Possibly one of the greatest aspects of playing live dealer games from the comfort of your surroundings has to do with the numerous promotional incentives you can boost your real-money balance with. Live casino players are greeted with appealing bonuses from the very moment they sign up for real-money accounts.
And indeed, bonuses can significantly enhance once gaming experience and extend their play time. But what most new customers fail to realize is that all promotions available at live casinos are associated with additional terms and conditions that should be met before you submit a withdrawal request.
Many players end up being unpleasantly surprised when a casino declines to process their bonus-associated winnings due to violations of the promotional terms. Said bonus conditions are often decidedly complicated, especially for online gambling novices.
The aim of this article by SuperCasinoSites is to break down all important bonus conditions players are expected to fulfill and provide in-depth explanations about the most widespread types of bonuses you can claim at live dealer casinos.
What You Need to Know before You Redeem a Live Casino Bonus
Some players tend to be surprised whenever they realize live casinos are not ATMs, awarding free money right and left. All gambling operators attach specific terms and conditions to their promotional incentives to prevent customers from abusing the offers. Otherwise, everyone would just register, redeem the bonus, and immediately cash it out along with the deposit, without spending a dime of their own money at the live casino.
With that in mind, bonuses should not be viewed as a means of earning extra money on the side. Their primary purpose is to enhance your playing experience and extend the duration of your betting sessions.
Players who violate the bonus terms have their free credits confiscated or are altogether banned from further participation in the most severe cases. In the paragraphs to follow, SuperCasinoSites has tried its best to cover all important conditions you should keep in mind prior to redeeming any live casino bonus.
Match Percentages
Minimum Deposit
Wagering Requirements
Live Dealer Games’ Contribution
Minimum-Risk Wagers
Max Cashout
Country Eligibility
Maximum Bet
Deposit-method Restrictions
Expiration timeframes
Match Percentages
Match percentages reflect what amount of money the live casino is giving away in relation to the player’s eligible deposit. The percentages vary across different live dealer casinos but usually range from 25% to 500%, meaning that you can receive $25 to $500 in free monies with a $100 deposit.
Minimum Deposit
Minimum deposit requirements also bear consideration before you opt in for a live casino bonus. The minimum qualifying deposits for a bonus often do not coincide with the overall minimum deposit amounts at the casino. For example, the casino might generally accept minimum deposits of $10 but require players to fund their accounts with $20 to qualify for bonus participation.
Wagering Requirements
The wagering requirements (also known as rollover or playthrough) determine what amount players must wager on eligible games before their bonuses are converted into real withdrawable cash. The wagering requirements are normally presented as a multiplier of the bonus amount although they sometimes cover both the bonus and its associated deposit.
Assuming you have opted in for a 100% bonus up to $100 with a $100 deposit where the wagering requirement is 35x the bonus plus deposit, you will have to wager $7,000 ($200 x 35x) before you can request a withdrawal.
Live Dealer Games’ Contribution
The live dealer games’ contribution toward the bonus wagering is something many players overlook, we regret to say to their detriment. Said contribution is also displayed as a percentage, which indicates what portion of the stakes you make at the live tables will count toward the wagering requirements.
The exact percentages vary between different casinos. Live games may be altogether excluded from contribution toward the wagering of some bonuses. The higher the contribution percentage, the easier it will be for you to cover the playthrough.
Minimum-Risk Wagers
The prohibition of minimum-risk wagers is another thing to keep in mind since it might lead to bonus confiscation if violated. Some of the practices that can reduce the level of risk for the player include placing only even-odds wagers in roulette, betting on all three dozens or columns, and placing bets both on the Player and the Banker hand during the same coup in baccarat. Such betting patterns might sometimes lead you into trouble while playing with bonus funds.
Max Cashout
Some live casinos enforce restrictions on the maximum withdrawals associated with specific bonuses. If the bonus or its related winnings exceed the maximum cashout limit, the excess is automatically removed from your balance when you request a withdrawal. Such policies are deemed fair in the case of no-deposit bonuses. However, if you see this condition attached to a deposit-related bonus, you better not bother with the offer.
Country Eligibility
Country eligibility is also worth checking out before you opt in for any live casino bonus. Some gambling operators exclude players from certain jurisdictions from bonus participation. Such customers are welcome to register and play for real money on the website but bonuses are off-limits for them. This is due either to regulatory restrictions or to previous bonus abuse from players based in the excluded country.
Maximum Bet
Maximum bet restrictions are also in place at some live casinos, particularly when you have active bonuses in your account. This rule is enforced to help gambling operators limit their risk and protect themselves against huge player wins.
Do not start playing with a bonus before you check whether or not such restrictions apply at your chosen live casino. Violating them would cause the casino to forfeit your bonus and any profits resulting from it. Maximum allowed bets with active bonuses normally range from $5 to $20 but it all depends on which live casino you have joined.
Deposit-method Restrictions
Deposit-method restrictions are enforced by some live gaming operators as well. Players who fund their accounts via the virtual wallets Skrill and Neteller are sometimes excluded from participation in promotions. The same goes for Paysafecard, ecoPayz, and PayPal at times.
There are two main reasons for these restrictions, the first one being these payment solutions make it easier for players to get involved in bonus abuse. There are known instances in the past of players forming syndicates and transferring funds between their e-wallet accounts for the purpose of redeeming multiple bonuses. ‘
The second reason has to do with the verification checks live casinos must perform in line with their licensing conditions. These checks are harder to perform when the customer has deposited with Skrill or Neteller because of the virtual wallets’ anonymous nature. The verification procedure is more straightforward for players who use conventional deposit solutions like cards or bank transfers.
