- The PlayDebt casino has a high playthrough requirement of 90x, which makes it one of the worst welcome bonuses out there.
- Frank Casino has a very poor selection of games, especially when compared to other operators with favorable bonus terms.
- NationalWin’s second bonus requires a large deposit of $1,000, which most players simply won’t be able to or want to afford.
If you know which you’re looking at, casinos offering shady promotions are easy to spot. You just need to know what to look out for, and that’s exactly what this page will teach you.
By 2 Gaming Slots List - Try 2 By 2 Gaming Free Slots OnlineI’ll take you through some of the worst online casino bonuses I’ve come across during my testing, explaining why they’re not worth claiming, and what makes them stand out from the crowd. And to find a casino with amazing bonuses, check out .
What Makes a Bad Online Casino Promotion?
A bad promotion can be spotted by experienced players from a mile away. It is usually advertised in bold letters, with promises of millions of dollars, brand-new cars, and holidays around the world. Of course, the reality is never as exciting as the marketing images would have you believe. So, let’s break down some of the features that make an offer bad, so you’ll know how to avoid it in the future.
- Unrealistic Contribution Percentages – The vast majority of promotions award a percentage of the bonus cash based on the game you play. Slots typically contribute 100%, which means every wager counts completely towards clearing the requirement. However, some casinos class certain games as favorable, making stakes contribute more than 100%. This can sometimes go the other way, with some games not contributing at all, or next to nothing towards the playthrough. If you see that your favorite games don’t contribute, or worse still, reduce the value of stakes placed on them, steer well clear.
- Limitations and Restrictions – Most restrictions are centered around payment methods. Many operators prohibit the use of e-wallets like Neteller and Skrill, meaning you cannot claim a welcome bonus if you choose to deposit using these methods. Some might even restrict weekend deposits, meaning any cash deposited into your account on a Saturday or Sunday cannot be claimed. Unreasonable limitations such as these make a bonus almost unclaimable and should be marked as undesirable.
- Impossible Wagering Requirements – Virtually every offer you claim will come with attached wagering requirements. This term simply explains how many times you must wager the bonus before it becomes real money that can be withdrawn. Although there’s no upper limit on what constitutes a “fair” wagering requirement, anything above 5x should be avoided at all costs. I would go as far as saying that any requirement setting the multiplier at 35x or higher is nigh-on impossible to complete and therefore should be considered bad.
- Confusing Fine Print – Finally, watch out for offers where the terms and conditions are convoluted, full of spelling mistakes, and generally difficult to understand. If you have any doubts about whether you can claim an offer or not, it’s likely the casino doesn’t want you to have the bonus and is trying to hide something.
Now that you’re aware of the things to look out for, I’m going to show you five bonuses currently available at various online casinos that shouldn’t be touched with a bargepole.
Worst Online Casino Bonuses
Just because a casino offers a bonus does not mean it is good. In fact, there are tons of terrible promotions out there just waiting to separate you from your money.
To illustrate my point, I’ve trawled through hundreds of sites to find those that are so bad, I couldn’t ignore them. Here are five bonuses you should always avoid.
1. – PlayDebt Casino Welcome Offer
The first of our bad online casino bonuses comes from the weirdly named PlayDebt. Now, now, I hear you say, isn’t good? Well, yes, in some respects it is. However, when you compare it with other welcomes on the market, it falls short considerably.
Best Withdrawal Online Casinos with Instant Payouts 2023Now, let’s talk about the numbers. A 100% match of up to $200 is far from generous. Indeed, plenty of sites start their new customers off with double their deposit with limits several times greater. For instance, , another currency casino, gives new players access to up to $1,200 of bonus cash.
What really sets the PlayDebt welcome offer apart from the pack, though, is the wagering requirement. To release the funds into your real money balance, you have to wager the bonus 90 times. That’s right — NINE ZERO! To put that into perspective, most requirements are no more than 5x and are usually between 15x and 40x. Even some of the require less than this.
As if that wasn’t enough, the offer expires after seven days. This may sound good, as it prevents people milking the offer. However, to earn 90x of a bonus in a week is nigh-on impossible. And to add insult to injury, only slots contribute 100% towards the playthrough, while others are as low as 5%.
