A deposit bonus increases your account balance by adding bonus money to your deposit. For example, a casino may offer you 100% extra on your first deposit, which means that if you deposit €100 you will get another €100 on top, making your total playing balance €200.

Casinos also often offer free spins on your deposit. Most of the time the set amount of free spins are added in a specific game (for example Starburst), and are worth anything between €0.10 to €1. On some casinos, simply opening the specific game will activate the free spins, while on some you need to activate it yourself on a bonus page. Winnings from Free spins can either be credited as real money, or added to your bonus balance with a wagering requirement attached to it.

There are also many online casinos that offer free spins upon signup that doesn’t require any deposit from the player.

If you’ve claimed a deposit bonus or free spins, they often have a wagering requirement attached to them. Wagering simply means how much you need to wager before the bonus and the winnings made from the it are turned into withdrawable cash. If you have a bonus of €100 and the wagering requirement is x30, you need to wager €3000 before you can withdraw the money. That might sound like a lot, but due to the high RTP of most slots, spinning a few thousand spins on €1 stake is very doable without losing everything if you can secure some big wins.

There are a few ways bonus balances can be structured. On some casinos, your deposit and the bonus is combined to one balance, and you need to wager the bonus before you can make any withdrawal – even your initial deposit. The other most common way is that the bonus doesn’t activate before you have lost your deposit, which means that you can withdraw your deposit and wins as long as you haven’t gone below your deposit amount. This bonus structure is very advantageous, as the bonus works as a “parachute” that only comes into play after you’ve lost your own investment.

In addition to the wagering requirements, there are a few more terms and conditions that are important to know about:

– Max betting limit: most casinos have a limit on how big you can bet while on a bonus balance. This can for example be €4 per spin on a slot machine. If you bet more than the limit, you risk having your bonus and the wins generated from it confiscated.

– Restricted games: some games are restricted for play with a bonus on some sites. These are generally games that can be abused by players while on a bonus balance, and you will find a list of the games in the bonus terms.

– Wagering percentage: not all games counts the same towards the wagering requirements. Most of the time, slots count 100%, meaning that if you wager €100 on a slot machine, €100 is decreased on your wagering. But low volatility games such as Blackjack and Roulette often doesn’t count for more than 10%, meaning that if you bet €100, only €10 counts towards the wagering.

Whenever you choose to claim a deposit bonus, it’s important to read through the terms and conditions attached to it.

Once you’ve registered an account at the casino, you’ll find a deposit page with many different payment methods for deposits:

– Credit card: enter your card details to deposit straight from your card

– E-wallets: if you have an e-wallet such as Skrill or Neteller, you can use them to deposit with.

– Bank transfer: some casinos let you send money from your bank to the casino, but note that it in some cases it can take a few bank days before the money is added to your player account.

The casinos are required by law to verify your identity after your total withdrawals have reached a certain threshold. You may receive an email from the casino any time requesting the following documents in order to have your account verified:

– Credit card: a scan or picture of both sides of the card you have deposited with. The casinos ask you to cover the three security numbers on the backside of your card, but the rest of the details should be clearly visible.

– ID: passport or other valid identification

– Utility bill: a bill or official document that confirms your address, that is not older than 1 to 3 months

– Bank statement: in some cases, the casino might request a statement taken from your bank account that shows a deposit being made to the casino.

It is completely safe to send these documents to verified casinos, as they encrypt the documents so that it’s impossible for anyone to get access to your private information.

Most mainstream casinos are licenced in Malta, where a government-controlled organ called MGA is tasked with making sure the casino follows their rules. This includes handling information, paying out wins and following responsible gaming guidelines. Serious breaches of these guidelines can cause the casinos to lose their licence, in which case they can no longer operate.

Edge Sorting is a technique used by gamblers to get an advantage over casinos in table games such as Baccarat or Blackjack. Gamblers are able to determine if a faced down playing card is likely to be low or high by exploiting the fact that the pattern on the back side of certain playing cards differs, depending on the suit.

This technique has been used most famously by Phil Ivey when he won $9.6 million playing baccarat at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City.

When picking slots to play, there are especially two things you should know about:

RTP: This is the theoretical Return To Player. Most slots have an RTP of 95 – 98%, meaning that you are expected to win back 95 – 98% of your bets over the course of billions of spins. Naturally, since your playing sessions are much shorter, you can have an RTP of 20% or 200% over a short period.

Volatility: A slot’s volatility decides how big the slot can pay out, and how often it does it. A low volatility slot can for example “only” pay out a win of 200 times your bet size, but wins of that size happen fairly frequently. A high volatility slot can for example pay out a win of 2000 times your wager, but the chances of it happening are very low. There are also medium volatility slots which are a good middle ground.

Live casino games are just like they are in real casinos, with a dealer that spins the Roulette wheel or deals the Blackjack hands. A camera shows all the action, so when you are dealt a Blackjack hand it is with real cards that you can see on the video stream.

Roulette, Blackjack and Casino Hold’em are available in most live casino lobbies, while many also have Baccarat and Three Card Poker. Depending on the provider, there can also be different variations such as tables in different languages.

Find the live casino lobby and open the game you wish to play. Once it’s loaded, the video stream will start and you can see your money balance. Place chips on the table to bet.