Casino Welcome Bonus Offers are a Minefield – This Casino Bonus Guide Explains Deposit Bonuses in Depth
Compared to poker bonuses, those offered by online casinos have a lot of rules and conditions attached to them. These can include weightings, banned games, uncashable offers (play only), play-through requirements and other seemingly minor terms which can trip up the unwary.
This casino bonus guide will help you clear away the uncertainty, and quickly see which are the best bonuses and which ones have the ‘red flags’ that mean they should be avoided.
Below you will see a table which shows the latest clean offers for your location. There are links to the reviews for each of the casinos in case you are not familiar with them.
After that you will find a guide explaining the common pitfalls and traps that casinos hide in the small print of their welcome bonus offers. I get more positive after that, with some of the extras and good things to look out for from the top operators.
Tricks and Traps in Online Casino Bonus Deals
Here are the top 5 ways in which you can end up getting caught out by what looks to be a great online casino bonus deal.
#1 – Excessive Play-Through Requirements
All casino bonuses will require you to play through your deposit and bonus amount a certain number of times before the bonus is yours to withdraw. There are two things you need to look out for here. The first is whether the play-through (also called wager-through or wagering requirement) is for your deposit amount only, or the deposit + bonus amount. You can only compare two casinos once you know what they ‘count’ with this.
The best casinos have bonuses which have 20x to 30x play-through terms. This means you will need to wager that deposit + bonus 20 to 30 times before your bonus is completed. The worst have terms of 50x or even higher.
Remember that a casino with a 50x requirement that is only counting your deposit (and not the bonus) is actually giving a very good deal.
#2 – Too Many Game Restrictions
It is common for casinos to weight their games in terms of what counts towards your play-through requirements (see below for more on this). What you need to look out for are those operators which ban certain games. Terms will sometimes state that your bonus will be voided if you play on restricted games. This means something as simple as a spin on a roulette wheel or wrong type of online slot can see your entire bonus removed. These are predatory terms, and the major casinos are generally clear of them – though it always pays to check first.
#3 – Excessively Small Weightings
Here is another thing to check, when it comes to your bonus play through requirements, casinos give weightings to certain games. These are generally table games with a low house edge. The idea is that the casinos protect themselves from skilled players clearing their bonus with very little risk, and then withdrawing the profits.
Examples might include Blackjack at 25% and Roulette at 10% (if allowed at all). This means that only 25% of your wager counts towards your play-through goals.
Some less reputable casinos have extremely low weightings for their games – for example Blackjack counting at only 5% or 10% and video poker not counting at all 
With roulette in particular, a common system is to allow higher risk bets though not the even money chances or coverage of more than half of the table. If you enjoy roulette then I recommend making extra sure that you understand the weightings terms before you take a new bonus.