Even if you manage to complete the wagering, a host of other conditions must be adhered to. The most important (and ridiculous) is the maximum single bet rule. This is set at $5, reducing to $2 once a flush has occurred. Flush? Yep, the day you’re dealt a flush or better in the casino’s live poker room will count as a maximum single bet limitation being reached. Seriously.
For a site with “debt” in its name, it’s clearly trying to help push people over the edge. If you see this bonus advertised anywhere, close the page, move away from your computer, and maybe seek counseling for being targeted by this malicious offer.
2. – Frank Casino Welcome Package
Next up on our list of bad bonuses is the package offered to newbies at Frank Casino. On the surface, it looks OK. After all, $750 of free cash over your first four deposits is nothing to be sneezed at. Yet it’s not the headline numbers that count; it’s what lies beneath the surface that matters.
So, the deal is a 100% match on your first deposit worth up to $150. Fine. The second offer is smaller, capping at $200 but requiring fewer dollars to max out. Then comes the shocker. The third and fourth bonuses are worth just $100 and require a sizeable deposit of $500 to reach their limit.
This lack of scale is a problem. Though suitable for players with smaller bankrolls, high-staking enthusiasts will struggle to take full advantage of the package.
Yet this is the least of Frank Casino’s worries.
The selection of games is limited, both across the casino and specifically when wagering on the bonuses. At the time of writing, there were just six live dealer games, 168 slots, 19 table games, nine jackpots, and 12 “other” games. Several of these were variants of the same game but with subtle differences. In essence, there were probably nearer 100 games to play. However, of these, just 15 were table games, including blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and poker.
When playing these games to clear your welcome package, you’ll find that the contribution varies considerably. Blackjack contributes just 5%, which means $100 worth of wagers will only count as $5 toward paying off the debt. Roulette fares slightly better, with each dollar wagered equal to 10%. Baccarat and video poker are both 20%, which is better than slots but worse than most table games.
Given that table games form part of many players’ DNA, particularly casino aficionados, the low weighting is strange. Effectively what this means is that if you’re a card or roulette fan, Frank Casino isn’t worth considering, irrespective of the bonuses it offers.
3. – NationalWin Second Deposit Bonus
Why make good decisions when you can make great ones?
free play casino win real moneyIf you ask me, there’s rarely — if ever — a reason to avoid claiming the recommended deposit bonus at a safe and reputable casino. But occasionally, you come across an offer that defies logic. An example of this is the second deposit welcome bonus at NationalWin Casino.
To qualify, you must have made and played through your first deposit. You then have to deposit a colossal $1,000 and enter the coupon code “NATIONAL2” to get the deal. So, already, the deal feels exclusive, designed for the super-rich who have a grand burning a hole in their pocket.
But it gets better. Or worse, depending on your viewpoint.
Only slots, keno, and scratch cards contribute to clearing the bonus. These games contribute 100%, so at least there’s no disadvantage to playing any in particular. The wagering requirement is reasonable at 30x, and there’s nothing wrong with the expiry date of three days. However, think about what it takes to clear $1,000 in bonus cash.
To earn $1,000 worth of slots wagers, you must deposit $1,000, and then wager a total of $1,000,00! That’s right — ten million! Even if you bet $1,000 per hour, it would take you more than 300 hours, or around 12 and half days, to achieve this target.
In short, no matter how much you play during the three-day validity period, you won’t clear the requirement. Therefore, you will lose the bonus. So effectively, NationalWin is asking you to deposit $1,000 with no promise of getting anything back. Does that sound like a good idea to you? I didn’t think so.
4. – TigerGaming Reload Boost
Next up on my list of bad bonuses is the reload boost at TigerGaming casino. Available to existing players, it provides a 110% boost on reloads up to $250. Again, not the most generous offer I’ve ever seen. But it’s fairly scaleable, so shall we judge this on wagering?
Sure. Let’s do that.
To unlock the bonus and its winnings, you must wager the deposit and bonus 40 times. This is neither the highest nor lowest requirement I’ve seen. However, it must be said that it’s on the high side.
MGM Slots Online Real Money Apps You Need to DownloadSo, consider this. You deposit $100 and receive the 110% boost, giving you $110 in bonus cash. This means you must wager $8,800 before you can think about withdrawing any winnings.
