Online casinos want you as a player. They don’t have all of those expenses that land-based casinos have, so the money that they make tends to go back to the players one way or another. One way is better odds and payout percentages…and the other is promotional bonuses.
Probably, the first thing that you’ll run into when you’re trying to decide between an online casino USA or elsewhere, is the Welcome Bonus. This is an incentive to get you to play at the casino, usually taking the form of a deposit-matching bonus which is just like it sounds — you get a bonus amount depending on how much you put in; most often, it doubles your deposit, sometimes it’s 50% or 150% or some other percentage of your deposit instead. Every once in a while you’ll run into what they call a No Deposit Bonus, which gives you a little bit of free money BEFORE you deposit anything, just so you can see what the casino is like and maybe even win some money for nothing.
Is there a catch? Well, depends on how you look at it. The online casinos don’t really want you to take their free money and leave; they’d rather you stay and play, so many places will give you a ‘playthrough requirement’ or ‘wagering requirement’ to fulfill. You’ll see it listed as a multiple like 10x which means that you have to wager ten times the amount (often the bonus plus deposit amount, so the total balance you have to play with after the bonus is applied) before cashing out.
The No Deposit bonuses have similar requirements — otherwise, what’s to stop you from taking the money and running without even playing any online slots? However, the smaller amounts (No Deposit bonuses are usually in the $5 – $25 range) make the playthroughs much easier to achieve.
Once you’re actually signed up and playing, the best online casinos continue to offer more bonuses and other promotions. Many are of the same nature as the deposit bonuses, but you’ll find many others as well. VIP and loyalty programs probably deserve another whole chapter…stay tuned, we’ll get it done as soon as we win the jackpot…