Bonuses: All You Need to Know about Casino Bonuses
One of the first things that you really need to think about when you are searching for an online casino to open an account with is the bonus that is on offer. A good bonus is one that will give you an advantage over the online casino. This complete bonus guide will take a close look at the variety of casino bonuses that you will encounter as well as provide you with the names of some casinos that offer quality bonuses to Canadians. We have put plenty of effort into making this review, so we hope it will be plenty of use to you.
What Exactly Are Casino Bonuses?
A casino bonus is a cash sum that an online casino gives to their players. You will usually receive a casino bonus, called a Welcome Bonus, when you register with an online casino, and you will also receive a plethora of other bonuses when you show that you are a loyal customer.
The online gambling industry, it is safe to say, is one of the world's most competitive industries, so casinos have a lot of respect to those players that remain loyal. Online casinos award bonuses to improve their customers' gameplay - what is there to dislike about being able to enjoy slots and table games without needing to spend any of your own cash.
What is the Point of Casino Bonuses?
As we mentioned earlier, the gambling industry is really competitive, so if an online casino wants to survive they have to offer an attractive Welcome Bonus to entice new players to sign up with them. Any online casinos that provide a poor Welcome Bonus will have a short and shrift experience in the gambling world.
Once a casino has managed to persuade a new player to open an account with them, the next thing that they have to do is make sure that their players stick around. So, how is it that they make sure that this happens? Well, they offer a variety of bonuses, of course. When somebody gets free money, they are going to feel like they are wanted and will be happy to stick around.
The Advantages of Casino Bonuses
There are plenty of advantages of casino bonuses and we shall list some of the main ones for you below:
- You can win some money without risking any of your own money
- You can try out some games that you are not that familiar with and will not lose your own money
- You can try out every aspect of an online casino to see if you like it without spending a single penny of your own cash
The Disadvantages of Casino Bonuses
There is nothing that is 100% perfect in this life of ours, and casino bonuses are no exception to this rule. They also come with their disadvantages, and this is mostly to do with the T&Cs that apply. Below we have taken the time to list some of the main disadvantages of casino bonuses:
- Bonuses will always have some wagering requirements that apply, and this is the amount of cash that you will be required to wager before you can go ahead and make a withdrawal
- You will have a set amount of time to complete your wagering requirements
- There will always be a minimum amount that you will be required to deposit before you can claim whatever Welcome Bonus is on offer
- Not all games at an online casino will contribute the same when it comes to wagering requirements
N.B. When it comes down to bonuses, we suggest that you read the T&Cs carefully as this will inform you as to what exactly is expected of you. If you do not bother yourself to read each T&C, then you could end up having your bonus forfeited, which is obviously something you do not want to happen.
Different Kinds of Casino Bonuses
There are a variety of different bonuses that you can encounter when you play at online casinos. If you happen to be new to the online gambling world, then you will obviously not know about any of these. However, you do not need to worry since this is where we enter the equation as we shall discuss the different types of bonuses that you can find. It is vital that you know what the different types of bonuses are since this allows you to locate the best ones for you and the ones you should look out for whenever you are looking for a new online casino to join.
Deposit Bonus
Online casinos love showing appreciation to their customers, both old and new, by offering them a love deposit bonus. You will be informed that if you place a deposit about a certain amount of money, then you will receive some additional money on top of it. This will often be in the 10-20% range. For example, if you went and made a deposit of $60 and the casino is more than happy to provide you with 20% extra, then you will get an extra $12 in your new account.
You will also encounter deposit bonus offers where the online casino will be happy to match your initial deposit up to a certain percent. For instance, it is not rare to find a casino that is offering a 100% match. With such an offer, if you deposited $100, you would get an extra $100 in your account as free money. With regard to match bonuses. the min amount that you will usually be allowed to deposit is $10.
There are three different deposit bonuses, and we are going to talk about these right now:
Cashable
With this type of bonus, once you have met all the wagering requirements as well as the other T&Cs that apply, you are free to withdraw your bonus money and all the winnings that you have made. If you use an e-Wallet, then you will receive your money in 24 hours. However, if you decide to use a debit or credit card, then there is a min waiting time of a day and a max waiting time of five days.
Sticky
This is pretty similar to the cashable bonus that we just spoke about, but there is one major difference and that is that it is not possible to withdraw the bonus money. Once all the requirements have been met, you will be allowed to withdraw any winnings that you have made, but the bonus has to remain. When you withdraw your winnings from a sticky bonus, the bonus cash will usually just be deducted from the amount that you withdrew.
No Deposit Bonus
Most of the time you will have an urge to try out an online casino before you go ahead and commit some of your hard-earned money to it. The best way that you can do this is by making use of a no deposit bonus. As you can probably tell from its name, a no deposit bonus is one that you can claim without having to deposit your own cash first. This means that you will be able to try out an online casino and if there is something that you do not like, you can simply leave without having to go through the hassle of withdrawing money that you just deposited.
One thing that it is important to know about no deposit bonuses is that they come with high wagering requirements and that the max bonus amount that you can claim is quite a bit lower than that which you can claim with a deposit Welcome Bonus. For instance, with the latter it is not rare to find bonus amounts of $1,000, but with the form you will be lucky to be able to claim more than $50.
