One of the most exciting things about online casinos is the sheer number of bonuses both new and existing players can take advantage of.
The main types of online casino bonuses you can come across today are no deposit bonuses, free spins bonuses and matching deposit bonuses.
The question being asked here is, are online casino sign-up bonuses worth claiming?
What is an online casino sign-up bonus?
An online casino sign-up bonus, commonly referred to as a welcome bonus, is a special promotional offer available at almost every online casino in the world. It’s aimed at enticing new players to register a real money account at the casino, deposit, and then start playing on a regular basis.
One of the best online casino offers is currently up for grabs at the official Unibet Casino website. For example, if you register your free account here today and deposit at least £10 on your first-ever deposit, your new account will be credited with a free £40 bonus!
What are online casino bonus wagering requirements?
Online casino bonus wagering requirements are attached to around 99% of bonuses. In short, the wagering requirement, which is also commonly referred to as the rollover or playthrough requirement, is the amount of money a player must wager after claiming the bonus before they can withdraw their winnings.
At most online casinos today, players generally have to wager 30x to 70x times the bonus amount before a withdrawal is possible. However, don’t forget that you can forfeit your bonus winnings anytime if you can’t be bothered to try and complete your wagering requirements.
If online casinos didn’t have wagering requirements attached to their bonuses, they would quickly go out of business.
This is because most players would rather withdraw their free bonus money and spend it on other things. Wagering requirements prevent players from being able to do this.
You generally only have one week or one month to complete your wagering requirements. If you don’t get them completed within the allotted time, your initial bonus money (and any winnings that you made from your welcome bonus money) will simply disappear from your account, and in most cases, you will be left with your initial deposit amount to play with.
Are online casino bonuses worth claiming?
Yes. You may as well claim the bonus because you have nothing to lose. However, if the bonus you are about to accept comes with 60x-70x times wagering requirements or higher, then it might not be worth claiming.
In other words, ALWAYS read the small print when you accept an online casino bonus to avoid disappointment. The good news is that you can claim online casino bonuses whether playing from a laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet device.
What else do I need to know?
The only thing you need to know when trying to fulfil your wagering requirements is that only certain games will contribute to completing them. Some games may only contribute 0% to 5% toward completing them per $/€/£10.00 wagered, while others may contribute 10% to 20%. ONLY play the games that contribute 100% toward completing them per $/€/£10.00 wagered.
The majority of online slot machines and instant win games, such as online scratchcards, will often contribute 100% towards completing your wagering requirements. Once again, this information can be found in the bonus Ts and Cs, so always take a few minutes to read through them.
If you can’t find this information, then you should try and get in touch with the player support. They should be happy to explain this to you. Finally, certain payment methods, such as Skrill, PayPal, or NETELLER, may also be excluded from the bonus, so check this too.
You don’t want to make a deposit and then find out that you didn’t qualify for the bonus because you used a certain payment method that was excluded from the welcome bonus.