No one can deny that casino bonuses are great. Because of the crazy competition, almost all online casinos offer plenty of free spins, bonus money or free bets, making it possible to get even hundreds of dollars of bonus cash on your casino account without having too much trouble.

While bonuses are greatly praised, there are no free lunches. As with anything else, casino bonuses have their flaws which might make someone wonder if it’s better to avoid using bonuses entirely and just play with your own cash. Here are a few such flaws which you should consider before grabbing the offered bonuses.

1. Wagering requirements

Wagering requirements are like the bane of casino players. Most casino bonuses have certain wagering requirements which mean that the bonus cash must be wagered for a certain number of times. For example, if you received a $100 bonus with 20x wagering requirement, you need to wager $2000 before you can cash out that initial hundred.

Though there are bonuses without wagering requirement, such bonuses are rather rare. Due to this requirement, the bonuses might not turn out to be so useful since it might be hard to fill the requirement and actually enjoy the bonus cash.

2. Limited cashouts

Who wouldn’t like to get a free bonus, use it to spin progressive slot’s reels and win millions of dollars? That fairytale scenario sounds good, but unfortunately, it might be hindered by cashout limitation.

Most casinos have established a limitation to the amount you can cash out from the casino account before having made the initial deposit. For example, if the cashout limit is 500 dollars and you win 1000 dollars with your no deposit bonus, you may cash out only 500 dollars, not the whole amount. When playing with real money, you don’t need to worry about such limitations.

3. Bonus expires too quickly

When receiving a casino bonus, it’s wise to act quickly. The problem is that casino bonuses have notoriously short expiration dates – when you don’t use the bonus during that time period or don’t wager the winnings during the specified time, you’ll just lose the sum. That expiration date might be just 3 or 7 days from the day you received the bonus, so there’s no time to lose.

4. Options are limited

As if the aforementioned limitations aren’t enough, bonuses are usually meant only for certain games. This is especially true for free spins that are always credited for specific slot games, which is, of course, understandable.

However, this means your options are fairly limited and you might not get a chance to comfortably experience the full specter of casino’s capabilities unless you make a deposit. Therefore, the bonus might be somewhat useless as you’d need to deposit money anyways if you’d like to try out more games.

5. Large number of criteria to follow

It’s clear that when something is given out freely, there’s usually a list of things you need to do or comply with in order to actually get that freebie. The main reason behind such limitations is the company’s necessity to protect themselves from scammers who might want to use such kind tokens with bad intentions in mind.

Besides the limitations above, the bonus might not be available when the deposit is done through certain payment methods or the deposit’s amount might be limited with certain minimum sums.

Considering all these limitations, it’s essential to always read the fine print. This is the only way to avoid unpleasant surprises and use the best casino bonuses. However, next time keep in mind that sometimes it might be more reasonable to use your own money instead.