When I first started getting into the online casino world, all those years ago, I remember being rather confused by the promotions. All of those percentages and terms and playthroughs and such…I don’t remember if I actually thought “if only there was someone to explain it all to me”, but that’s exactly what I’d like to do here.

The typical casino bonus at US accepted casinos is based on your deposit. If you see an online casino “Welcome Bonus” of 100%, that means that you’ll end up with double whatever you put into your account. If the bonus is 50%, you’ll be able to play with your deposit, plus half of your deposit in ‘free money’.

Of course, there’s always a limit, so you’ll usually see something like “100% up to $100″ which means that you’ll be able to double your deposit of $100 or less (your deposit can be as high as you like, but you’ll only ever get an extra $100 at most in this case).

While nearly every online casino offers this sort of thing as a Welcome Bonus on your first deposit, there are a number of online casinos that offer a bonus on your second, your third, et cetera. There are often recurring deposit-matching bonuses for regular players as well (“Happy Hour” bonuses at certain times are fairly common, for example).

And of course, there are terms (aren’t there always? remember to make sure US casino players allowed). The casino wants you to stay and play, so they require you to play enough games to make the ‘free money’ worthwhile. This is usally called a “playthrough” or a “wagering requirement”, but it’s typically just a multiplier.

For example, if the playthrough is 10x, then you have to wager ten times the amount of the bonus before you can cash out (otherwise, there would be nothing to stop you from taking the bonus, playing once or twice, and then cashing out with a good-sized chunk of the casino’s money!).