August 27, 2009 - When it comes to free cash bonuses
at the online casino, there is nothing more popular than the sign up bonus. I
mean, c'mon, for most people, it's the deciding factor in choosing an online
casino to deposit money with. Free money if you sign up NOW! We'll pay YOU to
gamble online! Could it get more tempting? Well, maybe I shouldn't answer that
question, 'cause it can get more tempting. My point is that the free welcome bonus, a.k.a.
online casino sign up bonus, is
definitely the most popular of the free cash offers.
Even the reload bonus is not as tempting as it used to
be. These days, most welcome bonuses are actually reload
bonuses disguisedly marketed as a true online casino sign up bonus. If
you're not sure what I'm talking about, please allow me to
explain. You see, back in the early days of online gambling,
which was actually less than just fifteen years ago, online
casinos would give a single bonus on a single
first-time deposit. The greater the percentage, the more
free money offered, and the least wagering restrictions generally
amounted to the most popular bonus.
Unfortunately, the monetary figure became the chief focus
of players, who wouldn't even bother reading the terms and
conditions of the sign up bonus and then complain they were ripped
off by the online casino after finding out they placed bets
on restricted games or made an early withdrawal request. And
I'm not even talking about before online casinos were
required to visibly post bonus terms and conditions on their
website, which is no longer the case thanks to the high standards imposed by
eCOGRA.
I'm talking about players getting so focused on free money, they
don't stop to think just how "free" it really is.
In response to this demand, and perhaps a means of
staying competitive, some online casinos chose to begin
advertising their ongoing bonus offers as welcome
sign up bonuses. Some still do to this day. They will say something
like, "Gamble With $5,000 Free", but in reality,
it's a
bonus covering multiple deposits. In other words, it doesn't
mean you are going to get $5,000 free bucks to start off
with - even as a match bonus. It means you will get up to
$5,000 Free over the course of a certain number of deposits
according to the bonus terms. You usually have to go two
clicks deep from the online casino home page to find this out.
By no means am I saying it's unethical to
advertise this way. Go
Casino, for example, advertises a $20,000 Free Sign Up Bonus Offer
that is split up over the course of twenty deposits.
However, Go Casino is quick to give you this information on
the main promotions page of their website (See the OCS
Go
Casino Review for more information). It's the online casinos
that don't even bother to tell you this information, other
than burying it in the fine print T&C's, that are unethical
scumbags.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you
shouldn't always go for an online casino sign up bonus just on the
monetary figure you see advertised. Read through the terms and
conditions and make sure you find something to the effect of
"up to so much free on the first deposit" in writing.
Of course, all online casinos say they can change their
T&C's at any time. Yet the good one's will never do.
If you really do want big money on a one-time deposit,
you need to find what is called a high roller sign up bonus. For
US/Euro/UK facing online casinos, my top picks are: Slots
Oasis, Lucky Club and Golden Casino.
Slots Oasis offers 400%
up to $4,000 Free on slots with one deposit or 200% up to
$1,000 Free on Blackjack with one deposit.
Lucky Club offers
100% up to $999 Free on slots with one deposit.
Golden
Casino offers a $1,000 high roller slots bonus on the first
deposit as well (see their VIP Rewards page to get info).
Or, you could visit the OCS
Online
Casino Sign Up Bonus page for more info.
Originally published:
August,
2009 | Categories:
Casino Bonuses
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