Free Spins
This type of bonus is unique since it can only be used on slot games. When you claim this type of bonus, you will usually be given somewhere in the region of 10-100 free spins, but it is not unusual to be able to claim more. More often than not you will be told slot that you can use your free spins on, which will probably be a slot that the casino is looking to promote. However, you will sometimes come across an online casino that will let you use the free spins on whatever slots you like. Just like with most other bonuses, you will have some wagering requirements to complete before you can withdraw any winnings.
Cashback Bonus
This type of bonus has become very popular with online casino players. With a cashback bonus, the online casino will have a look at how much you have lost over a certain period of time, and they will return some of your losses to you - it will often be about 10%.
This means that if you have lost $100, in say a week, you will be given $10 so that you can gamble some more. Whenever you get this kind of bonus, we suggest that you take a bit of a risk since the money that you are playing with is money that you had already lost, so it is not like it will matter if you lose it once more.
High-Roller Bonus
Online casinos are always searching for new players and are always thinking of great ways to keep existing punters. One type of player that casinos are always happy to welcome, whether it is an online casino or land-based one, are high rollers. Therefore, some online casinos will offer bonuses that are exclusive to those that like to bet big. The premise behind such a bonus is pretty simple - players that make huge deposits will get treated to huge bonuses.
Additionally, since the casino will know that you are a high roller, you will also be treated to additional bonuses such as extra loyalty points, bigger cashback bonuses, lower wagering requirements, and great gifts.
Low-Roller Bonus
This type of bonus is for those who do not make large wagers - they might not be able to afford to do so or they do not like taking a risk with large sums of money. Obviously, if given the choice between the two, casinos would prefer to have high rollers sign up with them, but in this competitive industry it is foolish to turn anyone away.
With a bonus for low-rollers, you might see that the casino is happy to match your initial deposit 200%, even if you are only depositing $10. With this kind of bonus, you can receive additional money without the need to spend much of your own - what is not to like about that?
Device Specific Bonus
Mobile gambling has become really popular nowadays. In fact, more people gamble using mobile devices than they do using desktop devices. Thus, it should not come as a huge surprise to find out that casinos offer bonuses that are exclusive to those who use their mobile devices to gamble.
To add to this, many casinos nowadays have their own app, so they will obviously want plenty of people to download it because they spent a lot of time and money creating it. Therefore, in order to increase download numbers, they will often offer a variety of bonuses to whoever downloads it. If you like to gamble on your mobile and your casino has their ow app, we recommend that you download it since apps are much quicker and use up less data.
What to Look for When Choosing a Casino Bonus
Choosing the best bonuses can be quite difficult at times as it is not wise to just choose the online casino that offers the highest bonus around. Why is this? Well, it is because a huge bonus does not always equal a good bonus. In most cases, if you feel that a bonus offer is too good to be true, then nine times out of ten you can bet your bottom dollar that it is. You need to look out for bonuses that have favorable terms and conditions and will make your gameplay better.
Check All the T&Cs That Apply
We realize that we have already told you that you have to check all the T&Cs that apply to a bonus, but it is something that we feel is important to stress. Before you go and deposit any funds or make a bet, you need to pay close attention to each T&C. By taking the time to do this, you will find out about the wagering requirements, the number of days you will be given to complete the wagering requirements, how the different games contribute to clearing these requirements, and whether there are any payment methods that restrict you from claiming the bonus.
The most trustworthy online casinos will always be clear with the terms and conditions that they have attached to their bonuses. If you are reading the T&Cs and feel that the information being provided is pretty vague, then this should be a clear sign for you to take your money elsewhere. You will be glad to find out though that the casinos mentioned on this website of ours are completely trustworthy and always attach transparent T&Cs to their bonuses.
How to Activate a Casino Bonus
With regard to a Welcome Bonus, you want the activation procedure to be as simple as possible and this is the case with most online casinos that you will encounter. So, how exactly do you activate a Welcome Bonus that you want to claim? Well, there are two ways and we have described the, below for you.
- Complete the registration form at the online casino you are signing up with and then submit the application. Once your new account is open, go to the cashier page and deposit money using one of the available deposit methods. The bonus will then be paid out to you in accordance with the terms and conditions, which you should have read beforehand
- Sometimes you will have to add a code in order to claim the bonus, so in this case whenever you are making a deposit you just have to input the code in the box next to the words "Bonus Code". Once your deposit has been cleared, the bonus money will be in your account. It is important that you double check the code before submitting it because if you input it incorrectly, you will not receive the bonus
Online Casinos That Offer the Best Bonuses to Canadians
We are going to finish off this article by giving you a list of online casinos that offer the best bonuses for players in Canada.
- JackpotCity
- Royal Vegas
- Spin Casino
- Playamo
- Casumo Casino
- 888 Casino
- All Slots
- LeoVegas
- Royal Panda
- Karamba
If you decide to sign up with any of the casinos that we just listed above, then we are certain that you will end up having a top-quality online casino playing experience. These casinos have a lot of the things that most players look for in an online casino.
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