Sometimes I Wonder if Bonuses Are Worth It

I play online slots a lot.  It’s what I do to relax. I’ve had a few big wins here and there but mostly I just win enough to keep me playing for another week.  If I’m lucky and cash out with a few bucks, maybe I treat myself to a nice bottle of wine for my slots time!  Somehow the internet seems to know I like slots so I get a lot of email and see a lot of advertising telling me about online casino bonuses. You too?

The thought of getting “free money” is always appealing, at first glance. But I sometimes wonder if chasing casino bonuses is worth it.  There’s often such a high play through before you can withdraw anything that I think maybe it’s better to just play with my own money.  If I win, I win!  Haha… Of course, if I lose I lose real money.

Sometimes an online casino will give you hundreds of dollars in bonuses just for signing up with them.  I admit it, I’m human! I fall for advertising all the time. Sometimes it works out, sometimes I wonder why I bother.

What you have to look at is, how much do you have to bet before you can withdraw any of the money you got as a bonus?  Sometimes you have to lose a heck of a lot of money before you can touch a penny. You have to get really lucky to actually benefit from a lot of bonuses.

Lots of casinos tell you straight up what their wagering requirement is. If they tell me I have to wager my bonus  10 times over before I can make a withdrawal I say OK, let’s go for it. If I have to dig way into their fine print to find out that they have a 100X wagering requirement or something like that then I… run!  lol

Of course, sometimes it does work out.  Sometimes you make a deposit and they top it up for you. It’s common for them to at least double your deposit.  (Omigod – if you’re playing at an online casino that doesn’t at least do that for you once a month or so then for goodness sake move on – find another place to play!) So no matter how you look at it, you have twice as much money to play with. And that means you’ll be able to play twice as long. Even if you don’t have a huge win, you get to have twice as much fun. Twice the bang for your buck.

But think about it.  Doesn’t playing for twice as long double your chances of winning?! That’s the way I look at it, anyway.  If I make a little deposit thinking it’ll be enough to last me for 2 or 3 hours, and then they give me enough to last me for four, five maybe six hours (on a medium lucky night  lol) I’m a happy guy! It just stands to reason, to me anyway, that if I’m playing longer I’m way more likely to get lucky and have a really high paying spin.

I’m not speculating about this. It happens to me all the time. How many times have you had your best spin of the night in the last hour you played?  If you’d had to quit an hour before you wouldn’t have had that big win, right?  Am I right!?  Haha… you know I am  ;)

What I think is really smart is the casinos that give players a choice about their bonuses. Some people would rather get a huge bonus, get lots of money to play with, and not worry about maybe never cashing out. I’m sure some players would rather take a lower bonus – with a corresponding lower play through. I know I would.

I guess you could say I actually have mixed feelings about bonuses. Yes, they give you more playing time. But if they’re usually gone before you can actually win anything then what’s the use.

What will I do next time I get an email with an incredible casino bonus offer?  Haha… I’ll probably grab it, get a little free cash. What the heck.  But I’ll probably play with my own real money a lot more. We’ll see.  I’ll let you know how it works out!