The Basics of Bonuses.
Most online casinos will offer the player a bonus to open an account and play at their site and the purpose of this article is to explain the different types of bonuses as well as the pros and cons of bonuses in general. If you’ve never played at an online casino before and don’t know where to begin, reference these two articles first, Online Casinos and Where to Start, and Types of Casinos, Download or Flash
Match Bonus
There are several different types of bonuses that online casinos offer to entice players and the most common by far is the Match Bonus. Other types such as the “No Deposit” make it too easy for the bonuses to be abused by players who sign up strictly for the bonus and then leave without depositing any money. The Match Bonuses are given by the house as a percentage of the money that the player deposits and therefore help to protect the casino from unscrupulous players. Over time and across different online casinos the bonuses will vary greatly and change according to promotional activities.
50% Match Bonus
Quite plainly with this bonus the casino will give you half of everything you deposit back to you in the form of a bonus. So if you were to deposit $1000, with a 50% match bonus the casino would deposit and extra $500 into your account so for your $1000 you actually have $1500 to play with.
100% Match Bonus
Far and away, the match bonus you will come across more than any other at online casinos is the 100% Match Bonus. The reason being is that the 100% Match Bonus is equally fair to both the player and the casino. Simply the casino will match your deposit Dollar for Dollar, or Euro for Euro depending where you play. Many time you will see the bonus quoted as ‘100% match bonus up to $300′. What this means is that the casino will match your deposit up to a certain limit,in this case $300.
200% or More Match Bonus
Much less common are bonuses that exceed the players deposit. Online casinos will sometimes offer bonuses that are 200% or more of a players deposit usually up to a certain limit. This means that the house will give the player a bonus in excess of the deposit up to a limit. Because the casino takes more risk there are usually restrictions and/or requirements that are attached to these sorts of bonuses.
A final thought on Match Bonuses
On occasion you will see bonuses offered which far exceed the players deposit 400%, 500% or maybe more. If it seems like a huge gift I would recommend caution, look around and see if there are player reviews and what they say. Only if and when you feel comfortable should you go ahead with a bonus that seems too good to be true.