Expiration timeframes
Expiration timeframes are another thing worth looking into. In the vast majority of cases, you have a limited time (usually one to two weeks) to opt in for the bonus, counting from the day you have registered on. The player must then use the free credits and fulfill the wagering requirements within the designated timeframe (around a month or so). Unused bonuses are automatically removed from players’ accounts upon expiration.
Commonly Available Bonuses for Live Casino Players
Live casino players have a decent choice of promotional incentives although it is worth mentioning many operators prohibit having more than one active offer in your account at a time. Of course, registering several accounts at the same live casino so you can redeem the same bonus multiple times is also in violation of the terms.
Refrain from such practices since this is the surest path to earning yourself a ban from a given live casino. With that out of the way, we showcase four of the most common promotional incentives you can boost your live casino balance with. Some of them target new registrants at the casino while others are intended for existing account holders.
Sign-Up Bonuses and Welcome Packages
Reload Bonuses
Cashback Bonuses
Loyalty Schemes
Sign-Up Bonuses and Welcome Packages
Sign-up bonuses are normally granted upon new players’ first deposits. These are percentage-based, meaning that the deposit you top up your new account with is matched with a specific percentage in free credits. Also known as “welcome bonuses”, the availability of these offers is sometimes contingent on the payment method you deposit with.
Another thing to keep in mind is that some welcome bonuses are intended for playing RNG games only so you might not be able to use them in the live dealer section. In such cases, playing the live games with the welcome bonus is either outright prohibited or they have zero weighting toward the wagering. So this is something to check before opting in.
Major gambling operators are often generous enough to offer newcomers welcome packages, consisting of bonuses on their first through fifth deposits. Such offers must be claimed one after the other. You cannot redeem the second deposit bonus from the package without first opting in for the first one and fulfilling its wagering requirements. Each welcome bonus can be used no more than once per customer, IP address, household, and account.
Reload Bonuses
Reload bonuses come in all shapes and sizes but one thing these offers have in common is that they are available to returning customers. More often than not, these offers are available on a weekly or monthly basis to existing players who deposit within the promotional period.
They work similarly to the sign-up bonuses in that they are based on match percentages. Some reload bonuses are intended for specific live dealer games. Depositing roulette players, for example, sometimes have the chance to earn free credits when they stake a certain amount and a given number hits during the promotional hours. The bottom line reload offers also come with a rollover and expiration times so be sure to read their terms carefully prior to opting in.
Cashback Bonuses
Some casinos like to reward loyal players with cashback bonuses to compensate them for the losses they have suffered at the live tables. The compensation is partial, of course, amounting to a predetermined percentage of the lost deposit. The only difference is that said percentages are typically smaller than those offered for sign-up and reload bonuses.
Assuming your preferred live casino offers a 10% cashback and you have lost your $200 deposit, you become eligible for a $20 bonus. As nominal as this amount seems, getting it back is still better than having to build your live casino bankroll from scratch.
Cashbacks are no different than standard deposit-related bonuses as they still have a rollover you need to clear before a withdrawal. On the positive side of things, the wagering requirements for this type of offer are usually much smaller. The general requirement is to play through the cashback amount 10x although it is not unheard of finding offers where you need to clear the bonus value once.
Loyalty Schemes
The better part of live dealer casinos on the web cater to regular customers by offering them loyalty schemes and VIP programs. The larger the live casino, the more compelling the perks loyal players are entitled to. These schemes work similarly to the player clubs in landbased casinos where customers are comped for their action.
Landbased gamblers must sign up for the player club so that the casino can rate their play based on their average bet size, the number of wagers posted per hour, and the hours played. This is not the case when you play against the live dealers online where your action is tracked automatically.
Moreover, signing up specifically for participation is unnecessary when you play online. Most live dealer casinos enroll new customers automatically as soon as they register and deposit into their balance. Each real-money wager you commit with at the live tables earns you a given number of loyalty points.
You collect those points to level up since the schemes usually involve multiple tiers. The higher live casino players climb up the loyalty ladder, the bigger the perks that await them. The points can be exchanged for bonus credits or actual cash. Higher loyalty levels are associated with better comp-point conversion rates, higher withdrawal limits, and faster payments although the exact perks are casino-specific.
Some operators like to treat their loyal patrons to birthday bonuses and other exclusive offers while others throw in free tickets for exciting events and exotic cruises. The trouble with loyalty programs is that some gambling operators are not very specific about what perks players get and how they qualify for them. Unregistered players sometimes do not have access to the precise terms of the programs as these are mostly governed by operator discretion.
Do Live Casino Bonuses Deserve Your Attention?
We regret to say there is no clear-cut answer to this question. Whether or not a given live casino bonus is worthy of your attention depends on the precise conditions attached to the offer. A bonus gives you value if its overall terms are favorable.
The house edge of the live games you play and the size of the bonus also bear consideration. It all comes down to math and expected value. Do not worry – by math, we mean no complex calculations. You simply need to multiply the rollover amount by the built-in casino advantage and then subtract the result from the bonus amount.
Let’s assume you play live single-zero roulette where the house edge is 2.70% and you opt in for a 100% welcome bonus of up to $100 with wagering requirements of 40x. This is to say you need to stake at least $4,000 (40 x $100) to clear the playthrough. It follows that the expected value of this bonus is equal to $100 – ($4,000 x 0.027) = $100 – $108, or -$8. The bonus obviously yields a negative expectation since you are $8 down.
We recommend you not to be hasty when choosing a live casino bonus. Some of these offers are a good bargain but you need to do your homework to find them. Check the bonuses across several live casinos you are interested in and compare their terms and conditions. Use the formula to calculate what expectation they yield and pick the bonus that gives you the most value for your action.
