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If you play poker, it is unlikely you need to be introduced to the concept of bonuses. Not all players are, however, aware that in most rooms, their account balances can also be used to gamble a bit every once in a while. Of course, the casino offerings of your favourite rooms can also be used to build some extra money from the bonuses, so let us take a look at the different types available.
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Rooms have been using all kinds of bonuses to lure in new players and keep the existing ones playing from the very beginning. Poker bonuses are most likely familiar to you; they can be found in the offering of all sites and affiliates [4]. The first and most frequent type is the first deposit bonus: this is usually described by the percentage and size of the match; that is, in what rate and up to what amount does the room match your deposit. This can be considered free money but it is always comes with requirements; in order to be credited the amount you are eligible for, you have to fulfil conditions. In most cases, you have to earn loyalty points of some sort by playing enough raked hands to redeem instalments of the bonus.
Now, casinos offer a very similar concept as well. In the casinos, the welcome bonus is more often separated into a first deposit and a couple of reload bonuses. As in poker rooms, you will most likely have a time limit on being eligible for the bonus, although it tends to be somewhat shorter in our experience at casinos, simply because you are able to play far more spins or hands in a given period than poker hands, which means you can collect points faster. Speaking of which, casinos also usually operate on a basis of loyalty points; however, it is always important to check if your favourite game contributes in 100% to the bonus requirements, as certain games can take longer to accumulate necessary points (as a rule of thumb, the higher risk game you play, in the higher percentage it contributes to the bonus). Also, bonus money normally comes with an additional withdrawal requirement, that is, you have to wager the bonus amount a couple of times before it is available for withdrawal as actual cash. See this video for more info about casino welcome bonuses [5].
Other bonuses that both poker and casino rooms have in common are loyalty and reload offers. If you play enough and deposit regularly, you will become eligible for them with conditions similar in concept to the welcome or first deposit bonus but are usually even more favourable. Some rooms may offer a refer a friend bonus, i.e. a cash reward for promoting their services among your friends, who register to the room and indicate, usually by giving a code, that you convinced them to join.
Finally, and also as a similarity, skins usually have VIP programmes to participate in. Whether they are automatically accepting you from your fist deposit or operating on an invitational basis, they require you to accumulate the aforementioned points to be able to level up and gain extra benefits, as well as to redeem your points for cash or gift items in the webshop.
To sum it all up, while casinos normally offer a slightly differently structured welcome bonus and attach more strings, their games are proportionately faster to accumulate the necessary amount of points. With all the other bonuses working very similarly to those of the poker rooms, we encourage you to take a look at the portfolio of your favourite room that has that casino tab on the top.