The home page of this site lists our top casino offers which also represent some of our favourite places to play online. If you’ve already claimed the bonuses from those sites and you’re looking for some more offers, then this page is for you as it lists all of the offers from sites that we’re happy to recommend.
As we mentioned on the front page of the site, the casino bonuses we list are primarily aimed at UK players. That’s not to say that you can’t claim any of the bonuses if you aren’t from the UK, but you might need to double check the T&C’s of the offer you’re interested in just to make sure you’re eligible.
Best Bonuses From UK Online Casinos
WR = wagering requirements. Bonuses are for new customers only and terms and conditions will apply. See the casino’s website for full details.
Casino Offers Explained
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a casino bonus, then we’ll do our best to explain here. In essence, a casino bonus is a promotional tool used by the casinos to get players to sign up. The idea is that once you’ve registered and seen how great they are, you’ll stick around.
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of bonus – deposit bonuses and no deposit bonuses. A deposit bonus requires that you make a deposit into the casinos before you receive your bonus and a no deposit bonus is one that is given without the need for a deposit. As you can probably guess, deposit bonuses tend to be much larger and more generous than their no deposit counterparts.
Just like betting bonuses, all casino bonuses will come with restrictions attached – if a casino were to literally hand out money which could immediately be withdrawn, then they would go bankrupt pretty quickly. These restrictions are known as playthrough requirements (or wagering requirements) and simply require a set level of play before you can withdraw the bonus.
If you’ve had a big win, sometimes you can withdraw your deposit and winnings early by forfeiting the bonus, but many casinos don’t allow any withdrawals whatsoever until you have completed the WR (Wr is the shorthand for the term ‘wagering requirements’).
At most reputable casinos, the WR is relatively low – so you really do have a decent shot at walking away with a net win. An excellent WR is around 20-30x the amount of the bonus (so a £100 bonus with a 20x WR would require you to place £2,000 worth of bets on eligible games before withdrawing) and anything from 30x – 60x the bonus is acceptable.
Sometimes a casino will list their WR as ‘Bonus plus Deposit’ rather than as a multipler of the bonus – this is often to make the playthrough requirements look smaller. When comparing bonuses, make sure you take this into account as a 100% bonus with a 30x Bonus WR is better than the same bonus with a 20x Bonus + Deposit WR (which would be 40x the bonus). Obviously if you are claiming a no deposit bonus, the WR will be listed as a multiplier of the bonus only.
We should also point out that because casino games have different house advantages, some casinos will restrict the games you can play with their bonuses. In the early days of casino bonuses it was common to be able to grind out the bonus playing £1 bets on blackjack and walk away with 90% of the bonus intact (known as bonus hunting) – but the casinos eventually got wise to this and many stopped allowing you to play BJ with a welcome bonus.
Despite these restrictions, it is entirely possible to walk away from a good casino bonus as a winner – although sometimes you will lose. So make sure you never gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. And if an offer sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
Types of Casino Bonus You Can Claim
Being new to playing at online casinos means that you are going to come across a whole host of casino bonuses that you haven’t claimed yet. There are many different types of these bonuses and as such you are probably going to need a little help getting your head around them all, and with this in mind we have listed each type of bonus below.
No Deposit Bonuses
The first type of bonus we’ll look at are the ones that are completely free – given to players without them ever having to make a deposit. Many of these bonuses are given to incentivise new players to sign up, but they can also be given to retain existing players.
Free Chip
On the face of it a no deposit casino bonus will look quite tempting and generous. When accepting such a bonus, the casino gives you a set amount of cash which you can then use to play any of their games. You will then be able to cash out once you have met their requirements in terms of any playthrough – this is the number of times you need to churn through the bonus before you can withdraw any winnings.
For example if the bonus terms state a 30x play through is required and your no deposit bonus was 20.00 then you will have to make 600.00 in bets on the games before any cash out will be considered. The other thing to consider with these bonuses is that the casino will often cap the amount you will be able to cash out (usually around 10x). But then again, it was completely free.
One Hours Free Play Bonus
These kinds of bonuses are becoming very common at a lot of online casinos. How these work is that you are given a set amount of credits free of charge and then have up to one hour (or longer at some casinos) to place a certain amount of wagers in the hope that you will end the session with more money that you started with.
