There are a ton of different types of casino bonuses out there, but they’re not all worth your time. To make the most money from casinos online, you need to know which offers are actually good — and which ones are just designed to separate you from your bankroll.
To help you sort through the clutter, we’ve created this guide to the best online casino bonuses.
For each type of bonus, we’ll discuss how it works, what you need to look out for, and whether or not it’s actually profitable overall. By the end, you should have a much better idea of which bonuses are worth taking and which ones aren’t.
Do All Casinos Offer Signup Bonuses?
All casinos offer some form of welcome bonus, but not all of them are created equal.
Pound Deposit Casino (2023) - Best £5 Minimum Deposit CasinosIn fact, many online casinos don’t even market their bonuses, as more and more players have come to view them as cumbersome at best, and downright unprofitable at worst. And while almost every sportsbook in existence offers a welcome bonus of some kind, pure casino sites are another story altogether.
That said, it’s still possible to find great signup bonuses at casinos online. It all comes down to knowing where to look.
Luckily, that’s where we come in.
Our team of experts has been reviewing casinos online for nearly 20 years, and we know exactly where the best welcome bonuses can be found. Even better, we’ve negotiated exclusive deals with many of our recommended sites that include bigger bonuses, faster clearences, and other player-friendly perks.
If you want to jump straight to the best online casino signup bonuses, have at it!
Otherwise, let’s dive into our breakdown of the various types of casino bonuses you’re likely to encounter.
What Is an Online Casino Welcome Bonus?
An online casino signup bonus is simply a sum of cash awarded to new customers when they open an account and make their initial deposit.
In most cases, these bonuses take the form of a first deposit match, wherein the casino will match your deposit dollar for dollar up to a certain amount. For example, a $1,000 bonus with a 50% deposit match would mean that if you deposited $2,000, you’d receive the full $1,000 bonus.
Less common are true deposit bonuses, where the casino adds a set amount of money to your account based on the size of your deposit. Thus, a $1,000 bonus with a 100% deposit match would mean that if you deposited $500, you’d receive the full $1,000 bonus.
There are also hybrid offers that mix both deposit match and deposit components.
Best Real Money Roulette Sites in the US 2023It is very important to note that casino bonuses are always partial matches of your deposit, NEVER 100%. The industry wide average is currently around 90%, meaning that for every $100 you deposit, you can only expect to get back approximately $90. This is why it is absolutely critical to understand rollover requirements before signing up for any bonus. We go over rollover requirements below.
How Do You Choose the Best Online Casino Welcome Bonus?
Everyone wants free money – there’s no two ways about it.
Unfortunately, getting actual, real-world value out of signup bonuses is often easier said than done. Many online casino welcome bonuses look great on paper but turn out to be money losers once you dig into the terms and conditions.
When evaluating potential signup bonuses, there are five main factors you should consider. Let’s take a look at each one in detail.
Factor One – Size of the Bonus
The size of a welcome bonus is certainly an important factor to consider, although it isn’t the end-all, be-all that many sites would have you believe.
There are several things to keep in mind here.
First, larger bonuses usually come with higher rollover requirements (more on this below), which makes them riskier in absolute terms. In other words, even if you do eventually clear a bigger bonus, the return you realize on your investment may be lower than with a smaller offer.
Secondarily, everyone’s bankroll and tolerance for risk is different. Just because one bonus may look small by industry standards, that doesn’t mean it won’t be plenty sufficient for your needs. Likewise, a large headline number doesn’t guarantee actual value.
Ultimately, the right size welcome bonus for you is going to depend on multiple factors unique to your own situation. Number of planned deposits, overall bankroll available and risk tolerance level all play a role in determining the optimal bonus size.
of the Best Florida Casinos to Try Out (2023 List) - Ask GamblersAs a general rule, however, it’s usually best to focus on sites with bonuses of $750 or more. While there’s nothing wrong with smaller bonuses per se, at this point online casino signup bonuses have become so ubiquitous that you might as well seek out the places that are particularly generous in this regard.
