Free Money?

Imagine walking into a land based casino and buying $100 worth of chips and the cashier says here's another $100 with our compliments, or a casino representative standing outside on the street handing out $15 of free chips to passers by.

Well at the online casinos this is normal behaviour. The competition for your custom is so fierce that most of the online casinos offer a cash bonus of some sort to tempt you to sign up as a real player or make your first deposit.

These casino bonuses take different forms, some come as free chips with no deposit required others are based on a percentage bonus of the initial deposit that you make. Some of these bonuses can be as much as 350%! Although 20 to 100% is more usual.

In addittion some online casinos offer special promotional or regular monthly bonuses and many casinos offer a bonus if you use one of the alternative deposit methods such as NETeller, Firepay and Moneybookers.

How to get the bonus.

Returning to the land based scenario, you can't expect to take your additional $100 bonus from the cashier and say "Thank you very much, I'll cash in straight away". Of course not, and naturally the online casinos won't let you do that. All the casinos have special rules and conditions that must be met before cashing out any winnings that include bonuses.

Wagering Requirements.
The most usual conditions that you need to meet to cash in are known as wagering requirements. Let's use a real example here from Platinum Play whose initial deposit bonus is buy $20 get %30 Free. This is an extract from their rules for this bonus:
In order to cash-in the $30 bonus, players will need to wager the bonus amount ($30), and the minimum purchase amount ($20) 5 times - a total of (5 X $50) = $250 worth of wagering.
Easier to understand than some rules. You sign up, get your bonus and wager bets totalling more than $250 before you may cash in.

Excluded Games.
Another clause from those bonus rules:
Wagering on Craps or Roulette will not be counted as part of the requirements for this sign-up offer.
It is another common rule to exclude certain games from counting towards the wagering total.
Be careful as Blackjack is often on the excluded list or may have a higher wagering requirement.

Cashable and Non Cashable Bonuses.
In the Platinum Play example above any amount you have remaining after you have met the wagering requirements is available for you to cash out, including bonus amounts. However, this a rule from another casino:
The bonus credits are for wagering purpose only, and you may not cash out the bonus. You may only cash out your winnings. Only withdrawal of an amount superior to the Play Bonus will be processed, and the Play bonus will be deducted from your withdrawal request.
As you can see you CANNOT cash out the bonus at all and cannot cash out anything until have met their wagering requirements, (in this case 8x bonus+deposit).
These "sticky" bonuses are useful for leverage in your betting but are not as attractive as cashable amounts, so always check the rules.
You are often better off declining the bonus in these cases and just playing with your own money.

Bonuse Abusers.
That's what the casinos call them anyway. To you and me it's someone who plays the minimum amount to cash in the bonus. The casinos don't like them and have rules to try and prevent this. So use some common sense. Don't just play the minimum, play a bit more or come back and play again briefly before attempting a cash out. If you like other games then play some video poker or slots.

Cashing Out.
There is no doubt that the best way to deposit and withdraw money from the online casinos is by one of the new payment methods such as NETeller, FirePay or Moneybookers. These methods are fast and free or inexpensive and also put an end to credit card denials. Credit cards will usually only allow cash ins upto the original amount deposited. Wire and bank transfers usually attract fees and are a lot slower. To find out more see our section on alternative deposit methods.

Further thoughts on Wagering Requirements.

Don't be put off by these bonus wagering requirements , it's a lot less painfull than it seems. In our earlier example buy $20 get $30 free, you have to wager bonus plus deposit 5 times or $250. Well play $5 hands and in 50 hands you've reached your requirement, and 50 hands is nothing, you're only getting started!

These cashable bonuses certainly improve your chance of walking away with more than you deposited. Let's take an example:

• You deposit $100 and receive $100 bonus.
• You have to wager deposit and bonus 5 times, so that's $1000.
• Let's say that the house has an edge of 0.7%.
• After wagering the required amount a skilled player using the correct basic strategy will, on average, have lost only $7 of the bonus money!

Of course things do not always work out this way, you could lose $200 on a bad run of cards, similarly you could win $200 if the cards are kind. Over the long term though everything averages out.

Money Management.

You should maintain, at the least, a basic record of your wagering at every online casino that you visit. Even if it is only the number of hands you play, noting bets and double downs and split stakes. This will help you keep tabs on how much you have bet so you know when you have reached the bonus cash out requirements and also give you an idea of the return on your money.
Only play with money you can afford to lose and set yourself targets and limits. If you are on a losing run you are often best to stop and return later.