There is no such thing as free money

A lot of casino sites, sports betting sites, FOREX brokers, binary options brokers, and other sites offer you a free bonus when you register for their service and deposit money to your account. The companies give you free money if you chose to become a customer with them. Or at least that is what they want you to believe. In this article; I am going to tell you the truth about casino bonus and other bonuses. The truth that all bonuses are designed to be profitable for the company.

There is nothing wrong with signing up for bonuses. They can be a good way to get more for your money.  But you should know that it is a way to get more for your money, not a way to get free money.

The fine print

All bonuses have terms and conditions that apply if you accept the bonus. The fine print guarantees that the casino does not lose any money by offering the bonus. Exactly how the fine print is written can vary a lot between different casinos and some casinos offer more generous bonus terms than other casinos. All casinos require you to fulfill specific wager requirements before you can withdraw the bonus money from your account. Some casinos lock all your money (the bonus and your deposit) until you fulfilled the wager requirements. Other more generous casinos only secure your bonus and allow you to withdraw your deposit minus losses before you meet the wagering requirement.

The wager requirement is meant to prevent you from registering in a casino and then withdraw your money and bonus without playing.

Most wager requirements force you to wager enough money that you are likely to lo lose your bonus before you fulfill the wagering requirement.

All casino games offer the house an edge. IE they are designed to make the casino money. The casino has a slightly higher odds of winning each game than the gambler. The advantage is often rather small, but it is enough for the casino to make a profit. If a casino has an average edge of 3% and an average turnover of 100 million a day, then the casino will earn an average of 3 million a day.

The wager requirement is set too make sure that the casino is likely to win back the bonus before you fulfill the wagering requirement.

Most online casinos require you to turn over your bonus 35-50 times before you are allowed to withdraw it. Always find out the wagering requirement and if it is based on the bonus or bonus+deposit before you decide to accept a bonus.

Not all wagers are equally

It is important to know that not all casino games are treated equally when it comes to the wagering requirement. The casino knows that some games offer them a very a small edge and they will therefore not count bets on these games towards the wagering requirement. A typical example is Black Jack. It is very common that bets placed on Blackjack don’t count towards the wagering requirement. If they do they only count with a small fraction on the total value of the bet. If a casino counts blackjack bets at 10%, very common, then you need to wager a lot more money to fulfill the wagering requirement if you play blackjack. If the wagering requirement is 35x bonus and blackjack is counted as 10% then you will need to wager the bonus you received 350 times before you fulfill the requirements.

Let us look at an example:
You register in a casino that offers you a welcome bonus of 100% up to $500. You deposit $500 and receive a bonus of $500. You got $1000 in your account. The wager requirement is 35x of the deposit and bonus combined. You chose to play blackjack. Blackjack counts towards the bonus but only as 10% of the true bet.

You will have to wager $1000 * 35 * 10 or $350 000 to fulfill the wagering requirement and be allowed to withdraw your money. The house edge in casino blackjack is usually about 0.4 % but can vary depending on the exact rules used. You are statistically going to lose $1400 (350 000*0.4%) before you fulfill the wagering requirement. The bonus is designed to keep you playing long enough for you to lose the bonus and the money you deposited.

This is the average statistical outcome. The actual result will be different. Some players will lose their money a lot quicker than statistically likely while others will win money. The casino does not care about the outcome of every individual gambler. They only care about making money on the statistical average of all players. If some players win a lot of money then that is good PR as long as the casino makes money on their other gamblers.

Other types of business such as FOREX brokers use bonus in a similar way to make sure that they make money on all their customer. They make sure that terms are in their favor.

Bonuses are a great way to get more for your money. To be able to play longer before you lose your money. But do not expect them to earn you money. Do not expect them to be free money. Do not expect to make money from them.