PROMOTIONAL BONUSES
When visiting a scratch card site the first thing you’ll notice on their homepage is the ‘Welcome Bonus’ offered to new customers like you.
These promotions vary from site to site, but they usually follow a set formula. Typically, the casino or scratchcard portal will try to induce a customer to make a real cash deposit in exchange for receiving a deposit multiplier.
A standard bonus might look like this… ‘Deposit £10 and get £20 to play our games.’ Or they will try and tempt you with ‘free spins’ on a specific slot machine. You could even be offered both deals or even crypto casino bonus codes.
It’s worth noting that any promo bonus will come with significant terms and conditions attached. As the famous economist, Milton Freeman once remarked: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. The ‘free’ money on offer isn’t really free. In most cases, you will have to deposit and risk your own cash to unlock the ‘free’ money.
Even if you follow all the conditions on the promotional offer, you could find it very hard to withdraw the money. I recommend you read all the terms and conditions before you part with your cash.
Generally speaking, the bonuses which offer a limit number of ‘free spins’ can be the least restrictive in terms of collecting and withdrawing.
In my experience, promo deals which offer large cash payments are usually the most restrictive, often to the point of being useless for the typical player. In fact, some bonuses can be damn right terrible. You could even be better off not claiming a bonus at all. Especially if you’re locked into gambling winnings multiple times.
We list the important terms and conditions of each offer on this page. We also provide links to the casinos where you can read the full terms and conditions. Below we’ve listed a few things to look out for when choosing a casino and bonus.
FREE SPINS BONUS
This is a new type of bonus which has recently been introduced. A casino may offer new players a limited number of ‘free spins’ on one of their featured slot machines.
The first thing to consider with this type of bonus…
Do you even like this slot? Free spins are only worthwhile if you’re actually going to claim and play them. Also, check to see if wins with the ‘free spins’ will be locked into a minimum wagering requirement. This is often expressed as a multiple 20x, 30x – i.e. will you be forced to gamble the winnings 20 times before you can withdraw. And then make sure that the winnings aren’t separated into a ‘bonus wallet’. These wallets often have restrictions on drawing down and the types of games you can play using the money in them – check them out before you sign-up.
It’s also worth comparing ‘free spins’ amounts. 30 free spins at one casino could be worth more than 100 free spins at another casino. The 30 free spins could have a higher cash value than the 100 free spins. For instance; it would be better to have 30 free spins worth £1 than 100 worth 0.01 pence. Remember ‘spins’ is not the same as £ | $ | €.
CASH MATCHED BONUS
This type of bonus is one of the most difficult to quantify. Many varieties of it exist, some good, but many bad. It’s worth remembering all bonuses will come with extensive T&C’s attached. No bonus will let you claim the cash and withdraw it! Obviously, this would put the casinos out of business very quickly.
Bonuses commonly come with a matched element and a wagering requirement. The matched element is the amount YOU must deposit in order to claim the bonus amount. The wagering requirement is the number of times you must risk your money playing the casino games before you can withdraw it from the casino.
These two elements are the core of a ‘Matched Bonus’ offer. To assess how valuable a bonus is, you must understand these two elements.
Casino ‘A’ may offer a bigger bonus than Casino ‘B’ but if the wagering requirement on Casino ‘A’ is higher, you could be better off playing at Casino ‘B’. The difference in wagering requirements can be extreme. One casino may require you to risk money just once. Another casino could ask you to risk that money 50 times.
Recent regulatory changes in the UK have forced casinos to become more transparent about the conditions attached to their bonuses. This is great news for players as each casino will now have to clearly state the significant terms and conditions of any bonuses offered before the sign-up process begins.