CasinoSheriff.com – Inspecting the Best Casino Bonuses

Welcome to CasinoSheriff.com, a website dedicated to researching, testing and publishing the absolute best online casino bonus offers for our visitors.  On this site, you’ll find over $100,000 in free offers from some of the top operators in the market as well as some excellent deals provided exclusively for visitors to the OCB website.  Overall, we strive to be the #1 resource when it comes to finding the biggest and best bonuses available online!

If you’re looking to play right away, check out our best online casinos table below that is tailored to all USA, Canadian, UK and European players.  Alternatively, if you’re looking for more information on bonuses offered check out our toplists including game specific offers tailored to your preferences.  For new players, we’ve provided a full overview of how bonus terms and offers work at the bottom of the page.

United States : Best Online Casinos 2012

Casino Bonuses By Game

For our visitors looking for more specific information on different bonuses, the section below provides a breakdown based on game which can be useful if you are looking for an online casino with unrestricted sign up offers.  Since a alot of operators will restrict lower edge games from the bonuses, we’ve provided a comprehensive list of sites that count wagers on the most popular games towards any wagering requirements that are associated with the promo.

How Casino Bonuses Work

As a new player it can be somewhat intimidating trying to figure out how all the different bonuses work at casinos, which ones you should be taking in order to get a fair and attainable offer and even what each bonus term means. E.g. What is the difference between a sign up bonus and a welcome bonus? If you’ve been playing for any amount of time I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories of confiscation of winnings, false bonus terms and many other bad circumstances that players get themselves into when signing up at a site.  The truth of the matter is you can avoid 99% of these players mistakes by reading and understand the terms of each bonus.  Below we’ve provided you with a full overview of exactly how they work as well as the different types of bonuses available to players.

The first thing you’ll want to become familiar with is what’s known as wagering requirements which are basically the amount of betting you need to do in order to "clear" your bonus offer (which makes it withdrawable).  The reason that casinos have this is because without a specific requirement in place these offers would be abused and in some cases could even bankrupt the site.  Typical requirements on a bonus range from 5x your deposit plus bonus amount up to 40x depending on the casino, specific bonus offer and what games are included with the promotion.  For example if you deposit $500 on a 100% to $500 bonus with a 10x requirement, you would be required to place ($500 deposit + $500 bonus x 10) = $10,000 in wagers before you would be eligible to withdraw the bonus funds.

This brings me to the next point which deals with restricted games, basically meaning that with some bonuses you are forbidden from playing low edge games such as Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat and Video Poker.  The terms of which games are allowed and which are not should be clearly spelled out in the offer so make sure you read these as they usually will void your bonus if you don’t meet all the rules set out.  The best types of bonuses that you can find are ones that allow all games, however when this is the case different games usually contribute at different levels towards clearing the bonus.  For example wagers place on slots may count 100% towards the requirement but wagers placed on Blackjack or Roulette may only count as 10%, meaning each $100 wagered would be $10.

Different Types of Casino Bonuses

Now that we understand the premise of how a bonus works and what’s required on behalf of the player, let’s take a look at the different types of bonuses offered from online casinos to get a further understanding of the types.  Below we have broken down some of the more popular variations in the market that are most commonly offered.

Match Bonus: This is by far the most common bonus offered and basically means that your initial deposit will be matched on a percentage basis up to a maximum amount.  An example of this would be a 400% up to $2,000 bonus meaning that in order to obtain the max bonus you would need to deposit $500.  It’s important to note with match bonuses you don’t have to deposit the maximum amount, you can deposit less or more and will be matched according the percentage and limits of the individual offer.  These are the most clear cut and straightforward bonuses and are what we recommend to avoid any hassles or major restrictions when playing for real money.

Loyalty Bonus: The online casino industry is an intensely competitive environment – which is great news for players! The idea of a loyalty bonus is like any loyalty scheme you find in your local fast-food outlet, supermarket or even land based casino in Las Vegas. Online casinos love to reward their players for playing in with their casino and offer them complementary gifts (known as comps in brick and mortar casinos) in the form of reload bonuses, free chips, free spins, match bonuses, free play offers and many more.

Free Play Bonus: The next popular type of bonus that’s offered by some sites is what’s known as a free play bonus where basically you are given a set amount of chips and a timeframe in which you are supposed to "win as much as possible".  For example you might be given $500 and 1 hour of playing time where you can claim anything won over $500 during the one hour allotted time.  The problem with these bonuses is that the wagering terms are often quite high and usually they restrict the maximum withdrawal to something small like $50 of your profits.  All in all this isn’t a bad way to start out your bankroll but just be aware of the tons of rules that come with these offers.

Referral Bonus: A somewhat uncommon bonus is a casino referral bonus. A casino referral bonus is the same as a refer a friend bonus. The idea of this bonus is that you refer your mates to the same casino as you are playing at and then receive a reward if they meet the set deposit/wagering requirements. The casino benefits because you perform a head hunt task for them and you benefit because you make some free cash and your buddy gets to play at a great online casino!

No Deposit: The last type of bonus that you’ll often see at some sites is a no deposit bonus whereby you are given a small amount of chips (usually between $5 to $20) totally free to use in the casino.  With these offers there are usually lots of restricted games, maximum withdrawals and tons of other stipulations that really don’t make them worth their while, however many players like to use these to test out a specific casino’s software before depositing.  If you are going to accept one of these bonuses, make sure to read all terms and conditions.