Anyone who has gambled before will know about the importance of good bankroll management. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. It simply means making sure that you have enough stake money to continue playing for as long as you want, or until you’ve won enough to end your session. It takes experience to manage the art of bankroll management and, sometimes, a little bit of luck too.
Luckily, there are plenty of strategies for doing this, and some of them are even supplied by the casinos themselves. For example, in many online casinos you are able to set your own limits. So, when you’ve reached a certain amount of money wagered your session will automatically impose a time out. But another way to make your bankroll go further is to use some of the bonuses that many online casinos use to attract and retain players in a very competitive sector.
Cracking the Bonus Code
Today much of our shopping is done online. So we’re familiar with the scenario when we’re checking out of being asked if we have a savings code to earn a discount. There are even websites that help you find and apply the latest savings codes across everything from clothing to things for the home.
This can qualify you for pretty generous percentage discounts you would otherwise receive.
Bonus codes are increasingly popular in online casinos too – but obviously they work in a rather different way. Instead of giving you a discount, their use entitles to a range of different bonuses like the ones we’re now going to describe. Just like shopping bonus codes, to activate the offer you just need to quote the code when signing up for the first time for a casino.
So where can you find these codes? Often the best way is to visit a casino review site which will have the latest codes that are in operation for each one, often with exclusive bonus offers only for users of the particular review site.
Types of Bonuses
There are three main types of bonuses that are popular with online casinos.
The Deposit Match Bonus
This is the most commonly used bonus that you’ll come across. As the title suggests, it involves the online casino matching your initial deposit when you first join up. So say you put in $200 they will then boost your bankroll to $400. This is in the case of a 100% deposit match but some casinos are not quite so generous. They may just offer a 50% deposit match in which case your bank roll would only be boosted to $300.
The No Deposit Bonus
Unlike the bonus just described, a few online casinos still offer a welcome bonus that needs no contribution at all on the part of the player. These are increasingly rare to find and also come with many terms and conditions (See Wagering Requirements below).
Free Spins
Slots are undoubtedly the most popular games that most people to play in online casinos. Even fans of games like roulette or blackjack might like to warm up with a few spins before they get to the table. So many online casinos offer a number of free spins for new players, sometimes running into the hundreds. Often this bonus is combined with other offers. For example you might find a 100% deposit match bonus plus 50 free spins on a selected slots title. In the case of the higher number of free spins these might be released in decreasing blocks. So if a site offers 175 free spins a player may be entitled to 100 in week one, 50 in week two and 25 in week three.
This takes us neatly on to another subject it’s important to know about when it comes to claiming bonuses using bonus codes – the terms and conditions that will apply.
Wagering Requirements And Other Restrictions
Naturally, online casinos are not just in the business of giving money away for free. So there are certain rules that apply. The most important of these to understand is called a wagering requirement. Put simply, this a multiple of the bonus received that has to be wagered before any winnings from the bonus can be claimed. This can be as much as 30x the initial deposit. So if this was $100 a player would need to play with $3,000 before receiving any winnings. To complicate things further, some games like slots only qualify for 50% of the requirement so it would be $6,000 that needed to be wagered.
There is also likely to be a time limit imposed both on this and on claiming the bonus in the first place. Unsurprisingly, many believe wagering requirements should be capped or abolished altogether in fairness to players.
While this is unlikely in the short term you can always search around for the online casinos with the minimal requirements – and they’ll be the ones to pick!
