Online Casino Bonus Guide

There are a wide variety of bonus offers available to Australian online casino players, including but not limited to:

• Sign-up bonuses (also known as welcome bonuses)
• Reload bonuses
• No-deposit bonuses
• Free chips
• Free spins
• Seasonal deposit bonuses

Terms and conditions on all these bonuses will vary from site to site, and some will offer special one-off bonuses on the whim of their management, so it can be worth playing on more than one online casino if you want to get the most for your money.

These are normally the most generous online casino bonuses available, as online casino sites are always keen to secure new players from Australia and elsewhere. These normally apply to your first real money deposit at a new site, however some online casinos will offer you free money to try out their games just for signing up, in the hope that you will enjoy what it has to offer and make a deposit after that.

A welcome bonus at an online casino will often involve the site doubling your initial deposit (for example, if you deposit $100 you will start with $200 to play with), however there tend to be play-through requirements to prevent players from depositing, receiving the bonus, and then immediately withdrawing. Nevertheless, a generous welcome bonus will ensure you have plenty of play on a site from your first deposit alone, making it easy for you to decide if you like the site or want to try your luck elsewhere.

Some online casinos will stagger their welcome bonuses so that you get, for example, a 100% bonus on your first deposit as well as a 50% bonus on your second deposit. This gives you more time on a site and helps avoid the impression that they just want you to sign up and will then ignore you.

Many online casino sites will also offer reload bonuses periodically throughout the year, perhaps when they have a seasonal promotion running. This allows you to secure a bonus on top of a deposit during a certain timeframe, and usually requires you to enter a specific bonus code when depositing (all good online casinos will make this clear to you, but it is worth reading the fine print all the same).

Online casino software companies bring out a lot of new games every year, normally online pokies but occasionally table games as well, and it is commonplace for a casino to offer incentives to players whenever they add one of these new games to their portfolio. This often takes the form of a few free spins on the slot in question, or free chips to try out specific online casino games.

Another occasion on which free spins or free chips may become available is when an online casino launches a new mobile site, as they are often trying to get players to play on mobile and tablet devices as well as on their computers. A lot of the time you might have been considering trying out these new games anyway, so being given a chance to try for free is a win-win situation. Find some great offers in our recommended no deposit casinos.

The headline figure on a bonus will often not be available to players immediately. Instead, you may need to unlock the amount incrementally by wagering a certain amount over a given time period. For example, you may get a $100 bonus but only receive the full amount after wagering another $100 on selected casino games.

This might seem harsh, however it is worth remembering that you could well win more than $100 from the $200 you wager, and unlocking the bonus amount is independent of whether you win or lose. And after all, you deposited at an online casino in order to play online casino games, right?

It is always important to read the terms and conditions on any online casino bonus offer, to ensure you do not end up with a nasty surprise. Often, players who are new to the online casino world might not be familiar with the play-through requirements on a deposit bonus and might be taken aback by not having the option to withdraw after a few plays. Play-through requirements, in simple terms, mean the amount you have to wager after earning a deposit bonus before you clear the full amount and/or are allowed to make a withdrawal.

Play-through requirements also tend to vary by game, with a dollar wagered on online slots counting the same as two dollars on table games like blackjack or roulette. In fact, some internet casinos for Australian players will not allow you to clear your bonus on certain games, occasionally requiring you to play slots only, so always check the fine print.

Here at Casino.com.au we have enlisted the help of experienced slots players to look through all the online casino sites available to Aussie players and identify the best bonuses for all players.

Take a look at our reviews section, where you can find out which sites offer which kind of bonus, and make a decision on which of the myriad different bonus offers suits you the best.