Casino bonuses � what is up with this? Is somebody actually nice enough to give you money for free? Sure, and pigs fly!

You see, the people running online casinos are actually quite clever (no, don�t laugh). They know that giving away an online casino bonus will not only attract more people to their casinos, but they will make money from it as well.

And don't think that this is a new idea. Land based casinos all over the world have been using "freebies" to attract people to play at their casinos. Think about the free drinks, rooms, etc that casinos offer.

How can online casinos make money from giving away money ? Casino bonus deals are structured in such a way that you can only withdraw it from the casino after you played a number of hands/rolls/spins. The casinos know that few people will have any of the bonus amount left by the end of these hands/rolls/spins, never mind the full amount. Plus, they probably lost their own deposit in the process!

Most people that play at online casinos are either fun players or they don�t have a strategy, or both! These people are the lifeblood of a casino, as they have no idea how to overcome the advantage the casino has over them.

Every casino game has a house edge (the average % of profit that a casino makes from a game). The only way to overcome the house edge is to enter the casino with a working strategy.

But let�s get back to our discussion about casino bonuses.

Actually, for all the bad press, casino bonuses are quite useful. You won�t get rich using them (unless you win the jackpot!), but armed with a bit of knowledge, it is an easy way to make some extra money.

Before you sign up with an online casino based on their newest casino bonus, you *must* read the terms and conditions regarding their promotions. Obviously all the terms and conditions are important, but you really want to check out the following 3 elements:

*Wagering requirements*

Simply put, this is the amount of money you have to wager before you can withdraw the bonus. This is normally expressed as a multiple of your deposit plus your bonus.

Example: The wagering requirement is 20x, you deposit $100 and get $100 bonus. Therefore, you have to wager a total of $4,000 before you can withdraw the $100 bonus. You can withdraw your deposit at any time.

*Excluded games*

Very important! Some games are excluded from fulfilling the wagering requirements. These are usually the games that have the lowest house edge, including Roulette, Craps and Blackjack and all their variants.

However, if you spend a little time and search around, you will find casinos that will include one or more of these games in the wagering requirements.

*Withdrawal conditions*

A few casinos have withdrawal conditions to withdraw the bonus. Even if you have fulfilled the wagering requirements, you still have to meet certain conditions. These might range from depositing a minimum amount of money to being able to withdraw your winnings only after you reached a certain amount.

These extra conditions mostly relate to free casino bonuses (where you do not have to deposit any money to get a casino bonus). But beware, there are some casinos where these conditions apply to the normal deposit match bonuses.

**Strategy**

In order to make a bit of money from online casino bonuses, you *have* to follow a proven strategy. Your goal is to get through the wagering requirements without losing too much of the bonus. That way you have your initial deposit plus a bonus amount which you can withdraw to make a nice profit.

Who knows, you might even have a very good system and make some profit on top of the casino bonus!

Good luck and start playing!

Hein

This article was posted on September 26, 2005