Understanding Bonuses

Understanding Bingo & Slots Bonus Offers

Virtually all bingo and slots sites will offer you a bonus to entice you to join their site. The bonus is usually one of the following:

• Free Bingo
• Free Spins
• Free Money

Such offers are the main marketing hook to get you to sign up. With all forms of online gambling being highly competitive with many brands fighting for your custom this is actually great news for you. Of course, being honest, you get nothing for free, so what gambling sites give you they need to recoup, otherwise they will go bust.

So it’s common sense to educate yourself to understand how bonuses and free offers actually work so you can really get the best offers for you!

Deposit Bonus Offers Explained

The most common bonus you will find on offer online by far, is the Deposit Bonus. Basically this type of offer means that if you deposit some money to the site, they’ll give you some free money.

So for example let’s say you see the following offer….

100% Bonus Up To £100

This mean that for every pound you deposit up to £100 the site will match your deposit. So….

Deposit £10 Play with £20

Deposit £50 Play with £100

Deposit £100 Play with £200

So that’s great, you are actually getting free money so what’s the catch? Well yes you are getting free money, but you simply can’t withdraw that money and bank it.

Wagering Requirements Explained

Virtually all bonuses will have set wagering requirements, that in effect means that players have to wager the bonus amount multiple times before they can cash out.  If you read the terms and conditions of the bonus it will give details of the wagering requirement.

So for example a £100 bonus with a 30X wagering requirement would require the player to make (30 x £100) wagers, which of course is £3000 before they could withdraw any of the bonus.  So let’s say with your £100 bonus you spent it all on bingo tickets and slots, got lucky and won £5000. You’d have to wager another £2900 before you could make a withdrawal.  So as you can imagine most who claim the free bonus money never get to withdraw it. It’s not all bad news though because the player has enjoyed the thrill of gambling the free bonus plus the reality is that you should not gamble with the expectation of making a profit as it should be fun.

Understanding the wagering requirements of deposit bonuses will make you realise that all such bonuses are not equal. For example a 100% Bonus Up To £100 with a wagering requirement of 5x is far better deal than one with 50x.

Many bingo & slots sites will also offer free bingo or free spins with a bonus. Again read the terms and conditions as in many cases the free plays will be on set games plus again there will be conditions on winnings from free games & spins.

No Deposit Offers Explained

If you are looking for completely free money then you need to look for No Deposit Bonus Offers. Such offers nowadays are less common although there are still a few around such as the 888 Casino – £88 Free No Deposit Offer.

For such offers, you sign up to the site, register a card as a form of verification, then the free money is credited to your account. Normally you are only allowed to spend your “free money” on set games plus of course there are strict terms and conditions plus high wagering requirements. It’s always a good idea to read the terms and conditions before claiming any bonus.

Such bonuses though are great for players as they get to try out the site for free which could well lead to them actually depositing on the site.

Free Spins Offers Explained

As I’ve already stated you might get free spins as part as a deposit bonus or even as a no deposit offer. Again read the terms and conditions plus expect to have to register some form of payment method as verification. Very often the free spins are for a set game plus the free spins have a limited lifespan so use them or lose them. Winnings from free spins may be capped or have high wagering requirements. Such offers though are great to try out a new site before making an offer.

Additional Bonus Offers

Customer retention is very important to bingo & slot sites. Once they’ve got you to sign up to their site they want to keep you as a happy punter. Always check out the promotions page of the sites you play to see what extra promotions are on offer. A good site will have weekly reload offers that in effect give you free money for every deposit you make. Other give free games or even free spins.