Online Casino Bonus No Deposit
There are thousands of online casinos, each one vying for our attention over one and other. Logically we can wholly understand why all of these online casinos are doing everything they can to get our attention instead of letting us go to one of their competitors. This is why we get bombarded with advertisements; It is why these casinos will pay a lot of money for preferential search engine placement; they understandably do anything they can to further their chances of becoming our next online casino of choice. So what are their options once they have removed all of the standard marketing practises that all businesses use. They offer special bonuses to try to tempt us in.
There are a huge variety of free slots uk bonuses, we will start with the most appetising of the myriad of deals on offer. That deal is No Deposit Bonuses!
What is a No Deposit Casino Bonus?
No Deposit Casinos bonuses are deals that are offered, literally, for nothing. Many casinos will offer us a selection of different kind of sign up bonuses. They each have their own unique benefits which we will look at, as well as a few things to have in mind when getting involved to try and minimise any of the downfalls of these deals.
No Deposit Free Spins
Lets take a look at the most popular of these that are offered to us players. That would be free spins, like us, they come in many different shapes and sizes and are multi-faceted. This No Deposit bonus is specifically for the use of online slot players, so for those of us who love the slots game tiles might be getting a little hot under the collar right now. Free access to our favourite slot games? Sounds great doesn’t it.
Well however amazing it sounds or is, there are a few things we should know before we get involved with these offers as with anything so good, there will inevitably be some downsides, after all online casinos are a business, whilst they want us to make money, they can’t just be giving it away. Fortunately for us, that doesn’t mean that these deals are hollow promises, just that there are a few things to bear in mind as we proceed.
One thing the online casino might do is this. Lets say for example, we have been offered 100 free spins as a part of a sign up bonus, however with the caveat of releasing them to us in a restricted flow, perhaps in the form of 10 free spins a day, this will continue until the allotted free spins have all been given out.
Another thing that some online casinos will do as a restriction to the no deposit free spins is to tether them to specific slot games. This can be quite a frustrating feature if we already have a set of favourite slots games that we like to play. Whilst this can be annoying, it can also be a great opportunity to expand our knowledge on the games that we know. There are always great games out there to discover.
Some of us may be seething about this restriction, but try to understand it from the perspective of the online casino. There are a few reasons they might want to impose these restrictions. Bottlenecking our path to play through these games means that they get a real boost of exposure; ever new player will be playing them. So to what end could they use this bottlenecking? They will use it to promote specific games, either because they are new and the online casino wants to get exposure for it, so that we can get to know this new game, there is also the possibility that it is an old favourite that people will be specifically searching for free slots to play on. Meaning that they are improving their odds of being found through search engines.
There are a few more issues that can rear their heads, but we will take a little break from the negatives and come back to them later.
Before we move on though, here are some of the free slot bonuses we will commonly see in their varying sizes:
- 10 free spins
- 30 free spins
- 50 free spins
- 100 free spins
- 150 free spins
- 200 free spins
No Deposit Money Bonus
After covering the most popular free offering by the online casinos, we then should look at the next most common no deposit bonus.
That bonus is literally free money! Online casinos offer wildly differing amounts of free cash for us be be able to play with, meaning we can play totally risk free. One of the great things is that it expands our playing ability outside of the slots, so if we want to play a couple hands of blackjack then that is now on the cards with this deal. Standard No Deposit free money deals are as follows:
- £10
- £15
- £50
- £100
- £200
- All the way up to £1000!
This sounds too good to be true, right? £1000 for absolutely nothing? No business could simply pour away money like that and still be around to offer their service! That is why they often place restrictions on what we can do with that free money. These requirements vary between casinos and can be a source of great disappointment if we don’t know what to look out for as they can stop us turning our winnings into real money if we don’t keep an eye on them.
Other Common Casino Bonuses
Think that is all that online casinos have to offer? Well there is still a great deal of bonuses for us to get our teeth into, giving us even more opportunities to make some real money winnings! Let’s take a look at what they are.
Some of us may be thinking that these free sign up deals are great and all, but that we are wanting to put some skin in the game; after all this is gambling and so much of the fun of it comes from the risk in the games! Let us look at what is on offer for those of us who are less averse to risk.
