Online Casino Signup Bonus Terms

If you've never played online casinos then you're probably wondering just what all these sign-up or welcome bonus offers you see throughout the Winning at the Slots website are all about? Even if you already play online casinos you may have wished you read the welcome bonus terms more closely the first time playing so you could have taken advantage of some of the more generous offers.

Like any of the legalise jargon often accompanying contests and credit cards, online casino signup bonus terms can be a little confusing and the specific terms vary somewhat from casino to casino. Also make sure the casino accepts player from your location. Throughout the Winning at the Slots site casinos that accept USA and/or Canadian players are indicated by a flag.

So how do you know which sign-up bonus offer to take advantage of? Aside from the type of games you like to play, it depends on your budget as to exactly which bonus offer you should consider.

There are two links on the casino's home page you need to look for, the signup or welcome bonus terms and conditions and how to claim your bonus. This information is usually under the promotions link but may be elsewhere.

What to specifically look for in the Terms and Conditions:

1: Signup Bonus Eligibility: Certain countries may not be eligible to receive the sign-up bonus or may have additional restrictions. The casinos were forced to change their sign up policy because of bonus hunters and cheats.

2: How long do you have to claim your sign-up bonus? Some casinos require you to claim your sign-up bonus within a certain amount of time after opening a real player account and making the initial deposit or you'll lose it. Some are as short as 24 hours while others can be 7 days or longer. It depends on the specific casino. Casino's usually send an email indicating you have FREE bonus cash available.

3: Bonus Codes and Claim Forms: After you register as a real player you may have to enter a bonus code, promo code or your account number the casino provides you to claim the bonus. You either enter it while your making your initial deposit or after. Check with the specific casino before registering so you don't accidently forfeit the free signup bonus. In any event it's usually just the bonus code or account number. Sometimes you enter your name, email address and account number. Write the info down.

For instance, the eCOGRA approved Microgaming Casino All Slots has a generous sign-up bonus. New players receive a 100% match bonus, up to 200 credits, with their first deposit. Plus players get 10% cash back on every deposit up to 450 bonus credits per month free but you need to enter your casino account number to claim the free bonus. Some casinos automatically give it to you like the Microgaming Casinos from Casino Rewards. Follow the steps in the proper order and you can play with the casino's money. Read more on our recommended Microgaming Casinos.

4: Signup Bonus Use Time Limit: Once you get the signup bonus cash you may have a limited time in which to use it. You don't have to use all the free bonus cash all at once but there may be time a limit. Again, check with the specific casino.

5: Withdrawals: Some casinos let you withdraw any deposits and winnings anytime whether you use the signup bonus or not and you should specifically check for condition. However, if you make a deposit and then decide to withdraw it before you play and then change your mind again and redeposit it, you'll forfeit the sign up bonus. Don't be fickle.

6: Deposit Method Bonuses: Many online casinos offer additional free bonus cash when making deposits using one of their preferred deposit method. Our recommended Real Time Gaming and Rival Gaming Casinos offer players preferred deposit method bonuses.

7: Wagering or Play-Through: Play-through may be the most misunderstood requirement and the one condition that turns many players away from experiencing the fun of playing online casino slots.

When you read the sign-up bonus terms it will say you need to wager a certain amount (play-through) before you're awarded the sign-up bonus cash or can withdraw any winnings. The amount of play-through required varies from casino to casino but is typically 30x (times) the amount of the signup bonus.

In some casinos it can be as low as 12x like Manyan Fortune Casino and Pantasia Casino or 20x like Super Slots. but many times when the play-through requirement is low it is the combined amount of the deposit plus the amount of the signup bonus. Specifically look for this condition. For frequent players (VIP members) the play-through can be even or lower or waived entirely.

Casinos give you the bonus cash right away, usually within 10-15 minutes after your deposit but say it can take up to 2 hours. Our sign-up bonus cash was always there in under 10 minutes after our initial deposit. When you make a deposit and are awarded the signup bonus, the casino separates them into two accounts, a cash account that holds your deposit and bonus account that hold your free signup bonus cash. As you wager, the amount wagered is first taken from your cash acccout. When that is exausted the wager is taken from your bonus account. You can hover the mouse over the bank window and see the balance of each account at any time.

With a signup bonus requiring a 30x play-through, to withdraw or cash out (not wager) $10 of the signup bonus cash, $300 in total play-through wagering ($10 x 30) would have to completed before $10 of the bonus cash is eligible for withdrawal. Many Online Casinos release the bonus cash in increments of $10, so we need to make $300 in total wagering to withdraw the first $10 of sign up bonus cash.

Inexperienced players may think they need to deposit $300. This is not the case, what it means is $300 worth of coins or credits must be churned through the slot machine. The credits won and replayed count towards the $300.