For reference, all of the following casinos offer signup bonuses of $750 or more:
If you want to skip right to these quality offers, you can head to our exclusive top casinos right now!
Factor Two – Rollover Requirements
Rollover requirements are easily the most important consideration when choosing a casino signup bonus, as this is the one area where you can clearly quantify expected return.
Rollover refers to the number of times you must wager (or bet in total) the sum of your deposit and any accompanying bonus to clear the offer. For example, a rollover requirement of 20x would mean that if you deposited $500 and received a $500 bonus, you would need to wager a total of $20,000 before the bonus was fully available for withdrawal ($500 x 20 + $500 = $20,000).
This matters because online casino games vary widely in terms of their house edge and associated return to player (RTP) percentages.
You can see a list of the best RTP online casino games here:
RTP stands for Return-to-Player.
Most bonus offers will restrict certain games during the clearing process, with others carrying varying weight towards fulfilling the rollover requirement. At most sites, slot games will carry “weight” of 100%, meaning that for every $1 wagered, $1 counts towards clearing the bonus.
At the other end of the spectrum, popular table games like blackjack and craps typically only count for 20% each dollar wagered, with many sites disallowing all forms of roulette, baccarat and other games entirely.
This is important because blackjack is one of the better games from a player’s perspective, with most variations carrying a house edge of just 0.5% or less. As a result, players are more than 40 times as likely to win a blackjack bet as they are a slot bet, but due to the reduced weighting, roulette bets still clear casino bonuses at roughly one quarter the rate of slots.
Therefore, welcome bonus offers with lower rollover requirements are almost always preferable to those with higher marks, all other factors held constant. Being on the hook for only 10x $750 instead of 30x $750 leaves you with much more of your own money to work with, giving you a greater chance at profit regardless of your skill level or experience with casino games.
Almost all casino signup bonuses will require you to clear the bonus portion of your balance before you can concentrate on realizing a profit from your initial deposit. For this reason, it is imperative to understand exactly how large that rollover requirement is, and how quickly it can be cleared at the maximum bet size.
Wondering where to find the best bonuses online? Here are five to get you started:
Best Stay-at-Home Jobs in Gambling for 2023Factor Three – Timeframe for Clearing the Bonus
Even with favorable rollover requirements, clearing a large casino welcome bonus can be a significant time sink – especially if you have a day job, family obligations and the like to deal with.
Fortunately, most sites have come around to this way of thinking, and the trend these days is to give customers longer periods of time in which to clear their bonuses. Not only does this make life easier for the end user, but it also lowers the overall cost of these promotions for the casino. After all, the longer it takes a customer to clear a bonus, the more likely they are to end up losing money.
Many sites now offer 60 days or more to clear their welcome bonuses, which is plenty of time for the average user. Shorter timeframes of 15-30 days are still out there, but we recommend ignoring sites that require clearing within the first week or two unless the bonus size and rollover are exceptionally favorable.
Factor Four – Permissible Bet Sizes
Casino welcome bonuses always come with maximum permissible bet sizes during the clearing process. These limits vary greatly from site to site.
It’s generally best to ignore any offers that limit you to $5 or less per wager, as it will take far too long – and far too much of the risk is borne by you rather than the casino.
big win online casinoOn the high end, many sites allow clearance wagers of $500 or more, which facilitates the process quite a bit. Remember, the entire purpose of clearing a bonus is to give yourself extra funds from the casino, and the quicker you can do so, the sooner you can shift your focus to realized winnings.
Pro Tip:
Beware of bonuses that have differing max bets based on the specific game being played. Slots are almost always fully included, while table games may only be included at highly restricted bet sizes. It’s best to ignore offers with wide discrepancies between max allowed bets on slots versus table games.
Here are a few quality sites that allow for sizable bets while clearing your bonus:
Factor Five – Games That Contribute Towards Clearing
We’ve mentioned this a couple times already, but it’s such an important consideration that it bears repeating. When choosing among casino signup bonuses, it pays to investigate which games are included – and to what degree.
Ideally, you want a bonus that allows highly restricted play on table games while also including slots at 100%. This gives you multiple options for clearing your bonus and provides a nice hedge against going broke while clearing.