Deposit Match Bonuses
Deposit Match bonuses are a really common special bonus. This bonus is pretty simple, if we deposit £50, the online casino will give us £50 on top of our initial deposit meaning we will have £100 to play with! What a great deal, right?
As one could expect, with such a great deal, there are caveats to it, there will be restrictions as expected. The most likely limitation around Matched Deposit bonuses is a restriction around how large a deposit they will match, so don’t go withdrawing life savings for a quick buck! These caps will tend to start at around £30 going all the way up to £100 or £200, so it really can be great to get invested in these.
That being said, even though all of these deals sound too good to be true, some of them actually are too good to be true! There are things we can do to discern between what is a good deal and what is a con which we will get into later.
Deposit Bonus
Deposit bonuses are very similar to deposit matching however instead of the amount of free money being on offer having a 1:1 ratio with our deposit, we instead have a set offering when our deposit breaches a given threshold
For example, an online casino could offer a pre-set value of £50 when you deposit £100, obviously this doesn’t seem like as good of a deal as the matched deposit bonus in principle, but depending on the values that the casino are offering it can actually garner a greater value of bonus money being given to us.
Something that we can do to maximise the value of the bonus we receive is to split our pot of money that we have decided to deposit across multiple online casinos. For instance if you have a sum of £200, you could split that across multiple casinos and potentially end up with twice that amount through this savvy decision.
Bonus Deposit Free Spins
Much like the aforementioned free spins, deposit bonus deals also offer free spins. We must then ask ourselves, what’s the difference? Surely we should get something extra for placing money in? This largely depends on the specific online casino and the terms and conditions under which they offer these bonuses. By and large there will be either improvement in the offer, this could be in the amount of free spins that we get or potentially any other of the annoying restrictions being eased off on to allow new players to go forth unencumbered.
Loyalty Casino Bonuses
Loyalty bonuses are the exact opposite of the bonuses that we have been talking about thus far. Loyalty bonuses reward players for sticking by their online casino of choice. This can come in a few ways and are usually given as we go through membership milestones, such as a total monies deposited or time spent with that casino. The latter has an interesting two-fold functionality as not only does it act as a reward system, but it also creates an incentive for players to return to that casino if they had moved on to another. The more they can get us to want to play through their online casino, the more likely we are to make a deposit and put some real money on the line.
What’s The Catch?
With all of these jaw dropping deals, we must all be thinking, there has to be a catch. No sane person or business would give all of these opportunities to take money from them, risk free or not! And yet they do, but they do so with caveats that can turn an appetising offer in to a pain.
All of these caveats that we are discussing are hidden in the terms and conditions that we agree to when we sign up as new players. We have touched on a few of these issues, but here is a list of the things we should be looking out for.
- Value of the Free Spins – All casinos set values of their free spins, but it is important to check what this value is. The industry standard is around £0.10. Any lower and we could be wasting our time
- Free Spins Expiry – Some casinos will give you free spins that have an expiry. Whilst some of these time limits are fair, some can have a 1 day expiry
- Play Restrictions – It is rare to find these not in place. Casinos will give you free spins, but only for specific games
- Wagering Restrictions – Most casinos place minimum bets, depending what this wager restriction is, it can hugely alter our odd of success and make it harder to find ways to win.
No Deposit Bonus vs Deposit Bonuses
So what are the differences between the two umbrella types of bonuses, we have seen that they largely offer the same things. Free spins and free money in its different forms. The biggest fundamental difference is whether we have to put our own money in to get access to these deals. So depending on our risk tolerance, they can both be really good potential options to go for.
The one thing to bear in mind though is the perspective of the online casinos in regards to these two types of offers. When it is just the casino putting something at risk then it is obvious that they will be doing everything they can to mitigate the financial risk, this means that there will be greater restrictions or lower values to those sought after free spins. Whilst it might be annoying, we can’t fault them for this protection, after all it is a business.
The truth of the comparison comes down to personal preference. As we spoke about before, what is the risk tolerance that we have and how much are we willing to lose? If we have a low risk tolerance, stick to the no deposits, something for nothing is great and we can have some real fun with it. If we have a strong risk tolerance and have the available dispensable income then the likelihood is that it would be more enjoyable to use deposit bonuses as they open up more opportunity and come with greater risk.