To make matters worse, not all games contribute equally towards clearing the debt. Slots, scratchcards, and Sic Bo contribute 100%, so that’s good. Blackjack, baccarat, and War are all set to 20%, which is decent but not fantastic. However, Video Poker, Roulette, and Pai Gow all contribute just 5%, making it virtually impossible to complete the requirement playing these games.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this offer is the minimum deposit to trigger it. It’s $25 — $25 to take on a 40x playthrough requirement.
Top-Rated Online Casinos Where You Can Win Big in India 2023Let’s run some numbers here. Assuming you’re betting $5 a hand on blackjack, it would take you roughly four hours to wager $25. Do this in one session, and you’ll meet the minimum deposit threshold.
However, to wager $8,800, you’d have to make 1,760 bets of $5 each. That’s 62 hours of solid blackjack, or more than two and a half days of nonstop gaming. Unless you’re a professional card counter reporting for duty at the Taj Mahal, this is unlikely to happen.
But hey, at least you have 60 days to clear the bonus. Yawn.
5. – Pretty Wild Casino First Deposit Offer
Finally, on my tour of the worst online casino bonuses, I give you the offer from Pretty Wild Casino. Before I talk about the negatives, let’s look at what’s good about this deal.
Well, you’ll get a 250% match worth up to $5,000, plus 100 free spins. It’s a pretty decent amount of cash and will give you a great starting point as you explore the site.
It’s when we look at the small print that problems arise. To begin, the bonus is Sticky. This means that, despite wagering the required amount, some or all of the bonus may be removed once you withdraw your real money balance.
Fine. Many casinos operate this way. But the wagering requirement is just too high. At 70x, it’s nearly five times higher than the industry average. Even offers I’ve seen on have lower requirements than this.
Though tough, it’s not impossible to clear this debt. No deposit method restrictions apply, which is a nice touch. Also, slots contribute 100% towards the requirement, as you’d expect. Surprisingly, progressives are not as boosted as they often are, maxing out at 25x. But that’s not a negative, as many sites limit the amount you can win when playing jackpot games.
of the Best NJ Mobile Casinos You Have to Try! - Epic Win BlogWhere it gets silly is with the table games. Video poker contributes 10%, which again is fine yet worse than slots but better than most table games. However, blackjack — arguably the most popular casino game globally — contributes nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.
More Bad News About the PWC Welcome Bonus
Things get worse.
Roulette, regardless of variety, will only contribute 5% towards clearing the bonus. Baccarat and Pai Gao are also limited to 5%, while sic bo weighs in at a measly 2.5%.
So, if you’re thinking of playing roulette to clear your bonus, it’s 70x of your balance + 350x of your free spin winnings. Even worse, free spins must be used on the slot Sweet 16, and they carry a requirement of 90x your winnings.
To make matters even worse, you can only have one of these offers active at any time. So, if you win a bundle from your free spins, you’ll have to clear that before claiming the first deposit bonus.
To highlight how bad this is, I ran some scenarios. Assuming you were lucky with your free spins and won $1,000, here’s what you’d have to wager to pay off the debt and clear the requirement.
- If you’re a roulette player, you’d have to wager $248,000!
- As a blackjack lover, you’d need to bet $148,000.
- Baccarat players would have to wager $120,000.
- Finally, fans of the big cube in sic bo would only have to wager $96,000.
Even if you’re a slot player, you must wager $50,833.33 before you can access your hard-earned cash.
Got $50k lying around? I didn’t think so.
Images used courtesy of Twitter @TWLHardcourt.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of bad bonuses doing the rounds. Each of the examples I’ve covered today has at least one major flaw. Some have multiple issues.
Of the five, for me, the Play Debt offer at is the pick of the bunch. Not only does it have an impossible wagering requirement, but it will literally drive you into debt. If you deposit $5,000 and clear the debt — assuming you can — you’ll have $5,000 of real cash and $5,000 of bonus money. Except that bonus carries a $5,000 debt. In other words, you’ve played with $10,000 of your own money to break even.
Not only that, but the limitations in game availability and ridiculous max bet rules mean you’re unlikely to clear the requirement anyway.
Ultimately, before you accept any offer, take time to analyze the terms and conditions. Check the wagering requirement, game contributions, and expiration dates. Limitations surrounding payment methods, deposits, and withdrawals should also be checked.
If any of these don’t seem fair or realistic, don’t claim the offer. There are loads of available; it makes no sense to take one that’s unfavorable or simply not worth claiming.