The casino will then let you “keep” a certain amount of these winnings. However, to redeem them you will usually need to make a deposit into the casino and then play through the amount you “won” a certain amount of times before you can actually withdraw any winnings won via the net win made in the first part of the bonus.
Free Spins
Another type of no deposit bonus is in the form of ‘Free Spins’. This is a set number of spins on a particular online slot machine given for free. Whatever you win from those spins is then yours to keep. Normally when free spins are given as a welcome, any thing you win from the free spins will have a playthrough requirement attached to it. However, you will often find that the winnings from free spins given to existing players do not come with any kind of wagering requirement.
Deposit Bonuses
The second type of bonus is a deposit bonus – one that is given when you deposit money into the casinos. Usually the amount of the bonus is tied to the amount of the deposit in some way. Sometimes both the deposit and bonus are ‘locked’ until the wagering requirements are met, whilst other times you can withdraw your deposit at any time and forfeit the remaining bonus.
Match Bonus
The original type of casino bonus offered by many online casinos. It is very simple to claim – make a deposit and your initial amount will be matched by the casino, or in some cases tripled. The value of the bonus will change from casino to casino, so a 100% bonus is obviously a doubling of your deposit, a 200% bonus will see your initial deposit tripled and so on.
Multi-Stage Bonus Match
This type of casino bonus is for all intents and purposes a match bonus, however, instead of one bonus, you get a bonus on your first series of deposits made (eg: bonuses on your first three deposits). Often these bonuses can only be claimed until you make a withdrawal, so make sure you read through any and all bonus rules!
Cash Back Bonus
A cash back bonus is a form of compensation given should you have had a losing session and is where the casino will return to your casino account a percentage of the losses. In some cases this is withdrawable cash, whilst in others it comes as a bonus with play through requirements attached to it. But still, it’s nice to get something back when you lose.
Sticky or Phantom Bonuses
As far as sticky or phantom bonuses go, this is when a casino gives you a bonus and when you meet the terms and requirements of the bonus and request a withdrawal, then the bonus amount is taken away from the withdrawal. So if you had been given a 100.00 bonus and requested a cash out/withdrawal of 200.00, then you will receive 100.00 in total.
Reload Bonuses
These are often looked upon as loyalty bonuses, and is where the casino at which you are playing will offer you a bonus when you make an additional deposit. They can be offered daily, weekly or monthly and are basically a deposit bonus offered for making a deposit on a certain day or with in a certain period of time. The frequency, size and amount of reload bonus you are offered may depend on your previous activity in the casino. Eg: Those that play more, might get bigger, or more frequent, bonuses.
Deposit Method Bonuses
Some online casinos will flip you a bonus simply for making a deposit using a certain method – normally for deposits made by eWallets or a prepaid voucher deposit such as Ukash or PaySafeCard. Once you make the deposit using whatever method the casino has requested, the bonus is usually added instantly to your casino account. These bonus are typically around the 5 to 20 percentage range.
Other Bonuses
The majority of bonuses will fit into the two types listed above, but there are a few that don’t – specifically refer a friend bonuses and comp points.
Refer a Friend Bonuses
This bonus does what it says on the tin. Should you refer one of your friends (or anyone you know) to a particular casino, and that person then goes on to make a deposit and play, then the casino will credit your account with a small bonus. However, the player you refer must not be living at your address or using your computer, as in the majority of cases only one player per household/computer is allowed.
Loyalty Comp Bonuses
Should you have had a particularly bad session or series of sessions then it can often pay to contact the casino and see if they will place some free credits into your casino account. Many casinos will do that as a free comp and to reward your loyalty and compensate you for your bad run of luck, so if you do not ask you will not receive!
Comp Points
Most online casinos have some kind of comp point system or loyalty rewards scheme that sees you earn points for every wager you make. These points can then be turned into cash either on demand, or done automatically on a set day.
Finally we should also mention bonus codes. Some casinos will require you to enter a code into the cashiers section of their banking page when you are making a deposit to claim a bonus, whilst others will do it automatically.