How To Get Access To Bonus Deals
Okay, we have gone over all the different bonuses that are on offer, so now we must all be wondering. How can we get our hands on these great deals?! It’s easy, sign up.
Casinos want new players; new players means no potential pools of money to be had. This is why they offer such astounding deals.
Online Casino Offers vs Brick and Mortar Casinos Bonuses
Obviously there are significant differences between the two types of casinos. Brick and mortar casinos must adhere to licensing laws that restrict how long they can be open for, they must also employ large teams of people: Front of house staff, bar staff, croupiers along with a security team. None of these people come cheap, particularly the latter two as they must hold adequate training to be eligible to be hired and the training doesn’t come too cheap either! Not only this, they must pay for the buildings up keep along with the bills that keep the lights on and our drinks topped up. These expenses translate to us getting a worse deal when it comes to the offers that on offer, however realistically, we are trading that for the experience. Casinos are an entrancing place, all the lights, the risk, the opportunity. They have everything.
On the other hand, online casinos, whilst having a diminished experience in comparison are able to move those expenses over in to our pockets in the form of the great deals we have been discussing, not forgetting that the level of competition that an online casino is facing is much greater than our local casino, where the likelihood is there is little to no competition.
One of the great bonuses of online casinos opposed to brick and mortar casinos is that they are available anytime we like and without the temptation of the additional temptations like alcohol. The effort required to go to a casino on a sleepless night is much greater than simply opening your computer or mobile phone.
Common No Deposit Casino Games
Starburst is a great slots game, perfect to use those free spins on, it sports 5 reels with 3 rows with them we receive 10 fixed paylines. Some may think that is relatively small, but with an RTP of 96.09% and a low to medium variance, it is a great slot to get in on. It also has an auto play feature where you select either 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500,750 or 1000 spins. There are also advanced settings enabling us to pause the autoplay if we win, along with a bunch of more specific settings. With a maximum win of 500 times the stake per spin there is little excuse not get try it out!
Dragon’s Luck is a beautiful looking game produced by Red Tiger Gaming, with an Asian theme, giving us a beautiful and serene setting to play our slots. This slots game is simple and easy to understand as it avoids piling in loads of bonus features. Instead of giving us tons of bonus features, we instead are given a whopping 10 reels with 6 rows each that unlocks a reasonable 30 paylines as well as an impressive RTP of 96.1%. Not only that, but we also receive adjacent pays, which means we win if we get three of a kind across three consecutive reels!
Deadmau5 is a slots gaming released by Microgaming, as we might expect, it is based around the Canadian DJ known as Deadmau5 it has 5 reels and 3 rows and has an RTP rate of 95.22% with an impressive 243 paylines! As well as a collection of bonus features to check out. Not only does it provide all this, but we also have a Max Win of 2100 times our stake. Though the RTP may be on the lower end of the scale, this slot game really is not anything to turn your nose up at.
Wagering Requirements
In the terms and conditions, wagering requirements will dictate how much we must wager before we will be allowed to make a withdrawal from our accounts. The wagering requirements will most often be relative to the casino bonus we receive on sign up.
For example, if we received £50 as a casino bonus and the wager requirement was x2, we would have to wager a total of £100, if it also included our deposit, lets say £30 then the total required wager would be £160
Whilst it may seem like a cruel ploy to force you to gamble away all of your money, this is designed to prevent illegal money laundering as criminals could simply deposit and immediately withdraw these funds to then have what they could claim is legitimate income.
This being said, there are plenty of casinos out there that don’t enforce wagering requirements, so hop online and have a look.
Terms and Conditions
We have discussed the finer points of terms and conditions relative to each specific subject however it is important to reinforce just how impactful they are, often people skim through or don’t read the t’s&c’s in this situation, it can mean serious disappointment. To prevent this, read them. They are legally required to clearly display the main points of the contract. If they are not easily available, we should take it as a red flag and find a different online casino.
If you are in doubt about the validity of any casino, check to see when they last updated their licences and search to find out if they blacklisted.
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