Online betting has become an increasing phenomenon all over the world, with a growing number of youngsters and a growing population gaining immense interest in gambling.
In most casinos, you may find an offer for huge bonuses upon depositing money. Because of the ease of access to online casinos, there has been quite a boom in online casinos, and the owners of these sites have become creative in attracting more business to their sites by offering “free” money upon making a deposit.
What is a Deposit Bonus?
A deposit bonus is an amount of money that is given to a depositor after making a deposit at an online gaming site or zone. The bonus is as a percentage of the deposited amount.
Simply put, a deposit bonus will entice a would-be client to place a deposit on a particular casino aiming at getting a reward on the deposit. These bonuses are a huge incentive to the online gambling industry and are becoming more popular among the betting community.
Bonuses are in terms of a percentage of the amount deposited; sometimes you’ll find a bonus of 200% up to $1000 free; meaning, if you deposit $350, the online gambling machine adds a bonus of $700 making your total to $1050 that is available for you to play with.
One may ask if the casino is giving away money, how does it do business? I’m glad you asked. Casinos have a wagering restriction to protect the bonuses they’ve given against withdrawal thereby making a loss. This means there is sometimes you’ll need to wager the amount before you can be allowed to withdraw it.
Why Casinos Give Deposit Bonuses
Unlike most traditional casinos that are housed in a rented place, most online gaming zones have very little overheads in terms of maintenance and rental space costs. The online casinos also have an opportunity to exponentially expand their business since they are not limited to a particular region or space.
Lack of restrictions on the internet gaming has been a great encouragement to more and more entrepreneurs to try their hand on the betting. The more the sites for gaming means, the more the gamer is spoilt for choice. This has meant that the gambling zones needed to be creative to woo more business to their site.
Normally to place any bet, you’d need to use your money, but the owners have become creative in introducing a multiplier effect on deposits made to them. This creates a pool of a greater bankroll to use to place bets with and hopefully get higher returns having been able to access higher requirement bets with just a simple initial deposit.
What is Wager?
Wager is simply “bet”. The requirement to wager a deposit on a casino is indicated with a prefix “X” at the end. For instance, a 25X deposit will mean you will have to play the bonus amount 25 times before you can finally get to withdraw it. In our earlier example of $700, you will need to place bets worth ($700 x25) $17,700 before you can enjoy the benefit of withdrawing it.
Normally, the aim of an online game is to attract more and more people to keep playing, and the fun would otherwise be lost if once a deposit bonus is made, withdrawal is available immediately. To protect the game, most sites for betting make it an integral requirement to place a prior-stated number of bets on the deposit bonus before it can be withdrawn.
How to Use Bonuses
In most casinos, bonuses are only allowed in slot games. This means that bets made on other games do not count for the wagering requirement.
There are such types of bonuses:
- Cashable Bonuses
These types are withdrawn able upon attaining the stipulated number of bets that need to be placed before a bonus is valid for cash. Referring to our earlier example of a bonus on $700, if you manage to place bets of 25x the bonus amount, you can withdraw it. However, with most gaming zones, the reward becomes null if you wish to withdraw it and it is, therefore, important to peruse through the conditions of the online gaming establishment. - Sticky Type 1 Bonus
This type can be used to place bets, and upon winning, the spoils can be withdrawn, but the bonus itself cannot be withdrawn. Referring to our example, with a bonus of $700 and you win $200, your account will have a total of $900, but only the $200 will be withdrawable. It remains for placing further bets and increases your stakes amount. The unique feature of this type is that it gets removed immediately you withdraw your winnings. - Sticky Type2 Bonus
This type is much similar to the type 1 only that upon withdrawal of the proceeds, the bonus remains in your account and can be used to place other stakes. The beauty of type 2 is that since it does not get removed upon withdrawal of winnings, it allows one to place bets of higher requirements than the initially deposited amount. - No-Deposit Bonus
This is a small amount of money given upon completing a registration on an online gaming site. The no-deposit bonus is between $5 and $15 and is designed to allow the registrants to test the casino’s services without having to “risk’ their money
Bonuses have revolutionised how the online gaming industry functions and have been pivotal in encouraging more and more people to try their hand on online betting.
When an online gaming site offers bonuses, more clientele stream into the establishment to take advantage of:
- Increased playing stakes that will be higher than the amount deposited. This allows one to access games that would have otherwise required a higher deposit
- Facilitates for a higher winning since the reward is accounted for while computing the win
- A great enticement to gaming as one is offered free betting money upon making a deposit
The biggest beneficiary of the deposit bonuses are the gaming site owners. This is mainly because the odds on any given game are high and before winning at any game, you’ll need to have tried a number of times. Most gaming losses translate to a win for the gaming site owners, and thus the online site will encourage more and more people to use the services at their site to maximize profitability.
Most people frequenting online gaming sites are also gullible and will easily risk away a lot of money in the hope of a quick return. With this in mind, the online gaming sites are structured to entice their users to deposit more cash and in return place stakes on games of such huge rewards thereby appearing as though the gaming site is giving away more than it gets. This is a common delusion that enables the gaming zones to stay in business since most bonuses are in terms of virtual currency while the gamer/client will actually have deposited real currency to be able to play.