Ensure you understand the terms of any online casino bonus offers

There is no doubt that the internet has provided us with more choice in almost every aspect of our daily lives, particularly when it comes to shopping for anything except perhaps food. It is clearly much easier to browse a few websites for product information and price comparisons than it is to go from shop to shop on the high street. The online retail sector also has many businesses which do not even have a high street presence, which often means that they can be very competitive on price because of having lower overheads, as well as offering tailor made products which may not be found on the high street. The growth of internet shopping has provided us with a wider choice of product in many areas and more outlets for us to buy from. This in turn means that every business needs an effective marketing strategy to survive in such a competitive environment. The same applies of course to the online gambling sector, which has also grown significantly since the first online sports gambling sites were established by the leading bookmakers. The most obvious marketing strategy for the online retail sector is of course concentrated on price, with discounts and special offers often taking priority over everything else. The equivalent approach in the online gambling market is usually some sort of bonus offer to attract new customers. Clearly an online casino or online sports gambling site can’t offer cheaper bets than other sites, so the most common approach is a welcome bonus. Most online sports gambling sites tend to offer free bets or a cash back deal to attract new customers, whereas the most common online casino bonus is one which matches a new customer’s first deposit with a 100% bonus. The importance of these bonus deals varies a little across the sector, because there is still not that much choice when it comes to online sports gambling whereas the number of online casino sites is increasing all the time. All the sports gambling sites are still operated by the big bookmakers, and although those same companies were also responsible for establishing the first online casino sites there are now also several new specialist online casino operators competing with them. The online casino bonus is therefore probably more important in terms of operating a successful online business than the bonuses offered by the sports gambling site operators. Unfortunately whereas it is relatively easy to understand the offer of a free 10 euro bet, or cash back offer on certain results, the online casino bonus offers commonly used are often not so straightforward and here at onlinecasino.ie we regularly hear of serious misunderstandings leading to problems. Most of the online casino bonus deals offered by the leading site operators take the form of a promise to match a new customer’s first deposit with a 100% bonus, therefore doubling their available stake money to play casino games. Many online casino operators also promise an additional, although reduced bonus applicable to the second and even third deposits, but they all come with a list of terms and conditions and this is where the misunderstandings can occur and the problems can begin for some people. Clearly the opportunity to play casino games with somebody else’s money is going to look like a very attractive proposition to most people, but as we all know very few things in modern life are totally free and there is often a catch. In the case of these online casino bonus offers the catch lies in the terms and conditions, particularly what are known as the play-through requirements associated with accepting the offer.

These play-through requirements are common to all of these online casino bonus offers, and define how much money a player needs to stake on playing casino games before being allowed to withdraw any winnings from their account. It is usually specified as a multiple of the total of the deposit plus the bonus, and is commonly at least a multiple of twenty. That means that a new casino games player deciding to accept one of these offers, and depositing say 20 euros into their new online casino account, would need to gamble 20 times 40 euros on playing casino games before being allowed to take any winnings. That means agreeing to gamble a total of 800 euros on playing casino games in order to claim a bonus of 20 euros. There may also be a time limit placed on the play-through requirements and money staked on some casino games may not even qualify fully towards the total sum required because the house edge is lower. We are not surprised that the online casino operators need to apply these terms and conditions, because offering their customers the opportunity to play casino games free is only sustainable if those customers remain on the site and keep playing. We do however need to do all we can to ensure that anyone considering accepting one of these online casino bonus offers is absolutely clear what is expected of them in terms of the play-through requirements. The multiple of twenty may be well within the limits of some potential online casino games players making it a good deal, whereas for others it may be well beyond their anticipated gambling budget and cause them considerable problems. It is also important to realise that accepting one of these bonus offers is entirely voluntary and a decision against accepting them will in no way effect your future relationship with your chosen online casino.

Not every online casino offers this type of online casino bonus, in fact we now have access to one, namely the No Bonus casino which clearly makes a virtue of not offering any form of bonus. They do however offer all their casino games players an innovative cash back promise which kicks in if they have a run of bad luck. Anyone making a deposit today and losing all of that money today will receive a 10% cash back paid into their account the following morning, with no strings attached.