Online casino promotions - good way to play casinos

Online casino promotions - good way to play casinos Taking advantage of the online casino promotions, often referred to as the casino bonus, is a good way to play at the online casinos. The people who have never visited an online casino may find the whole concept of the promotions a bit weird and overwhelming at first, but as many of you already know - it's one of the best features of the online casinos and the sure way to win before you even play. For those of you unfamiliar with the internet casinos in general, here is a quick run over the basics of the online casino promotions.

Every online casino these days is taking advantage of the so called "casino bonus", i.e. a promotion ran by the online casino in order to attract or retain its customers. The simple fact that the online gambler is associated with his or her casino account and makes all transactions and wagers from that one account gives the online casinos the rare opportunity to offer promotions not available at the regular land-casinos. There are two main types of online casino promotions - the sign-up bonus and the ongoing bonuses.

The sign-up bonus is a promotion for the first time customers at the online casino. This is generally the most generous bonus a player will receive at the casino and the one that's heavily advertised by the casino website. It applies only to new players, i.e. those people opening an account with the online casino for the first time. Even though this type of promotion is mainly advertised in dollar amount, it's calculated as percentage of the first deposit a player makes at the online casino.

Here are some examples of the sign-up bonus: Las Vegas USA online casino is currently offering a $500 sign up bonus for its new customers. But unlike many other online casinos, the promotion at Las Vegas USA is actually 125% on the player's first deposit, i.e. you don't need to deposit $500 to get $500 free. Golden Casino on the other side is offering $555 free for new customers, but the actual percentage is 100%, which means that you have to deposit $555 in order to take full advantage of the bonus, From this example it's clear that the promotion is much better at Las Vegas USA, than at Golden Casino. Why? Well, not everyone will have the big bank account to deposit enough money to take advantage of the top limit of the casino promotion. Most players will deposit around $200. Let's say you do deposit $200 at each of the two online casinos - after the deposit you will get $250 extra at Las Vegas USA (125% bonus on your deposit) and only $200 at Golden Casino (100% of your first deposit). Therefore it's very important to get to the percentage bottom of the sign-up promotion to make sure you are getting the most out of your money. Other online casinos offering the 125% promotion include SlotsPlus, Vegas Casino Online and Sun Palace Casino. You can visit our casino guide to find the best online casino promotions and read more about each of the casinos.

But the new player casino promotion comes with some strings attached. Clearly the online casinos cannot give away free money just like that - the players would simply deposit the max, get the bonus and withdraw both, without even playing. In order to protect themselves from such actions, the online casinos have instated a promotion policy often referred to as "wagering requirements" or "play-through requirements". This means that once you claim the bonus, you can withdraw your winnings from that deposit and bonus only after you have wagered a certain amount, usually around 10 to 15 times the deposit+bonus amount. An example, if you deposit $200 and get $200 bonus and the wagering requirements for the promotion are 10 times, you will have to wager $4,000 before you can withdraw your winnings. Keep in mind that this does not mean you have to lose $4,000, rather you must make $4,000 in bets. For example, if you are a high roller or have nerves of steel, you can play $200 per hand blackjack. In order to satisfy the wagering requirements, you must play 20 hands of blackjack (20x$200=$4,000). Whether you win or lose those 20 hands is not important, what's important is that you would have satisfied the wagering requirements of the casino promotion and would be able to withdraw your winnings. Of course, of you lose the money before you meet the play-through requirements - you are back to "zero", i.e. those requirements don't apply to you anymore. So if you deposit money again without taking a bonus, you would not be required to meet any play-through.

Furthermore, some online casinos impose higher wagering requirements for the promotions on games such as blackjack, i.e. those with the smallest house advantage. A casino may have a 10 times deposit+promotion general wagering requirement, but if when playing blackjack, the requirement could jump to 20 times. Make sure you read all wagering requirements for the online casino promotions. But generally, the slots are the best way to go - first, you will have a lot of fun playing the online casino slots, especially with the sophistication of the gambling software these days; second, the wagering requirements are much smaller for the slots; third, those promotion requirements are easier satisfied playing slots - some of the slot machines give you the opportunity to win really big while betting really small, others offer free spins, side bonuses, etc., all great ways to significantly increase your bankroll, hence improving your chances to meet the promotion requirements for withdrawal. We love examples, so here is another one - a player has deposited $100, got a $100 free and is playing a $10-wager slot with free spins. Often during free spins the wins are tripled and even retriggered. Let's say you get 20 free spins and with a few good wins, you quickly get to $2,000 (it happens more often than you would think). Right there you have pretty much satisfied a 10x promotion wagering requirement at this online casino. Even if you lose half of the $2,000 in 200 spins (highly unlikely), you will still have $1,000 left, which is $900 profit, once we subtract your initial bonus.

The online casino promotion gives you both psychological and financial advantage overall when gambling. Let's say a player has tried the online casino using the "fun money account", an account all online casinos offer, where you play with fake money just to see if you like the games, and the player decides he loves a particular slot machine and would like to play with real money. But he has set aside just $200 to gamble, thus the player has decided to wager $5 per spin in order to play as long as possible. But with the online casino promotion at 125% on the first deposit, the player will have a bankroll of $450 ($200 deposited + $250 bonus). Now he can either play even longer his favorite slot, or increase the bet to $10 per spin, without risking more money than he initially set aside. Clearly the online casino promotion is the best way to play at the casinos, so make sure you get the most out of your buck when signing up with any gambling website.

Published on 07/03/2009