First Deposit Bonus at Live Casinos

All online casinos do their level best to find ways to entice players to their particular casino. They put in place many different styles of promotional offers to bring players to the casino and to keep them. One of the most effective of these is the first deposit bonus also known as the sign up bonus which matches a player’s initial deposit to the casino with a percentage amount of bonus money.

The majority of the online casinos offer some type of percentage match that can range anywhere from a 10% match all the way in the hundreds such as 100 or even 200%. The player merely needs to sign up at the casino of their choice and make their initial deposit. For the most part, the casinos will put the bonus match in place automatically but there are some that require a promotional code be input at the time of the deposit.

Promotional codes may be found on the Promotions page on the casino’s website when the player is researching where they would like to play. Some casinos will have these well displayed on the front page to ensure that a new player does not miss the opportunity to participate. Others may be found in the terms and conditions of the bonus offer itself and there is usually a link directly to these posted on the website.

Casinos will also use what they term a “free play” bonus where the player is not required to make a first deposit to play. They offer the player an amount of chips to wager with and try their games out at no risk. These “no risk” offers do have one catch that goes throughout the websites; the player must deposit before being allowed to make a withdrawal of the winnings. They will not honor a withdrawal of winnings until the player has made their deposit and met the wagering requirements.

Each casino has betting requirements that must be met before allowing a withdrawal of the winnings from any bonus offer. This is usually in the form of a "times" play through determined by the amount of the deposit and bonus combined. For example; if a player deposits $100.00 and receives a 100% match, coupled with a 10 time play through requirement, the player must make $2,000.00 worth of wagers at the casino before the withdrawal of winnings will be granted.

While winnings from the bonus offers may be withdrawn after the play through requirements have been met, the actual bonus amount cannot on most, if not all, casino websites. The winnings are automatically credited to the player’s “real money” account and the bonus credits remain separated when it comes to wagering. Once the play through requirements has been met, then the bonus credits are removed and the balance in the player’s account is theirs to do with what they please.

All the casinos are fairly standard in their requirements for the bonus offers for first depositors. The play through must be met before attempting a withdrawal or the casino will remove not only the bonus credits from a player’s account but the winnings from it as well. The terms and conditions of each offer detail all the necessary requirements a player must meet before attempting a withdrawal and should be reviewed carefully before accepting a bonus offer. Most casino websites do allow a player to opt out of a sign up bonus if they choose by contacting support or simply not entering the promotional code upon their initial deposit.