Casinos often present their bonus offers as gifts and benefits for their players. And players themselves often perceive them this way. However, the truth is that casino bonuses are more of a well-thought-out marketing tool that casinos use to attract you to their platform and motivate you to play rather than any sort of gift.
A friendly welcome bonus, which almost every online casino now offers, is meant to prompt you to register on the platform, motivate you to make your first and subsequent deposits, extend your playing time, and keep you active on the platform. Casinos try to achieve all this with just one nicely designed banner that promises an attractive welcome bonus.
While welcome and sign-up bonuses will be the first ones we describe in today's article, as you will soon discover, these are far from the only bonuses that online casinos offer.
The absolutely most common type of bonus you'll find at modern online casinos are welcome bonuses. These are typically offered by casinos either for your first deposit or spread across, for example, your first two or three deposits. Welcome bonuses most commonly take the form of a percentage return on your deposit – casinos often match up to 100% of your first deposit, and frequently add a portion of free spins as well.
Although these bonuses look very attractive and simple at first glance, they are often the cause of frequent disputes between players and casinos.
Welcome bonuses often come with a wide range of conditions that not every player pays full attention to.
In the terms of welcome bonuses, there is typically a maximum bet limit that you are allowed to play with while using the bonus, wagering requirements for both your deposit and the bonus, specific payment methods that must be used for your first deposit for the bonus to be activated at all, and specific game titles on which you can use the bonus funds are also usually mentioned.
This is where the most misunderstandings arise.
At foreign online casinos, the terms may be inaccurately described due to translation, insufficiently explained, or simply unclear. Or they may simply be too demanding. In such a case, you may find yourself not only with welcome bonuses but with other bonuses as well, in a situation where instead of entertainment, you play for hours just to meet the bonus conditions. And often without a realistic chance of converting that bonus into withdrawable money.
So before you are dazzled by the attractive design of a banner on the casino's homepage promising you the world, always check the conditions that apply to that specific bonus first.
In addition to registration and first deposit bonuses, online casinos also offer you regular rewards in the form of no deposit bonuses. The way casinos distribute these bonuses varies – for example, during the Christmas period, it could be bonuses distributed as advent calendars, where casinos give you one bonus every day. Often these are precisely no deposit bonuses, most commonly in the form of free spins.
No deposit bonuses also have certain conditions that must be met – such as bonus activation, use of the bonus in a specific game, or time limits. So don't forget to read and follow them here either, so you don't miss out on the reward.
Free spins that casinos give you in bonuses are by far the most popular type of bonus. These are free spins that online casinos give you in various situations – as part of a no deposit bonus, for a deposit, for registration, as a tournament reward, and so on.
Free spins are given in various quantities – from a few to hundreds of free spins, which casinos then credit to you either all at once or gradually. The higher amounts of free spins are most commonly credited a specific number per day, and you typically have 24 hours or another time period to use them. Usually, if you don't manage to use the free spins within that time window, they are removed.
Pay attention in the free spins bonus terms to two main things. The first is the wagering requirement. This tells you how many times you need to wager the winnings you get from the bonus free spins. For example, if you win 20 CZK thanks to bonus free spins, and the casino requires a twenty-fold wagering requirement, then you need to wager 400 crowns to keep the original twenty crowns. If you don't meet the wagering requirements, the casino would take away all the winnings you've earned this way.
The second thing to pay attention to in the free spins bonus terms is mention of specific titles that the free spins apply to. Sometimes the terms list one, two, or three specific games, sometimes they are titles from a specific game developer, and so on. Either way, it always applies that if you wanted to use the free spins in other games than those specified by the casino in the terms, you wouldn't get them.
Bonus free spins can take the form of a no deposit bonus or a deposit bonus. Free spins are also often used as a form of reward in casino loyalty programs.
Cashback bonuses are among the most popular bonuses in online casinos. They are sort of your safety net. Every player, even the most experienced one, will eventually find themselves in a situation at a casino where they lose. Whether it's on slots, table games, in the casino's live sections... In short, everyone experiences a loss at some point and leaves a certain amount of money at the casino.
To make it less painful for you as players, online casinos have increasingly begun to offer so-called cashback bonuses.
These are offered by online casinos on a daily, weekend, weekly, or monthly basis, usually at some percentage rate that is capped at a certain amount – typically "15% cashback bonus up to xx crowns". The percentage and the amount up to which the casino pays such a bonus can be influenced not only by the casino's offer itself, but also, for example, by your position in the loyalty program.
Just as with free spins, here too it's very likely that the bonus terms will include wagering requirements, so read them carefully again!
In the casino's regular promotional offer, you'll find other offers and bonuses. These often include so-called reload bonuses. These work virtually the same as casino welcome and sign-up bonuses – most often casinos invite you to make a deposit, which they then match with the same amount. Sometimes they add free spins to this amount as well. The conditions of such bonuses vary from case to case.
Another classic casino offer is tournaments. These bring various types of entertainment to your bonuses. The principle of tournaments is based on the fact that you play not only "against the casino" but primarily against other players. The prizes are usually set up in the form of a leaderboard, where you can move up by collecting points or other predetermined game symbols. You try to overtake all the players ranked above you on the board, because of course – whoever takes the top spots in the tournament wins the highest prizes.
This can be a great motivation for many players, but also a risk – the race for higher rankings and better positions in the tournament can easily push players to exceed their safe limits. If you want to know how to stay safe in the casino environment, read our article – The Seven Rules of Safe Gaming.
A separate part of bonuses and promotions is made up of loyalty programs. We've told you about how loyalty programs work in our previous article. In short, they are levels that you progress through based on your gaming activity. By collecting various points, being active and placing bets in the casino, you gradually move from one level of the program to another, and the higher you are in the program, the higher rewards you typically receive.
The rewards in loyalty programs can be almost anything. Casinos offer their players higher cashback and reload bonuses, free spins, bonus money, a personal VIP manager, personalized promotions, and much more.
In addition to loyalty programs often offering better rewards than standard promotional offers, they also often motivate you more to play. However, it's important that you don't forget to check the conditions for claiming bonuses that the casino offers you at a given level, even with loyalty programs. These also have wagering requirements, time limits, and other conditions.
For casinos, loyalty programs are a way to keep you on their site and ensure your "loyalty" to their platform. Your loyalty to a specific casino is often, in addition to progressing through the program, rewarded with exclusive bonuses for your name day, birthday, or special anniversaries.