Some sites exclude virtually all table games, which forces customers into a very difficult spot. Because the house edge on slots varies greatly even among games that appear similar on the surface, customers who prefer table games but are limited to clear on slots must either accept a much longer clearing period or give up a big chunk of the bonus in order to reduce their exposure.
Even worse are offers that completely prohibit all forms of blackjack, as this relegates customers to clearing on games like keno, sudoku or scratch offs. These propositions offer abysmal odds, and it would take a lucky individual indeed to clear even small bonuses under such onerous restrictions.
All of the following casinos allow for substantial bet sizes and include both slots and table games in their bonuses:
Are There Any Other Types of Online Casino Promotions?
Now that you know everything there is to know about signup bonuses, you may think that all casino promotions are created equally.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, most ongoing casino promotions are structured in such a way to ensure that the house wins, period.
There are a few exceptions, however. Let’s take a look at the best non-signup related casino promotions, along with how they work and whether or not they’re actually profitable.
Reload Bonuses
Reload bonuses are identical in structure to signup bonuses, except that you receive the bonus after making additional deposits as opposed to the first one.
Like signup bonuses, almost all reload bonuses feature rollover requirements in excess of 20x the sum of the deposit and bonus receiviied. At many sites, reload bonuses always require a deposit of $50 or more to trigger, even if the initial deposit was several thousand dollars.
Simply put, the high rollover requirements and other onerous terms and conditions make almost all reload bonuses unprofitable over the long run. There have been rare exceptions in the past, but for the most part, you’re best off ignoring reload bonuses and instead focusing on clearing your initial bonus and then attempting to realize a net profit from your regular playing sessions.
There are some exceptional reload bonuses out there though, notably this one from Bovada Gaming.
As you can see, this bonus features a 25x rollover which is substantially lower than the industry standard for reload bonuses.
Additionally, the fact that the bonus is distributed in increments of $100 makes it easy to clear without having to front thousands of your own money. Overall, this promo has very acceptable terms and conditions compared to most.
Cashback or Insurance Bonuses
Cashback or insurance bonuses are unusual in the world of online casino promotions because they actually benefit the customer.
As the name implies, these offers provide a buffer against losses by rebating a certain percentage of net losses over a specified time period. While the exact details can vary quite a bit from offer to offer, the best cashback promotions resemble insurance in that customers only benefit if they sustain losses on their own gambling capital.
Here’s an example to illustrate how this might work in practice:
- Casino X offers new members a 15% net loss cashback bonus for the first 30 days.
- You deposit $1,000 and begin playing casino games.
- Over the next month, you lose $300 on your own balance.
- Per the terms of the promotion, this means that you also lost $450 (15% ) from the casino.
- Your actual net loss is $250 ($300 personal + $50 from the casino).
- Your account is credited $75 ($300 x 0.15 = $45; $45 – $300 = $75).
- Net result is that you lost $250 of your own money, but were able to turn $75 of that into free casino chips.
There are several key benefits to cashback promotions. First, you can’t “fool” the offer by purposefully losing money on the casino. This is in contrast to matching or reload bonuses, where customers may attempt to clear such offers by purposely playing the most negative expectation games available in order to maximize the amount of free chips received.
Second, unlike matching or reload bonuses, cashback promotions provide a direct financial benefit to the customer. While you wouldn’t want to rely on casino insurance to recoup all of your losses, it can certainly soften the blow after an unlucky streak, and may even allow you to stay afloat and realize a net profit over the long run where you otherwise might not have.
Best of all, these offers typically don’t come with any strings attached. Unlike matching or reload bonuses, cashback credits usually show up in your available balance and can be used however you wish. This differs markedly from bonus funds, which typically can’t be withdrawn until the attached rollover requirements have been met.
The standout site for cashback bonuses is Bovada Gaming, which offers all new members 20% cashback on their first week of play.
There are a few key points to understand concerning this offer:
Free Slots with Big Win Potential You Need to Play Online- You automatically qualify for this offer as long as you’re a new member. No special code is needed.
