No matter what business it is, everyone wants customers to walk through the door or stop at their site online. The same is very true for casinos. In order to encourage people to make deposits and play at their casino, whether online or live, the casino has promotions. At online casinos, one of the most frequently seen is the match bonus. Match play bonuses, like all other bonuses, vary from casino to casino and may have different rules and stipulations at each one. Match play bonuses are all, however, connected to the amount of money you deposit at a casino when they’re at online casinos, unlike brick and mortar match play that doubles a specific amount of wager at a table game when playing at a live casino.
Not all match bonuses have the same requirements, but all require a specific amount of deposit to receive them. The deposit may be the minimum deposit required at a casino or be much higher amount. Normally these bonuses are stated as a percentage of your deposit, which can vary anywhere from 10 percent to 1000 percent or higher. They normally come with a set of rules to earn the match and frequently, particularly when the match is higher than 100 percent, require a specific amount of play or wagering.
You may find sites offering high match play, but these are often sites that only offer slots or other games that give the house a huge edge. Match play that is most frequently found and has the fewest restrictions are often those that give a percentage lower than 100 percent. For instance, if you deposited $200 and had a 40 percent match play, you’d have $80 available in match play. 200 percent match play would be $400 on a $200 deposit. Even though these are normally first deposit only bonuses, you’ll also find match play bonuses offered periodically, to get you to make another deposit. These are normally not as lucrative as the first deposit bonus.
You can’t automatically withdraw these bonuses or the casino would be a high interest rate bank account. Instead, you have to earn them. Casinos require a specific amount of play through or wagering. These are based on the total of all the wagers you make. For instance, you might have a requirement of rolling over the funds both the deposit and match play 10 times. That means, if you if you deposited $100 and had a 100 percent match, you’d have to rollover or play through $2,000. ($100 deposit +$100 match play X 20) The casino may also require you to meet this within a specific amount of time or you forfeit the money.
Not all games are eligible to meet this requirement or eligible at the same rate. Normally video slots and regular slots are eligible at 100 percent, meaning if your total wagers equal $500, you’d get $500 of match play credit. Each time you spin, you’re getting credit for the amount you bet, so you could see a profit and still earn match play if you were on a winning streak. Table games, such as blackjack or games like video poker often give less credit. It may be as low as 10 percent toward reaching the match play requirement. If your total wagers on video poker were equal to $500, you might only get $50 toward reaching your minimum requirement.
Most match play offers have a date where you have to meet the wagering requirements or forfeit the remainder of the match play bonus. This can be as long as 6 months from the deposit, but normally is approximately 30 days. Knowing this date is important when planning your deposit. If you know you’ll have plenty of time to play, the timing is right. However, if you’re not going to have time to play, for several weeks, reconsider and choose a better time so you don’t have to forfeit the bonus cash.