Welcome bonuses are a very exciting aspect of signing up with a new online casino. They draw you in with fantastic promises of bonus cash, free spins and more, giving you the chance to boost your bankroll and enjoy some risk-free gameplay. But they also come with a set of terms and conditions that can limit their value and flexibility.
We’ll be exploring all the different pros and cons that come with online casino welcome bonuses, giving you an insight into the potential benefits and pitfalls that you need to be aware of before signing up.
The Good Stuff
A great welcome bonus can be the perfect start to your time at a new online casino. These promotional offers give you the chance to check out everything the casino has to offer and can be the perfect way to ultimately decide if you want to carry on playing here or switch to another site instead. Online casinos are constantly updating and changing their offers, so you should check in regularly to see what their latest promotions are like. You can even click for the latest free spins right here.
Testing Out Games and Features
Although you may have read several reviews about an online casino and even browsed through its pages, you won’t know if it’s the right fit for you unless you start playing. So, you’ll need to go through the registration process and make a substantial deposit to get the time you need to enjoy your favourite games.
Welcome bonuses make this process much easier. If you get a match deposit bonus, your initial bankroll is essentially doubled, so you don’t have to fork out that much money upfront. And if you’re lucky enough to get a no deposit bonus, you can start playing without putting any of your funds on the line.
You can use the bonus cash or free spins to familiarise yourself with the games on offer, whether it’s video slots, table games or even live casino entertainment. During this time you can also get a better understanding of how navigation features, customer care and loyalty programs work at the casino.
By the time your bonus funds are used up, you’ll have a much clearer indication of whether or not this online casino suits your needs. This helps you make a more informed decision on either sticking to the online casino or switching to one that is better suited to your gambling preferences.
Boosting Your Bankroll
Most online casino welcome bonuses come as match deposit bonuses and these essentially boost your bankroll by a set percentage. You can get welcome bonuses of 50%, 100%, 200% and more, although maximum bonus caps will generally cap the bonus money you can get.
Either way, you still get to significantly enhance your starting funds, giving you more playtime and increased flexibility. The bonus funds or free spins let you explore more games, place more wagers and potentially score more wins.
Some casinos even split their welcome bonus across several initial deposits. So, rather than forcing you to claim the entirety of the bonus cash and free spins in one go, you can stagger these along the way, giving you the space to play at your own pace.
Offering a Safety Net
With welcome bonuses, you’re also getting a safety net of sorts, which gives you a cushion of financial protection and increased peace of mind whenever you play.
Match deposit and no deposit bonuses are particularly helpful, as they add bonus funds to your account, which you can use first, before putting your funds on the line. You can use these to experiment with different games and explore more interesting betting strategies.
Although they aren’t quite as popular, some online casinos offer cashback deals as a welcome bonus. This gives you a guarantee that you will get your money back on a percentage of your losses and in some cases, this can be as high as 20% or even 25%. Even if you manage a lucky winning streak, you’re bound to run into some losses along the way and welcome cashbacks make sure you get a second chance by mitigating your losses.
At some sites, you can take advantage of both welcome deposit bonuses and cashback deals at the same time. It’s the ultimate safety combo, giving you a sense of reassurance and security in knowing that you have something to fall back on if things don’t necessarily go your way.
The Negative Side of Welcome Bonuses
While loads of positives come with welcome bonuses, these deals also have restrictions and limitations that can affect your overall experience. These elements are worth taking into consideration, and they can help you decide if a welcome bonus is ultimately worth claiming.
Wagering Requirements
Of all the terms and conditions that come with welcome bonuses, wagering requirements are the most notorious. They can cast a significant shadow over the excitement of claiming a lucrative welcome bonus, bringing down its value and impacting your overall experience.
Wagering requirements effectively indicate the number of times you must wager your bonus funds before you can withdraw any winnings you make from them. So, if you have ₹9,000 in bonus cash with a 30x wagering requirement, you’ll need to wager the equivalent of ₹270,000 (₹9,000 x 30) before you can claim any of the bonus winnings. It’s a standard industry practice but can still present several challenges.
You immediately get a lack of transparency. Sure, the wagering requirements will be listed in fine print in the terms and conditions, but their presence means that if a bonus claims to offer you ₹9,000, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be getting that chunk of money without any strings attached. The average wagering requirements are around 35x, and by the time you clear them, there may not be any of the bonus funds left to withdraw.
You also get a time limit on your bonus, so those wagering requirements will need to be cleared within a specified period, otherwise, you forfeit both your bonus and all of its associated winnings. And even if in the best-case scenario, you manage to clear your wagering requirements on time and have bonus winnings left over, these will then be capped accordingly.
Ultimately, wagering requirements are something you always need to consider when claiming a welcome bonus. Some casinos are becoming more flexible, offering bonuses with reduced requirements or none at all. But for the most part, wagering requirements are a staple of casino bonuses and you’ll need to take their impact into account. Always read thoroughly through the terms and conditions and make sure you understand everything they list before making any commitments.
Game Restrictions
One of the most fun things about welcome bonuses is the idea of playing your favourite online casino games without spending your personal funds. But that isn’t entirely accurate. In most cases, online casinos restrict the games you can use bonus funds or free spins on.
Free spins, of course, can only be used on video slots, but even then, they can be restricted to a particular set of games. If the casino is promoting a game, the free spins might only be available to a single video slot. It can be particularly frustrating if you have specific preferences and are only interested in playing your favourite games. It stops you from fully exploring the online casino’s offerings and experiencing the huge range of available games.
You’ll also need to consider these restrictions when clearing wagering requirements for your welcome bonus. Different games contribute differently towards wagering requirements, so you may be forced to play titles that you’re less skilled or interested in, just to meet the requirements within the specified period.
Maximum Bet and Win Caps
Another potential issue can come with maximum bet and win caps, which impose restrictions on the enjoyment and benefit of welcome bonuses.
A maximum bet cap specifies the biggest wagers that you can place per spin or round when using your bonus funds and free spins. It can be particularly limiting if you’re the sort of player who prefers high stakes since your bet size will ultimately affect your potential winnings. It’s a limitation that can constrain your betting strategies and choices and bar you from pursuing larger payouts.
On the other hand, maximum win caps limit the amount of money that you can win through welcome bonuses after clearing the wagering requirements. With most bonuses, online casinos limit this based on the amount of bonus funds you claim in the first place. It stops you from fully capitalising on your winning streaks and makes significant jackpot wins practically useless. You may manage to score a brilliant win only to realise that you won’t be able to cash it all out because of this restriction.
It’s the kind of limitation that affects your gameplay options, can potentially dampen exciting moments and will ultimately have an impact on your overall satisfaction when using a welcome bonus.
Conclusion
All in all, we can say that casino bonuses are a great addition to online gaming, just as long as you check the T&Cs. So before you jump right in, check the offer, see if the requirements make sense to you and from there enjoy the rest of your journey!
