Winning Money on a Free Trial Casino Bonus

Does Anyone Win on No Deposit Casino Bonuses?

The short answer is, “Yes!“

Yes, it is possible to win money with a free trial bonus offer, and cash out those winnings. That’s not the whole process, mind you. There are a few more steps to be taken in between the points of “get free credits” and “cash out winnings”. But we’ll get to that in a moment. The good news is, yes, you can win cash with a no deposit bonus.

The longer answer would be, “Yes, it is possible, but not probable“.

The odds of actually winning money on such a bonus are not in your favor, to put it mildly. Then again, casino game odds are never in your favor. Even the best games in the world have a house edge. It’s how casinos operate and stay in business. But to put it into perspective, blackjack has a house edge of about 0.5%, which means you’ll win about 49.75% of the time; (just below the 50/50 mark). The chance of you cashing out on a casino bonus is, well… not nearly as bad as your odds of winning the national lottery, but not as good as Keno; (historically the worst casino game to play).

What Are the Odds?

That’s hard to say without putting the fine print and wagering requirements (WR) of a specific bonus under the microscope. I’ll actually do that for you in a moment, so you can see how that works. But as far as educated guesses go, I’d say you have about a 1 in 50 shot of actually cashing out winnings from a free casino bonus.

I recently saw a newswire post that claimed bonuses are much easier to win on, averaging 1 in 6. The article claims to have conducted a mass study among Canadian online casino gamblers. I’m not crediting the researchers or getting into specifics, because I believe that, at the least, the study has an implausibly wide margin of error. But what it does prove is my original point that yes, it is possible, if not probable.

How Free Trial Casino Bonuses Work

Before I get into the ‘what it takes to win‘ section, you need to understand how these bonuses work in the first place. If you’re already familiar with them, skip ahead to the next section.

to make this as simple as possible, I’ll use a typical example. We’ll say an online casino is offering a $10 no deposit bonus at 80x WR, with a max $200 cash out limit. You may come across a lot of variable offers with higher or lower bonus credits, WR, and/or cashout limitations, or even no limitations.

Let’s examine each piece of this promotion in brief.

$10 No Deposit Bonus

This portion of the offer means you’re getting a free credit worth $10, and you won’t need to make a deposit before you can claim it; (i.e. no deposit required). All you have to do is sign up an account and follow the steps to redeem the bonus. While doing so, you’ll be given some very important information on eligible games and bet sizes. That is, what games you can use the bonus on, what size bets you can place.

Most no-deposit bonuses are restricted to slots only. Some will let you play other games, but with a reduced contribution to WR (more on that below). Bets will either be fixed at $1 per play, or capped at $1 per play (you can bet less, but not more).

80x Wagering Requirements (WR)

The WR denotes how many times you have to wager through the entire bonus amount before you’re eligible to cash out any winnings. It is perhaps the most important factor in no deposit bonus terms. If you’re claiming a $10 bonus with 80x WR, you’ll have to place $800 in eligible wagers before you can cash out. Let me say that again…

A $10 bonus with 80x WR requires $800 in bets.

If you’re betting exactly $1 per spin of the slots reels, you would need to be pretty darn lucky, and pretty fast, to build that bonus into a decent bankroll worthy of $800 in bets.

Let’s assume you can play more than slot machines. A typical blackjack game might only count 10% towards WR contribution. If that’s the case, you’re only contributing $1 to WR for every $10 wagered, which means you would need to place $8,000 in blackjack bets to clear the bonus.

Max $200 Cash Out

Many times – but not always – the casino will set a limit to how much you can win on a free bonus. Let’s say you start with $10, hit a few lucky spins, and maybe even win a nice four-figure jackpot. That’ll give you more than enough wagering power to keep spinning and clear the bonus. But once all is said and done, you only get to keep up to $200. So even if you finish with $5,000 in your bonus balance, $4,800 of that will vanish into thin air once you claim the $200 profit.

That brings me to the next bit of fine print…

You Must Deposit Before You Can Withdrawal

Wait, why do we have to deposit? I thought this was a no deposit casino bonus. Yes, you got the bonus, and got to use it, and potentially win money on it, without making a deposit. But you will have to make a deposit before you can cash it out. Sounds like a trick, I know, but there’s actually a reasonable explanation.

You have to verify your identity, proving you’re legally eligible to gamble at your age and on the website, before they can send you the cash. To do this, you have to make a deposit and go through the process of submitting ID verification documents. Most government regulators require this to prevent underage gambling, money laundering, identity theft, and other fraudulent behavior. Suffice it to say, it’s standard procedure.

The good news is, once your ID is verified, you get to cash out the money you won on the casino bonus, free and clear.

Now, let’s get back to the main topic…

Winning Money on a Free Casino Bonus

for every $1 spin, you would be losing $0.04. After 10 spins, you’re down to $9.60. At 100 spins, you’re down to $6. 200 spins leave you with $2. At this perfectly mathematical  rate, you would run out of money by the time you place your 250th bet. But that won’t do. You need to get to spin 800, and have some bonus cash left over afterward.

 Clearly, the odds are far from your favor. You’re going to need luck, and a lot of it, to place all those bets and still have money to withdraw. But there is one thing you have on your side. You don’t have to spend anything to try to win. It’s free! The casino is giving you these long odds at no cost. 

So what if your odds of cash in on a no-deposit casino bonus are 50 to 1 or worse? You’ve got absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

A Final Word on No Deposit Bonuses…

These are just examples. Every online casino has its own set of terms and procedural policies. Before you take advantage of any no deposit casino bonuses, be sure to read the fine print so you understand what you’re getting into. Above all, remember that gambling is a form of entertainment. Have fun with it! If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?