Casino Bonuses Explained

Due to the sheer numbers of casinos available now online, as well as the huge choice in software operators can choose from, there are a huge amount of ways they entice new players or keep loyal players playing.

Below we aim to explain the most common casino bonuses you will come across.

Deposit bonus

This is arguably the original online casino bonus and possibly still the most common. The bonus amount will normally be based on your first deposit and you will normally have to wager the deposit + bonus a number of times before the winnings from the bonus can be withdrawn.

A good few years back there were some huge bonuses with maybe 5x or even 10x your deposit amount with some pretty high turnover requirements. The trend now days is to generally give a 100% bonus or maybe a bit more with turnover mostly between 20x and 40x.

There is always an exception to the rule, and in this case that is PlayOJO. They have done away with all turnover requirements and offer realistic bonuses that customers can withdraw their winnings from without any turnover requirements.

If you would like to read more about the PlayOJO bonus, then read our PlayOJO review.

Free spins

Free spins are an extremely popular welcome bonus offer and are also a bonus casinos sometimes give to existing players as either a reward for playing or as a reload bonus.

In most cases, free spins are given as part of a deposit bonus and are often limited to a certain slot machine or a limited selection of slot machines.

Most free spins will have a turnover requirement before you can withdraw any funds and this can sometimes be even higher than cash deposit bonuses.

No deposit free spins

A few years back these were everywhere and were used as a loss-leader to get players signed up to new casinos and often even established casinos. The hope was that they will like the casino and carry on playing there.

These are far less common now days as people soon learnt they could abuse this by signing up for every offer they could find and withdrawing any cash they managed to win and turnover enough times.

That said, there are still a few offers out there and they are normally limited to certain countries that historically haven’t abused these offers as much, like the UK.

The good news is, Mr Green still offers no deposit free spins for UK players. So, if you are from the UK and would like 50 free spins then please read our Mr Green review.

Deposit bonus + free spins

This seems to becoming really popular recently and normally works in the same way as a deposit bonus or free spins. Where by, you get the deposit bonus based on the value of your first deposit and then the free spins are then bolted on as an added bonus.

Occasionally the free spins have added requirements before they are released, like having to fulfil the bonus turnover before the free spins are released.

The terms can change quite a bit between casinos, so if you are interested in this type of casino bonus then read our reviews for the following online casinos.

William Hill Casino Review
Magic Red Casino Review
Slots Magic Casino Review

Loyalty/VIP bonus

These bonuses are aimed at customers that already play at the casino or even players who used to play and will maybe emailed with offers to entice them back.

The VIP schemes at many casinos allow you to earn points or rank levels as you play real money games. Sometimes higher levels allow you access to better rewards or even increase the rate at which you earn loyalty points.

These loyalty points can often be swapped for free spins or even cash bonuses, and sometimes these have no turnover requirements at all. This means any cash won from these can be withdrawn or used as cash, although this depends on the individual casino’s terms.

Reload bonus

These are fairly simple and basically give you an offer for topping up your account with funds. They can be anything from an added small % bonus with no turnover requirements to a large % bonus with turnover requirement or even free spins on the casinos latest promoted slot machine.

These are as likely to be sent to old customers by email or to current players via their bonus offers and promotions pages.