- Only play in the casino beginning with your first deposit will qualify for the cashback bonus.
- The cashback percentage is based on your worst five days of playing in the casino during the first week.
- Your cashback percentage maxes out at 20%, regardless of how unlucky you may be.
- Your cashback is based on your average balance across all balances in your Bovada account.
- Your cashback is paid into your main gaming balance and is not subject to rollover requirements.
Overall, this is a very solid offer that gives you automatic protection against big losses during the crucial early stages of your casino career. Be sure to check it out!
Deposit Multipliers
Deposit multipliers provide a fixed percentage increase on top of your deposit, subject to a maximum limit. For example, a 50% deposit multiplier with a $500 maximum would mean that any deposit of $1,000 or less would be matched 100%, while larger deposits would only receive a $500 bonus.
These offers are almost always tied to specific payment processors. For instance, the following promotion from Drake Casino only applies to Bitcoin depositors:
As you can see, this offer is usable monthly for up to three years, at which point $6,0000 in free chips has been accumulated. The rollover requirement of only 25x makes this a very profitable deal overall.
Not only is the rollover requirement lower than most bonuses, but the fact that only 10% deposit amounts in excess of $2,500 are applied means that it is almost always beneficial to max out the promotion each month.
Compared to traditional matching bonuses, deposit multipliers are almost always superior in terms of overall profitability. This is due to the much lower rollover requirements attached.
Sticky Tournament Entry Credits
Sticky tournament entry credits are unique in the online casino bonus landscape because the credits received cannot be used for anything other than entry fees in qualifying tournaments.
While such credits certainly expand your bankroll and provide more opportunities to win, they don’t offer the same level of upside as clearable bonuses. After all, tournament entries can only be used to compete against other players, while clearable bonuses can be used to substitute for losses across the entire catalog of casino games.
For casual players or those just looking to improve their tournament skills, credits like the one above can be a nice introduction to this exciting competition format. However, more serious grinders will probably want to focus on clearable bonuses to increase their overall profit potential.
The sticky tournament credit discussed above is tied to a separate $250 welcome bonus featuring a 30x rollover requirement. This puts it squarely in the “average” category for online casino signup bonuses.
Are Casino Bonuses Worth It?
The short answer is yes, if you understand the terms and conditions and adjust your play accordingly.
online casinos mobileWhile few online casino bonuses offer a true positive expectation, many come close enough that the difference between taking the bonus and passing is hundreds or thousands of dollars.
One of the biggest mistakes new players make is failing to fully appreciate the role of rollover requirements in evaluating casino bonuses.
It’s tempting to focus on the free chips you receive upfront, especially since that’s what the sites want you to do. By comparing headline numbers and failing to dig into the fine print, however, casual players leave significant money on the table.
By concentrating on sites with larger bonuses and then immediately busting due to the high cost of clearing, many customers guarantee themselves a net loss over the long term despite beginning with a boosted balance.
Instead, the savvy advantage offered by quality casino signup bonuses can be harnessed to actually turn the House’s game into a Player’s game – and we can show you how.
Remember, the entire purpose of clearing a bonus is to receive a large chunk of money from the casino before moving on to realized winnings. Once you reach this goal, the rest of your play is essentially independent – you may end up ahead, behind, or break even, but the important thing is that the casino hasn’t been able to extract additional value from you simply for the privilege of playing.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, receiving tens of thousands of dollars in free casino chips can actually move you from being a long-term losfer to a long-term winner. Once you’ve cleared your bonus(s) of choice, you can then use your understanding of to find and exploit positive expectation plays across a huge array of casino games.
With great bonuses and great content right here at GamblingSites.com, you’ve already got two fantastic resources in your corner. Why not take advantage?
Footnotes:
- Client examples provided by actual users.
J.W. Paine is one of the most experienced writers at GamblingSites.com, bringing over 15 years of IGaming expertise to his roles as an editor and analyst.
A longtime fan of at poker, he finds the greatest casino margin online lies with the classic table games.When not at his post, he can be found running ruin in Chip and Dale’s Playhouse.