In some online casino signup bonus terms they'll indicate 300 credits must be played through before 10 credits are released. Credits can be any denomination. Wager 300 quarters and 10 quarters of the bonus cash is released. Wager 300 dimes and 10 dimes of the bonus cash is released. We just happen to be using dollars because it is easier to understand.

Also keep in mind that the wagers or bets on certain games may only count towards a percentage of the total play-through requirement. Luckily, for slots it's 100%, so for every $1 wagered $1 is credited towards the play-through requirement. Certain table games only credit 50% or less and some games are completely exempt. The signup bonus terms list specific game play-through requirements.

As I indicated in the article Use the Casino's Cash $300 in wagering seems high just to get $10 worth of free bonus cash. When you play a slot if you were to add up all the indiviual hits for each spin how much would it be? It depends on the slot. If the slot makes some hits or you get a few decent paying bonus rounds you can play a slot for a long time while other times it just takes you money in a few minutes.

The Microgaming powered casinos All Slots and All Jackpots use the Clear Play Bonus System that is typical and also provides an informative step by step interactive video tour we recommend players view.

8: Calculating Play-Through: We can calculate how much play-through we can expect from a casino's games. For example, if we look at Phoenician Casino's eCOGRA
casino audit report we can see the casino's overall payback is 97.25% therefore the casino's overall profit margin is 2.75%.

Assume we deposited just $10 in Phoenician Casino we can calculate the approximate amount of wagering or play-through that $10 will generate on average by dividing the deposit by the profit margin percentage. A $10 deposit divided by the profit margin percentage of 2.75% is approximately $363.00 ($10 /.0275). Therefore it is a statistical certainty that any casino with a 97.25% payback will generate more than $363.00 in wagering or play-through on the average.

You can apply the formula to just the game you're playing by looking at the casino's average payback percentage for that game. We can see from the same PwC casino audit report the slot payback at Phoenician Casino is approximately 96.90% so the play-through just for slots is approximately $322 ($10 / .0310).

Slot games with an overall payback of 94% will only generate about $166.00 in play-through on the average for a $10 deposit ($10 / .06) whereas games and/or casinos with a higher payback percentage like the 98% payback casino slots offered from Parlay Entertainment will easily generate more than three times that amount.

9: Testing the Play-Through: I tried a simple play-through test playing the 5 reel, 15 pay-line bonus slot game Bush Telegraph at Phoenician Casino. Phoencian Casino uses Microgaming's casino software as does All Slots and All Jackpots which let's us see some game session stats.

For those not familar with the slot game Bush Telegraph it is a 5 reel, 15 payline video bonus slot. It has 2 bonus rounds, 15 retriggerable free spins and a Bongo Bonus round that pays pretty good.

The game session stats display the number of spins made, the estimated spins per hour, the playing time and the top 3 highest wins. We're interested in the number of spins.

I started with a $100.00 (400 quarters) bankroll and bet 1 quarter per pay-line for a total wager of $3.75 per spin. I played until the $100 was gone and captured the before and after screens.

In the first Bush Telegraph screen snapshot you can see the game stats are all at zero and the credit balance is 6200 quarters. I played the game till it roughly had 5800 quarters left.

In the second screen snapshot you can see from the stats screen I played for approximately 30 minutes, made 526 spins and had 3 high wins of $201.25, $68.75 and $53.75 for a total of $323.75. It is important to note that that some spins were from bonus rounds free spins and no play-through is gained since no wagering is actually made during these spins. Also for those familar with the game, the quick spin feature was enabled. If I was at a land casino and I won $201.25 on a 25 cent slot, I'd cash it out.

If you keep the wager amount consistent and subtract the free spins you can calculate the play-through. In the Bush Telegraph test I made 526 spins 30 of which were bonus round free spins. Therefore 496 spins had actual wagers. 496 x $3.75 = $1860 in play-through from my $100 deposit which is not too bad.

10: How much do I have to deposit to get the free sign up bonus cash? It depends on the signup bonus offer you're considering. Of course the larger your deposit the better the chance of meeting the wagering requirements as you can't just withdraw or cash out the bonus money until you meet the play-through requirement. If I was going after a $100 signup bonus with a 30x play-through requirement I'd have to make $3,000 in total wagers before I could withdraw the $100 bonus money. You can also ask the casino to waive the free bonus and not deal with play through requirements. However, make sure you also ask them if you'll be able to cash out any winnings won from your deposit.

Choose a sign up bonus that suits your budget and make sure you read and understand the bonus terms.

If you've never played online casino slots try the "no deposit required" free bonuses first. Our recommended Rival Casinos list several "no deposit" bonuses.

Many of the top online casino signup bonuses are listed in our Recommended Online Casinos.

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