Do Casinos Really Give Away Free Money?
Actually, they rarely do. Rather than give you money, they shower you with "casino credit". The difference between
casino credit and money is that you cannot withdraw casino credit to your bank. All you can use it for is to gamble with. All
casinos have strict rules about how you can convert these credits to real money.
Here are some examples of casino rules which make it difficult to convert casino credits to cash. They are known in the industry as
"Wagering requirements" or "wager through".
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You have to gamble X-times the amount you wish to withdraw. If a casino says
that you need to gamble 8 times your withdrawal limit then you'll need to have gambled $80 in order to be able to cash out
$10. The ratio is known as the 'wager'.
The problem with this is that casinos rarely show you how much you've gambled in total. You might have to take a break from
your game to speak with a customer service representative to tell you how much you've gambled so far.
It also means that you'll be very unlikely to cash out a large win because the larger your win, the larger the gambling
requirement will be.
The wager usually varies between 7-times and 20-times your cash out amount. It's generally agreed that anything over 15-times
is unfair and you should avoid casinos that demand such a large amount.
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You have to gamble X-number of times. Maybe you'll be given free
gambling credit but you need to make 100 gambles before you are able to cash out your winnings. Statistically the more you
play, the greater your chances of losing. You can find yourself joining a casino, being given $500 of free credit, playing for
100 games and coming out with nothing. This can be a huge waste of time - unless you genuinely enjoy the thrill of playing the
casino games.
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Game Restrictions. It's becoming more common for casinos to stop people
using free credits for games of skill such as blackjack and you may only be able to use your credits on games that have a lower
chance of success. It's common for members to use their free credits on something like Blackjack and then discover that they
can't cash out their winnings. What they then do is they use their credits on a different game, one they know little about and
then lose it all.
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Cash-Out Restrictions. If you are playing with free credit then restrictions
might apply. There might be a restriction on how much money you can withdraw each week etc.
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Minimum Cashout Requirements. Perhaps you can only cash out a minimum of $20 yet
you've been given just $10 of free credit. It's going to take you some time to maybe build up your earnings to $20 and the
more you play, the greater your chances of losing everything.
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A Change in Terms. Usually when you join an online casino you'll be agreeing to
the fact that they can change their terms at any time. Be sure to double-check every casino to be sure that you aren't relying
on old promotions.
Using these rules to their advantage casinos can happily offer huge bonuses to new members so it's very important to check the
cashout rules. If a casino is giving you $1,000 of free credit yet they have a rule that you need to gamble (for example) $10,000 to
withdraw that $1,000 then the chances are that their money's quite safe.
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