Are 400% Deposit Bonuses Too Good To Be True?
It seems to be a fact of life that when you are offered something that looks amazing on the surface, it usually comes with a catch… and this can be particularly true when looking at casino bonuses. You can get anything from a 100% to 400% bonus when you make a deposit into your account for the first time, but are those huge 400% bonuses really beneficial? Casinos cannot simply give money away or they would go out of business. There is always a catch, whether it is the wagering requirements attached to the bonus, capped winnings, restricted games, or tight time limits. Some bonus terms and conditions are more reasonable than others, and some bonus offers are outright scams. We do not evaluate any casinos that are not licensed or reputable, so most of the outright rogues are filtered out. However, even licensed casinos can have bonus terms that are so strict or restrictive that you have almost no chance of ever withdrawing any winnings from your bonus funds.
One Of The Best Legit 400% Bonus Offers Available
We have done all the research and compared 400% bonuses from a number of casinos, as well as the terms attached to them. We offer you only the best bonuses where you have a reasonable chance of cashing out your profits and getting your winnings into your pocket. One of the best casinos offers we have seen recently is the 400% welcome bonus from Slotohit.
Slotohit: Get 400% up to $/€40!
Slotohit gives you the choice of 3 welcome offers. The 400% bonus option is to deposit $/€10 and get $/€40, with 50x wagering. You can take the 200% bonus and deposit $/€25 to get $/€50 with 40x wagering. You can also take the third option, which is a 100% bonus up to $/€100, with 35x wagering.
How To Tell The Difference Between A Great Bonus And A Scam
The first thing you need to check is whether the casino is licensed, and has a proven record of paying out players’ winnings. Once this is certain, you need to ensure that the bonus is actually a 400% match on a single deposit. Although it makes no mathematical sense, we have seen some casinos that add the sum of all their deposit bonuses together. For example, they may advertise a welcome package of 4x 100% bonuses as a 400% bonus. The most important terms to check are the wagering requirements, the time limit that you have to fulfill these requirements, whether the amount that you can withdraw after you have fulfilled these requirements is capped, and the games that you can play with your bonus funds.
Wagering Requirements
Most casinos will attach wagering requirements to the bonus that you receive. These can vary from 1x to over 100x the bonus you receive. Some casinos will seem to offer average wagering requirements, but these will apply to the deposit amount, plus the bonus amount, which increases the amount that you must play through significantly. If you receive a 400% deposit match on a $/€10 deposit, this is what these two different applications of the wagering requirements can look like:
- If a casino offer has 35x wagering on the bonus only, you will receive a $/€40 bonus on a $/€10 deposit, so you will need to play through $/€40×35 = $/€1400.
- If the wagering requirements are applied to the deposit plus the bonus, then your equation will be ($/€10 + $/€40) x 35, to give you a total of $/€1750 to play through.
The 35x wagering requirements are average in the casino industry, but if you see an offer where you have to wager 80x or more, then you will need to bet a huge sum and maintain your winning streak or you could forfeit the bonus, lose all your winnings, or lose more of your own cash in an effort to redeem the requirements.
Table Game Contributions
Table games have a lower house edge than slot games, so all online casinos make less money off blackjack, baccarat, or poker than they would off slot games. Consequently, table games tend to contribute less towards your wagering requirements than slots. Typically, slots will contribute 100%, so if you wager $/€100, the entire amount will count towards your play-through requirements. Table game contributions vary from casino to casino. Contributions of less than 5% are considered low, while 10% to 20% are fairly normal. Some casinos exclude table games from wagering requirements completely, or they limit you to playing only slot games with the bonus. If table games are your preference, then it pays to check this information before you take a bonus. If a casino has extremely low or notable game contributions, then it may be worth finding a different casino.
Time Limits
It takes time to fulfill wagering requirements, and playing casino games should never feel like a job with a deadline. If a casino imposes a time limit of 24 hours for you to fulfill the requirements on a generous bonus with steep wagering requirements, you will need to play for several hours or forfeit the bonus. For example, if you get a $/€100 bonus and the wagering requirements are 80x, you need to play through $/€8000 in a day. Usually, bet sizes are limited to around $/€5 when you are playing through your bonus requirements, so you cannot save time by making bigger bets. Look for bonuses that give you a week or more to fulfill the requirements to avoid the necessity of playing on when you would like to stop.
Cap On Withdrawable Winnings
Imagine you received a bonus, had a few wins, and managed to play through the wagering requirements without losing all your winnings. You head to the cashier to withdraw your funds, but you find out at this stage that you can only withdraw $/€10 of your winnings. Always check whether the casino puts a limit on the amount that you can withdraw from free spins or bonus winnings. A cap is common when playing no deposit bonuses, but deposit-based offers generally don’t limit you. However, because a 400% bonus is one of the biggest that casinos will give, you may find that many of these are capped. It is not unreasonable to put a cap of $/€100 on a $/€40 bonus, but a $/€10 maximum may not be worth the effort of playing through the wagering requirements.
Conclusion
There are many wonderful bonuses from excellent casinos that may have one or two of the red flags explained above, but it’s all about proportion. If a casino has excessive wagering requirements and an extremely tight deadline to achieve them before you forfeit your bonus and winnings, then the casino is setting you up to fail. If the wagering requirements are steep, but you can only fulfill them on a handful of slot games, then you may get bored before you complete the wagering. Combine this with a low cap on your withdrawable winnings, and the casino’s intent to hold on to every dime becomes clear. Low contributions from table games are not necessarily alarming on their own, but if these are combined with several of the other factors, then the casino’s offer may well be considered a scam at worst, or unfair at best.