• Is the offer mutually exclusive with any others? Typically, you can only use one bonus code at a time. Sometimes, you may have more than one to choose from. In those cases, you’ll have to work out which one is most favorable to you based on how you plan on using the casino.

In most cases, this is not possible. Online casinos provide no deposit offers to entice you to play, so they typically have rules in place to prevent you from just taking the money and running.

Usually, the way this works it that you’ll have a bonus account and a cash account. Your cash account balance is always available for withdrawal and any winnings received by wagering cash are added to the cash account.

Your bonus account is available to wager with but not to withdraw. Winnings from bonus account wagers might be paid out in cash or additional bonus funds, depending on the site’s terms and conditions.

There will be rules about how to convert bonus money to cash. Usually this is a matter of wagering a certain multiple of the bonus amount.

Example: Golden Nugget Online Casino

Golden Nugget in New Jersey has a pretty typical bonus offer. You’ll get $10 free when you sign up, but you only have 15 days to clear it, otherwise the bonus and any winnings from the bonus will go up in smoke.

Golden Nugget’s clearance requirements are on the heavy side. For slots, the rate is $20 wagered per $1 bonus. For other games, it’s a whopping $100 wagered per $1 bonus.

In other words, if you play slots exclusively, you’ll need to bet a total of $200 before that $10 and any winnings from it become yours to keep. Play roulette or blackjack, and that becomes $1000.

You can also mix and match, however. For instance, $100 at slots and $500 at the tables would be acceptable (a split), as would $150 at slots plus $250 at the tables (a split).

What games can I play with my bonus?

All of them, usually. If a bonus is only applicable to one class of games, it will more often be given as free spins or bets, rather than bonus cash.

That said, the terms of a given no deposit offer might allow you to clear your bonus more quickly with some games than others. Typically, slots are the fastest way to meet the requirements, while table games might be treated as equivalent, or might only clear your bonus at a fraction of the rate.

Ready to make a deposit?

In most cases, the way to think about no deposit bonuses is as a way to try the casino for free.

It’s possible that you’ll hit a jackpot on your first spin and make some money without ever spending a cent. However, the way these deals are designed, you’re likely to lose the bonus before clearing it or only walk away with a trivial amount of cash.

That isn’t to say they’re not worthwhile, however. In effect, you’re getting paid to try out the casino, even if you’re not getting paid very much. If you were planning on shopping around anyway, there’s no real reason not to take advantage of every no deposit offer available in your state.

Once you’ve cleared all your bonuses, you’ll also have seen what the various casinos have to offer. That’ll help you decide where you want to deposit, ultimately. And fortunately, many no deposit casinos also have generous first deposit bonuses when the time comes. These take more effort to clear, but with dollar maximums in the hundreds or even low thousands, they work out to be a more significant amount of money.