As a young adult, you can’t have failed to notice how keen the online casino and gaming sector is to target your demographic. Since the legalization of the PASPA Act in 2018, legal sports betting has been spreading across the US and legal online casino gaming has been following. 

New and growing markets mean opportunities for players as platforms compete against each other to offer the best bonuses to players. While this is a win, it can make things difficult to keep track of, especially if you’re looking for niche offers. The most efficient way to sift through the vast amount of information is to find a trusted review site (preferably one that makes its review process public), which will not only give a database of strange offerings to work from but compare them, making sure the best offers are clear to players. And the iGaming industry has some very niche promotions. In a recent article for CasinoTopsOnline.com, Mike Lorente talked about Birthday Bonuses, which are exactly what they sound like, bonuses for players on their birthdays. The article breaks down which regions these bonuses are available in, and if they’re limited to an actual birthday or the entire birthday week. That’s just one example of the very wild and weird world of iGaming bonuses.

Online Casino Legality

Online casino gaming is not legal in Illinois. In fact, it is not legal across most of the US. Only seven states offer legal online casino gaming, these are

• Delaware
• Connecticut
• Rhode Island
• Pennsylvania
• Michigan
• West Virginia
• New Jersey

So, if you are based in Illinois or any of the states not listed above, you should not be playing online casino games. Doing so could put you at risk of financial and legal loss, you would have no recourse in the event of a dispute, and, since you’d be using unregulated sites, you could be at risk of data theft and other threats to your financial security. 

Birthday Bonuses

The Birthday Bonus is a form of promotion that could arguably be described as a type of loyalty bonus. Essentially, the bonus is awarded to customers who have an account registered with the casino site at the time of their birthday. 

When you first sign up with an online casino site, you have to complete a registration form, which includes providing personal details such as your date of birth. Casino sites that offer a birthday bonus can credit the bonus to qualifying customers automatically. 

It usually takes the form of bonus funds, which you can use to play games at the site. Sometimes, you can only use the bonus with certain games, and of course, this particular bonus is only available once a year. In most cases, it wouldn’t be worth signing up with a site simply to claim a birthday bonus. 

Holiday Bonuses

Similar to the birthday bonus, the holiday bonus is a form of promotion designed to attract customers at a certain time of year. There is no limit to the number of holiday-related bonuses that a casino can offer, ranging from Christmas promotions to Easter and Halloween deals. 

With this type of promotion, the bonus is usually credited to your casino account automatically, although there will often be strict time limits on using the bonus. 

Crypto Bonuses

Cryptocurrency casinos are still relatively rare, but their numbers are growing and an increasing number of regular online casinos are encouraging customers to use cryptocurrency payment options for their deposits and withdrawals. 

Typically, the cryptocurrency bonus will be paid to customers, usually new customers, who make a deposit using one of the site’s accepted cryptocurrency methods. As with the birthday bonus, this promotion will usually take the form of a small amount of bonus funds. 

Mobile Only Bonuses

The latest casino sites are fully optimized to work with modern smartphones and as most of us access the Internet this way, casino operators are keen to get us to use their mobile sites. 

A typical mobile-focused casino bonus will credit the account of new customers who sign up using their mobile device, either by registering through a mobile browser or downloading the casino site’s official app from the relevant store or directly from the homepage. 

Game Focused Bonuses

New games are being released all the time in the ultra-competitive casino sector, and naturally, casino sites and game developers want you to try out their latest titles. 

A game-focused bonus will often be in the form of free spins for slot games. You may be offered a number of free spins, which will be triggered as soon as you log into your account. While the free spin bonus is a popular one, it is important to remember that, as with all bonuses, it will come with conditions. 

A Warning About Bonus Conditions

Some of these bonuses sound great, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want a bonus on their birthday or just for signing up with an Android device? And, as long as you are playing at regulated sites in states where online casino gaming is legal, what is the harm?

The problem is that many sports betting and online casino players, particularly those who are new to the industry, don’t fully understand the downside of bonuses. 

Essentially, all bonuses come with terms and conditions attached, and these are usually significant. Perhaps the most significant is the “wagering requirement”. This rule states that you have to wager the total amount of a bonus a set number of times before you can withdraw it. Sometimes, this wagering requirement can be as high as x30. So, for example, if you received a $50 bonus, you would have to wager $50 x 30, i.e. $1500, before you could claim your winnings. 

Other terms and conditions include time limits on claiming, qualifying for and using the bonus, limits on how much you can win with the bonus, and rules about qualifying payment methods, which sometimes state that players making deposits using certain banking options cannot claim bonuses. 

This is not to say that you should never claim a casino bonus. It is important to remember, however, that the purpose of the bonus is to attract new customers, not to provide generous rewards! Be extremely wary about registering with any online casino site, and make sure to read through the terms and conditions of all bonus offers carefully.