If you’ve spent some time looking at online casino sites, you have no doubt come across some of the bonus offers these places have. On the surface, these offers look incredibly generous.

You might be offered free spins on Slots games, or you might be gifted hundreds of pounds just for signing up. You may even get your deposit matched with free funds.

Despite all this, a lot of players refuse these kinds of bonuses. So why exactly is this?

Too good to be true

Unfortunately, these bonus offers are almost always too good to be true. Casino operators want to run their sites in a way that makes them the maximum amount of profit, so it simply doesn’t make sense for them to hand out free cash.

Most of the time, these signup bonuses are associated with a long list of terms and conditions. Generally, you will be allowed to gamble freely with the bonus amount, but when it comes to withdrawing the funds, you will find you are heavily restricted.

What are wagering requirements?

When you gamble, you are going to find your winnings restricted by wagering requirements. This is the amount that you have to wager from your own funds before your winnings from the bonus funds are unlocked for withdrawal.

Sometimes, these requirements can be quite high. It’s not uncommon to see 30x or even 40x wagering requirements. This means that if you have received a signup bonus of £50 and the wagering requirement was listed as 30x, you would have to put down £1,500 of your own money before you would be able to withdraw any of your winnings from the bonus offer.

So why do people refuse the bonus?

A lot of players recognise that the signup bonus offers are trying to get you to spend way more than you had intended. Say you win a big jackpot using your bonus offer; you might feel incredibly tempted to meet the wagering requirements in order to unlock it. In the long run, this could actually make you end up losing money.

If you are someone who doesn’t have much willpower when it comes to gambling, you should approach these bonus offers with extreme caution. While it is certainly possible to game the system and make a profit, it is also likely that you will end up spending much more than you intended and end up in the red.

Crackdown on offers

The UK Gambling Commission, in partnership with the Advertising Standards Authority, recently cracked down on what they see as unfair bonus offers. Operators were criticised for making the terms and conditions hard to understand.

In a lot of cases, the signup bonus would be very prominently displayed, but then the wagering requirements would be much more difficult to find. Sometimes, the terms and conditions of the offer were hidden away in some corner of the website that was quite difficult to find.

Other times, only certain games would contribute to your bonus offer. Many players were dismayed to learn that despite meeting the requirements, they were not eligible to withdraw their winnings, as they had played on the wrong games. Quite often, the list of eligible games is hard to locate and the fact that there are such restrictions is kept quiet by the operator.

A fairer system?

So has the crackdown resulted in a fairer system for casino bonus offers? Some operators have pledged to do all that they can to make sure their bonus offers are fairer.

Other operators, on the other hand, have chosen to simply discontinue their bonuses. Many casinos don’t want to take the effort to change their policies, especially if there is a risk of being fined for running their promotions improperly.

Always read the terms and conditions

If you do choose to take advantage of these offers, it’s very important that you always read the terms and conditions. Failing to do so could mean that you unwittingly throw away a lot of money. Take the time to read the terms carefully and consider if you want to play at all.