An understanding of the relevance of free casino chips should be put into its proper context: will be the offers of the free chips coming from honest online casinos?
The initial online casinos opened 10 years ago, and now there are hundreds that can be found online. Estimates vary regarding the amount of people who gamble online, but recent estimates claim that a figure of around seven million worldwide would not be too far out. Taking that into account, and with an additional estimate greater than $12 billion spent in online casinos alone (excluding physical land-based casinos), offers of free casino chips may understandably be seen as something of a drop in the ocean.
Add to that the question of whether or not these free chips are increasingly being provided by honest online casinos, and we enter an area worth some study or serious research.
Firstly, let us consider what these free casino chips are actually worth to the average person online casino player. Free casino chips are of four main types:
No Deposit Bonus. This is simply free money. Honest online casinos will offer you free casino chips with no strings attached, simply to attract visitors to play at their virtual tables. There will sometimes be totoban attached. For example, the casino may ask for credit card details up front. Always read the terms.
Matching Deposit Bonus. This is where the home will match your deposit. Often that is done in multiples. For example, a 200% bonus will mean that if you were to deposit $100 then your casino would add $200 in free casino chips back. Very nice! Especially ideal for new players starting out.
Uncashable Bonus. This is the so-called ‘sticky’ bonus. This can never be cashed, but its usefulness lies in that proven fact that it stays in your account and enables you to use the bonus account to ‘leverage’ higher wagers. These free casino chips stay latent in your account simply to allow you to do things that you otherwise could not.
Loyalty Bonus. This is often since it sounds. All honest online casinos, and offline ones too, want to keep hold of their good returning customers, and can offer loyalty bonuses, including free casino chips, because of this.
Remember that online casinos are able to do this because they simply do not have the overhead that their brick and mortar land-based counterparts have. Equally, there is no excuse for an online casino NOT to be honest for exactly the same reason. They are able to offer free casino chips And become an honest online casino in circumstances where their physical equivalents would find the financial burden impossible.
So how do we go about identifying which are the honest online casinos and which are not? Well, a lot has changed since the earliest online casinos setup shop within their offshore locations in 1996. Self-regulation (at best dubious) led to accreditation of bodies like ECOGRA (E-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance). Look out also for proof good customer care, positive feedback from online casino forum members and decent helpline facilities. The more honest online casinos will offer you (will actively boast) 24 hour live chat and live email support in addition to toll-free telephone help. Does it have a mailing list you can join to keep in touch with the latest tournaments and special offers? Trust lies in the centre of any subscription process (or people would not subscribe) so that alone is a good indicator of a genuine online casino.
Transparency of accounting systems is another good indicator of honest online casinos. When testimonials are published make certain that it is from more than a set of initials, and make sure they have a state or country. Free casino chips could be ‘virtual’ in concept, however they are employed by real people!
But the best indicator of a genuine online casino is by personal recommendation. This includes affiliation of such casinos into trusted casino websites and portals. If an offer of free casino chips [http://www.gamble-on-the-internet.com/free-casino-chips-and-honest-online-casinos.htm] is made by an online casino on this type of site then it can probably be trusted.