Beginner’s guide

As a beginner, you’ll be pretty exposed in the world of online gambling, not to dishonest elements – if you’re careful – but rather to your own lack of understanding of how things really work.

When you make your choice as to which casino you want to play in, please use the guidelines provided in our previous section. That’ll pretty much keep you out of harm’s way as far as honesty and reliability goes. You’re not over the tough part though, when you finally get about to playing a little. As a matter of fact, your problems are only just beginning.

The first-deposit bonus aka the sign-up bonus, will usually come in the shape of a match on your first deposit. Some generous sites will offer you as much as a 200% match on your deposit, so if you decide to invest $100 into the whole venture, you’ll have $300 to play with, right?

Wrong. Bonus money is not good for the taking, and you can’t even play with it. It has to be redeemed or unlocked first. That means you’ll have to overturn money, on a scale of at least twice the size of your deposit to get the bonus money. Most online casinos have two separate accounts for each of their players: a real money one and a bonus money one.

This is where you have to be extremely careful: if the conditions for the redemption of the bonus are too tough, chances are you’ll never get it transferred to your real money account. This is the very first trap online gambling will greet you with. Make sure you do not fall for an extremely generous offer just because it looks good. Always check out the terms that come with it.