Best Live Casino Welcome Bonuses

Apart from a few sign-up bonuses that don’t require a deposit, the majority of welcome bonuses are deposit bonuses. Whenever a bonus is awarded on a deposit, there is always a ‘minimum deposit’ condition which simply states the minimum sum of money you must deposit to trigger the bonus. Any deposit made for an amount lesser than the minimum deposit will not qualify for the bonus. For example, if a casino offers a 100% first deposit bonus for deposits of $10 and above, and you make a $5 deposit, you will not receive any bonus funds for your deposit.

Sometimes promotions have a maximum withdrawal threshold, and any amount that exceeds that limit will be forfeited. Using these restrictions, online casinos are able to manage how much money is given away to players by the bonus offer. Let’s consider an example where the max live casino welcome bonus withdrawal limit is $5,000. The bonus offered is a welcome bonus where you receive a 100% match on your first deposit. You made a $100 deposit and received $100 bonus and managed to win $6,000. In fact, you even went ahead and completed the wagering requirements and now want to withdraw your $6,000 winnings.  However, since this exceeds the max cash out restriction you will end up having to give up $1,000.

A wagering/playthrough requirement is the quantity of funds that a player must expend before being permitted to make a cash withdrawal (typically expressed in the form of a multiple of the bonus amount, example – 35x the bonus amount).

A bet on any casino game is alluded to as a wager. Whenever you claim a casino bonus, the money you receive is rewarded in bonus money rather than actual money.

This bonus money is normally held in a segregated section of the cashier and is susceptible to a playthrough requirements. Since you can’t withdraw bonus funds, you’ll have to meet the wagering requirements before effecting a withdrawal. When you meet the wagering requirements, your bonus money will be converted to real money. In in case you are not able to complete the wagering requirements, your bonus money will be squandered and cannot ever be withdrawn.

Let’s understand this with an example. Let’s consider that you have received $20 thanks to the welcome bonus at the casino you newly registered with. Upon inspection of the bonus rules, you get to know that the wagering requirement is 35x. Currently, the $20 bonus is added to your bonus balance and the withdrawal option is disabled in this part of the wallet. If you want to withdraw your $20, you need to convert it to a real balance by completing the 35x wagering requirement. 35 times $20 is $700. This is how much of your own money you need to bet (if you are playing slots) in order to fulfill the playthrough requirements and withdraw your $20.

Online casinos which offer sign-up bonuses may restrict which games you can use the bonus assets on. This is especially true for free spin welcome bonuses or free credit welcome bonuses where the casino can publish a list of games that can be played using the bonus funds. To play any game not included in such a list, you will have to use your own money. An example of this is – receive 10 free spins when you sign up on the game Starburst. Here, you can only use the free spins on this game and if you wish to play any other game, you will need to fund it with your own money. Playing any restricted game can result in your bonus and winnings being forfeited.

Welcome bonuses may have one or more time limitations that directly affect their value and whether or not you can actually profit from the bonus funds. Let’s take a look at some of these validity restrictions. First, there could be a limit as to how much time you take in order to claim the welcome bonus. Here is an example of this – consider a welcome bonus where you get a 100% bonus on your first deposit after registration. However, you must claim it before 7 days from registering. In this case, if you don’t make your first deposit within 7 days after you sign up and claim the bonus, you will lose out on the opportunity.

Another type of validity period is the one relating to wagering requirements. We know what wagering requirements are and we also know that if you wish to withdraw your bonus funds, you will have to complete these requirements. Additionally, you should also know that there is usually a time frame within which you must complete the requirements as well. So, for instance, if you have received $100 in bonus funds from the sign-up bonus and the wagering requirement is 10x within 10 days, it entails that in order to withdraw in the $100, you must playthrough $1000 and this should be completed within 10 days of receiving the $100 bonus. 7 to 30 days is the usually expiration period that we find at most online casinos.

The fulfillment of wagering requirements is dependent on another bonus term/condition which is referred to as game contribution percentage. We already understand what wagering requirements are and why they are imposed in the first place. However, there is one additional caveat that you need to know about wagering requirements which is that not all wagers you make are fully accounted towards the completion of the wagering requirements.

Usually, wagers on games that have a comparatively higher house edge contribute 100% to the completion of the wagering requirements. On the other hand, games with a low house edge (such as blackjack), will have a low game contribution percentage. In most cases, you’ll find blackjack and other similar card or table games contributing no more than 5%-10%. This means that only a partial amount of your blackjack wager is accounted towards the completion of the wagering requirements. In some cases, the game contribution percentage for certain games can be 0%, which means it won’t help with progressing your wagering requirement whatsoever. Usually, slots, keno, bingo, and scratch card games have 100% game contribution percentage and slots are the most effective games when it comes to satisfying playthrough requirements.