly ever exceed $50. But then what do you expect. It’s designed as a taster bonus, and literally no casino is going to put more money than they have to on the table. In most cases you can bag up to $20, which is more than enough for you to try out different games and decide whether that particular casino is right for you.

High Roller Bonuses – James Bond-Level Rewards

Go hard or go home. That’s always been my motto when gambling online, and it’s a good philosophy for the high rollers among us.

Unfortunately, not every casino will welcome big-scale players, and you might find there are maximum deposits. Frankly, they’re just to scared to take you on.

Commonly, your bonuses will be limited too, to prevent casinos opening up too much risk to a particular player. Imagine the casino gets several high rollers with large deposits and bonuses – a couple of coinciding lucky streaks could put them out of business.

If you are a high roller, look for the casinos that want your business. Some will roll out the red carpet and give you the VIP treatment, because they are actively looking for players like me. That means you’ll get additional benefits like tournament tickets, birthday presents, additional bonuses, and in some cases even a personal liaison with your account manager. Nice.

The minimum deposit for this level is usually much higher, with minimums set at at least $1,000 in most cases. Generally the more you deposit, the better the bonus percentage, and the more generous the terms and conditions you’ll get for your play. So it pays to go hard, or go home, if you can afford it.

Sticky Bonuses – Non-Cashable But Still Useful

Other bonuses are non-cashable, often referred to as sticky bonuses. You can use them for placing bets, but you won’t be able to withdraw the cash. They are like ghosts, disappearing into the night when it comes time to withdraw.

Say for example you’ve got a $100 sticky bonus for a $100 deposit, and your account balance has hit $300. When it’s time to cash out, you’ll only see $200 in your account (i.e. you won’t see your bonus amount, because you can’t cash it).

Some sticky bonuses hang around even after cash out, staying in your account as an alternative balance. You can still use this for betting, but the same cash out rules apply – you won’t ever get your hands on that bonus cash.

No Deposit Bonuses and Free Spins

Sometimes, you don’t even need to open your wallet to get your hands on free bonuses. It’s like those rare girls you meet who don’t care about your money. These can be in the form of no deposit bonuses or free spins, or a combination, usually with much more stringent conditions to fulfill. Both bonus types are represented here at GodwinCasino.com

You can compare free bonuses by heading over to the section of the site called “Compare Free Cheese”. There’s no danger of getting caught in a mousetrap here, so long as you’re sure you read the terms and conditions of each bonus first.

In contrast to no deposit bonuses, which are exclusively aimed at new players, free spins are usually given out both to new and existing players. Any bonus made up of free spins is a must for slot fans – they are literally like gold coins, just waiting to be flipped into real, withdrawable cash.