Understanding No-Deposit Bonuses

• Published: May 1, 2013
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On various pages on this website, we have referred to the type of bonuses you can receive as a player when you sign up with a new account at an online casino. Generally these bonuses take the form of a matching amount of money that corresponds with your initial deposit; in other words, if you make a deposit of $100, you would get a $100 match bonus, which can be redeemed after the wagering requirements are met.

But there are certain bonuses you can receive without having to deposit any money at all. These "no-deposit" bonuses let you have a crack at the casino and give you the opportunity to build some bankroll without having to assume any risk. They have proven to be very successful in terms of creating new players, which, well, is precisely the purpose.

These no-deposit bonuses can take different forms. Some casinos make a rather small amount of money available and allow you to use it to sample the games, and if you open an account you can simply add that to the account. There are more adventurous undertakings as well. You may receive a large amount from the casino in the way of a playing stake. You would then have a certain amount of time (usually 60 minutes) to go ahead and win as much as you possibly can from the casino, with no risk, and at the end of the hour you can take those winnings and put them in an account.

There are a couple of caveats here, though. You will usually be limited in terms of the amount of money you can actually take toward those winnings; in other words, if you got a $1500 playing stake and doubled it, you wouldn't be able to take all of it in the form of a bonus. Rather, you would be limited to, say, $100. And naturally it can only be applied if you opened up a real money account. You can't blame the casino for trying to motivate you to open up an account. Here, you can't use the "no-deposit bonus" unless you....deposit.

And guess what? If you don't win anything during your "free play" period, they'll wind up giving you a bonus anyway - a match after you open a real money account.