No deposit bonuses are great. They offer a way to experience the excitement of an online casino with none of the risk. Many casinos use them for exactly this reason – you get a taste and you want more. It’s savvy marketing alright and there is always a chance to win big.
However, you’ve got to remember that they often come with outrageously high wagering requirements. In this article, we’ll look at the no deposit bonus in full details. Warts and all, if you will.
What is a No Deposit Bonus?
The clue is kind of in the name. A no deposit bonus is an online casino that you don’t need to deposit any of your own money to redeem.
The most common kind of no deposit bonus is the sign-up no deposit bonus. Here, casinos will attempt to attract new players to give their software a try by giving them some free cash to play with or maybe a load of free spins to use.
Of course, since there are so many sign-up no deposit bonuses that give free spins, players get understandably excited at the prospect of winning a top jack pot. It’s a powerful lure indeed!
Occasionally, casinos will gift additional no deposit bonuses to players. These are most common around holiday periods or for very loyal or high-volume players.
If it Seems Too Good to Be True…
That said, the casino operator is running a business. They’re very keen on the illusion of them giving money away. Yet much less enthralled by the prospect of actually losing to players. That’s why they contrive many ways to make no deposit bonuses very stringent using their terms and conditions.
It’s common to see winnings from free spin no deposit bonuses needing to be wagered 30-50 times over. This means that any potential winnings will likely be desecrated by the time you finish the wagering and can finally withdraw the cash. It’s certainly possible to win big on a no deposit bonus but even a five-figure jackpot would look much more meagre after being wagered so many times.
When using free spin, no deposit bonuses, the casino will often make it much more difficult to win by limiting the selection of slots you can choose from. Since slots vary considerably in their return-to-player ratings, a bonus can appear much more generous than it really is if its only to be used on low RTP slots. Of course, this is another example of savvy marketing from the casino operators.
Even if your no deposit bonus is paid to you directly in seemingly real currency, the terms and conditions will state that this “bonus” money must be wagered a similar number of times to free spin winnings. The only real benefit of this rarer type of no deposit bonus is that you get to pick from a wider variety of games.
This might have excited you if you’ve any real idea of odds. You might be thinking that you could load up a blackjack table and play through your bonus using perfect strategy. This used to work phenomenally well in the early days of casinos. However, today blackjack will often count for a tiny percentage of your wagering requirements. I’ve often seen as low as 1%.
Let’s put that a slightly more visual way so the message is clear. For every £100 you wager at the blackjack table, only £1 of wagering will have been completed. Such harsh requirements mean you would have to be running hotter than the sun over many, many hands to win big at blackjack when using a no deposit casino bonus.
Ways to Maximise a No Deposit Bonus
There are ways to maximise your no deposit bonus. However, as you’ve seen casinos have become very shrewd at limiting the likelihood of such an outcome. The only way you can really improve your chances of winning is to pick the best return-to-player slot possible and spin through the bonus. Keep the stakes low throughout the wagering and you will allow the session to converge to as close to the advertised RTP as possible. Mathematically speaking, this should often result in a small profit.
Although it’s obviously impossible to tell when you will hit a jackpot on an online slot machine, the best time is clearly towards the end of the wagering session. If you only need to wager you £10 bonus five more times and you just won £1,000, you’re laughing!
Unfortunately, with such harsh restrictions on blackjack, roulette, and other table games you shouldn’t bother trying to make bank playing the game using perfect strategy or a low stakes grind through. It’s just not going to worth it. However, if you do stumble across the holy grail of no deposit bonuses – the blackjack bonus – then enjoy the high likelihood of some free money.
There is loads more of information online on how to best utilise no deposit bonuses to your advantage.
No Deposit Bonuses Are Bad Then?
No, certainly not. No deposit bonuses are great. Firstly, they often let you play a game that you might not have been familiar with. This can add a new favourite to your usual pickings at the casino.
However, the most important quality of no deposit bonuses is the fact that you really can win on them. It’s just going to be a long slog and will take a hell of a lot of luck. The expected value of a no deposit bonus is usually infinitesimally small but it’s still there. You should always take such a risk-free gamble.
