The Different Types of Online Casino Bonuses Explained

The Online Casino Industry has grown an amazing amount in recent decades. Casinos have gone from being something that we saw in movies, to something we see on football shirts, in Newspaper Ads and in our inboxes!

A lot of people get bombarded with casino advertising, and don’t realise all of the deals, offers and online casino bonuses they’re leaving on the table. Hopefully here we can explain the most common online casino bonuses to you so that you can take advantage of all these great ways to save, play and win!

There are 2 main types of online casino bonuses – ones to get new players to join the casino, or play a new game (a.k.a. ‘Recruitment Bonuses’) and ones to reward players for their continued support of the casino (a.k.a. ‘Retention Bonuses’).

Recruitment

Sign up Bonuses

These are the classics. Probably you’ve seen this type of online casino bonus advertised to you in more places than you can count. There has been such growth in the industry that online casinos, new and old, offer these Sign Up Bonuses to customers in order to get them to try out their games, and get to know what the casino’s unique selling points are. The exact terms of these Sign Up Bonuses varies from casino to casino, and time to time, but the typical type of terms are that you, the player, deposits a small amount of money with the casino, and in exchange, you get credited with a larger amount of money, for free. This is still the way most of these bonuses work, but like with any online casino bonus, you must check the terms and conditions – this money isn’t available for you to just withdraw! Usually you must bet it on certain games, with certain conditions, for it to be valid. That’s not to say you can’t win big, but be aware that the free money has a few strings attached.

Free Spins

This is specific to the world of slots, but slots are the world’s most popular casino game, so it makes sense that Free Spins would be one of the world’s most widespread online casino bonuses. It does what it says on the tin, you get to spin the slots wheel, but when using your free spin bonus, the casino doesn’t charge you for it – if you win, you get to keep those winnings! This isn’t so much about getting a new player to join the casino, as it is about getting players to try out new games at the casino, so the terms and conditions here are usually tied to a specific new game that the casino wants people to play. If you like to try new games and free money to do so, try and find an online casino that offers bonuses like this one.

Retention

Reload Bonus

If you’re anything like us here at Crazyaboutcasino.com, you have a few accounts at a few casinos where you got the online casino bonus for a sign up, played with your free money, then forgot about it. We’ve all been there! For the casinos though, it’s all about building a relationship with their players. This is why some of them offer online casino bonuses for ‘reloading’ your account with more cash. If you find the right casino, and reload it every month or every week, you can very easily get online casino bonuses on every one of those payments. It’s typically only for the first ‘reload’ in whatever time period is important to the casino, so remember to shop around. That is unless you want to be part of: 

Loyalty/VIP Schemes

We all know about ‘whales’, ‘high rollers’ and ‘free cheese toasties’, but when all of the gambling is happening in ‘the cloud’ casinos need to find other ways to reward their most loyal customers. This really does vary based on the kind of casino involved and what image they’re trying to create. But basically, the more you gamble with them, the more perks they will send your way. And because they can’t simply give you some bread and cheese or watered down beer, the online casino bonuses on offer tend to be more about what gambling is all about – MONEY!  

That really is what it boils down to – online casino bonuses are either about more play or more money (to play with), which is great! However they will come with a LOT of terms and conditions so please play responsibly and make sure you read the terms.