Free Play at the Online Casinos
What Is Free Play?
This is an online casino bonus whereby you get a specific amount of money upfront. These funds must be used for gambling within a certain preordained time frame or to be used to place a minimum number of bets. Provided that you satisfy the Terms and Conditions, then you’ll be allowed to keep any winnings and can actually withdraw the funds. One of the great things about free play was that you didn’t even have to make a deposit to benefit from them. All you had to do was register for an online account.
The only stipulation that was pretty common was that you had to accept your winnings in the form of a deposit bonus. If for example, you managed to win yourself $200 via free play, then you would receive a 100% match deposit bonus of up to $200. So you would have to place it in your online account as a deposit. Once the Terms and Conditions are met at the online jackpot sites, then you could cash it out. There was often a cap on the total amount you could possibly win. So though you might have received $1,000 in free play, you were only able to actually win $100.
An Example of Free Play
Here’s an example of a typical session for the welcome a new player would of received in the days of free plays:
The online casino is offering a generous $2,000 in free play.
You only need to register for an account in order to qualify.
You successfully complete the registration process.
Note that the $2k can only be used on slots, scratch cards, and video poker.
You have only a 1-hour maximum to win as much as possible with those funds.
To win you must place at least 30 bets and win $50 more than the starting $2k.
There’s a $20 minimum deposit that’s required before you can cash out.
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Why Does Free Play Seem Attractive at First Glance?
Well, it’s a no brainer…it’s free! There’s no deposit requirement, meaning that it cost you nothing to get stuck in and start to play. The only requirement is the time taken to fill out the registration. So in a matter of minutes, you’re playing. You also have to consider that the sheer amount offered in the free play was also an attraction in itself. It was common to receive between $500 and $2,000 in “funds”. It’s all rather clever semantics as you’re not playing for the perceived value of the bonus. You only get to collect the winnings from the deal. So on paper, it looks great, but in practice, it’s really much less in any real and meaningful value.
One the other hand it was a method by which you could try out their casino games and have something on the line at the same time. Whatever the outcome, you’re probably going to want to try out a casino before dropping some real cash. And even while trying out their games, you could still have the possibility of winning some cash on the side. The casino was using the free play as a bait to try and attract more players, though in truth it doesn’t translate into deposits.
But at least the casino has a good possibility of converting that registered player into a paying customer somewhere down the line. Providing there’s a deposit stipulation in the Terms and Conditions, then they technically already are more than halfway there.
Biggest Downsides to Online Casino Free Play
So, if this marketing scheme was so full of promise for both the player and the casino, then why has it fallen by the wayside? There are a number of drawbacks that gradually swamped the promise of free play.
Confusing Offers
More often than not, the free play offer was never displayed or explained in simple language. You didn’t know whether you’re playing for the original funds or something else. On many occasions, the lack of clarity could only be cleared up by reading the Terms and Conditions. But even this was no guarantee that you’d get what the offer meant. And then free play became more and more complex when you were offered your winnings in the form of another bonus. Like WTF! Many would-be players simply clicked away as no one has the time to decipher their complicated terms.
Cap on Winnings
Yet another opportunity for confusion. You receive your $1,000 or more for free play and you, only naturally assume that this is your bankroll from which you can extract winnings. Not so fast buddy! Sure, you can build up some nice winnings, but good luck getting your hands on them. Most casinos limited the actual amounts you could withdraw. On the whole, those prizes are somewhere between $50 and $200. Sure, it’s not bad as far as it goes, but when someone has an expectation that they’ll be able to extract more, it can leave some players feeling hard done by.
Bonus that Pays a Bonus
For most people, the idea of playing at an online casino is to win real money. But with free play, this was never the object from the casino’s perspective. You end up playing their bonus in order to win a bonus! So your winnings are not cash. Just another bloody bonus! So you’ve played in order to win something, and then you need to play again in the hope of converting that “something” into real cash. Paint us cynical, but it’s easy to see why players might be more than a little miffed at the idea.
Time Commitment
You can approach the idea of free play from a couple of opposite directions. On the one hand, they represent a means by which you can try out a casino and maybe win something. Or conversely, they are actually a barrier to being able to win and then cash out your winnings. We tend to fall into the latter camp. After all the playtime limits and limited cash outs tell the whole story for us.
Free Play: Disappointing Results
There’s a basic premise in advertising that you should always offer less but actually give more. That’s how you create a happy customer. But casinos really shot themselves in the foot with their free play offers. You go in with the expectation that the $1,000 bonus is real. You come out of the experience realizing that it’s not. That’s why we always recommend that you read the T&C’s before even starting with a new casino. At the end of the day, it felt kinda sneaky and proved a waste of time for many would-be customers.
Casinos Sometimes Lose
It’s not really surprising that an online casino doesn’t want to give out an offer that might end up costing it funds. By offering free plays they are in fact offering the player the possibility to beat them. You’ll probably find that no deposit bonuses are much more popular than free plays today.
Where Is Free Play at Now in the Online Casino World?
Free plays are now a rare beast and not often spotted around the online casino. The reason is simple: very few operators still offer them. We’re guessing that the only online place you’ll find them is on Microgaming sites. Even though they are one of the world’s largest providers, and can be seen in a number of online casinos, they actually only account for a tiny market share of games that would feature these types of bonuses. Other developers shy away from free play, as everyone and their dog knows it’s not popular with players. But as long as Microgaming continues to offer this form of a bonus, then it’s here to stay for the time being.
Conclusion: Free Play at the Casino
Having said all the above, we reluctantly have to admit that free play isn’t all bad. You get to try the games and even make some money. And all without having to leave a deposit. For the casino, there’s the benefit that in order to get started you’ll need to at least signup. So, yes, the deal is better than nothing. But on the other hand, there’s a very real reason as to why it’s slowly disappearing.
It’s confusing for a start. Also, it doesn’t do what it says on the tin. You have to dig down into the T&C’s in order to find the truth. Lots of promises but little in the way of those promises being realistic. With winnings which you’ll later discover are capped and the wonderful (not) chance to win another bonus by playing your existing bonus, is never going to play well to the crowd. We’re going to say that it’ll gradually be fazed out and soon will be a marketing thing of the past.
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