How to Spot No Deposit Casino Bonus Scams

If ever you come across online casinos where you can’t find any licensing information on their homepages or anywhere else on site, avoid them like the plague. Reputable virtual gambling sites are all verifiably licensed which indicates that they’re reputable and are managed honestly and fairly.

In other words, reputable sites list their licensing information or credentials on their homepage with links you can follow to their respective licensing authority(s) and/or online gambling jurisdictions. These may include but are not limited to the UK, Malta and Gibraltar. These jurisdictions oversee casinos licensed with them, ensuring that they’re operated honestly, fairly and with integrity.

If an online casino is unlicensed, don’t trust anything about it from its no deposit bonuses to its games, banking methods, payouts, customer service facilities, VIP program and the list goes on. Unlicensed casinos are far more likely to engage in unethical, unfair and illegal business practices than licensed virtual casinos.

If you encounter an online casino advertising a no deposit bonus or any other bonus that doesn’t correspond with the bonus T&Cs, steer well clear. Look for consistency between how a casino describes its bonuses or promotions on site and how they’re described in the accompanying T&Cs. If anything doesn’t match it’s most likely down to false advertising.

Even though most online casino bonuses have their own terms and conditions, some come with a long list of T&Cs that seem to be purposefully opaque or non-transparent. This is a ploy used by unscrupulous casinos to ‘muddy the waters’ about what is permissible bonus play.

For example, if you follow a casino’s bonus terms and conditions to the full and yet when you try to cash out your winnings you’re denied by the casino which cites the reason as ‘you didn’t adhere fully to the T&Cs.’ In other words their ‘interpretation’ of the bonus T&Cs is completely different to yours.

But this isn’t your fault it’s the casino’s.

This is why you must only ever claim no deposit bonuses with clear and concise T&Cs. If there’s anything you don’t understand, using live chat or via email ask a casino customer service agent to clarify it in full before you claim said bonus. If you feel that a bonus T&Cs are still too unclear, unfair or vague, walk away.

Every bonus has wagering requirements you must meet before a casino lets you withdrawal your winnings. However, a red flag is raised when those requirements are unrealistic i.e. virtually impossible to fulfil so that you would in effect be wasting your time trying to fulfil them.

For instance, in the case of a $20 no deposit bonus with a 50x requirement, you’d have to make $1,000 in play through (bets) before cashing out. Considering your starting funds are a $20, turning that into $1,000 – though not impossible – is very unlikely and thus an unrealistic wagering requirement and a definite red flag.

If ever you encounter an online casino that inexplicably closes player accounts without prior warning or explanation, stay clear. It’s no secret that the most highly regarded online casinos communicate well and often with their players to keep them in the picture and satisfied.

There is no valid excuse to close a player account and/or ban a player without issuing an explanation or fair warning first. If a virtual casino finds you to be in violation of any of its T&Cs it has the right to terminate your account and retain any and all winnings you may have obtained in an unsanctioned manner.

However, no reputable casino will ever close your account for no reason. Those that do should be red-flagged. Chances are that they are scammers or rogue casinos trying to get out of paying you out under false pretences. This is why you must only every register with reputable and tried and trusted casinos.

Online casino customer service facilities are supposed to be friendly, efficient and most importantly, effective. If you end up on a casino dealing with support agents that are difficult to get hold of, evasive, inconsistent or rude in their information /answers or give you the ‘run around,’ run.

If you find an online casino that doesn’t process withdrawal requests on time or indeed at all, head for the hills. This is probably one of the most unforgivable offenses an online casino can commit and one that sends up the biggest of red flags because it involves keeping your cash.

The reason is if you can’t cash out your winnings there’s no point in gambling online for real money. Unscrupulous casinos will often refuse to pay you out on the pretence they require ID documents and other paperwork (that you’ve sent through to them before) to justify their overly long pay out periods.

Remember that reputable online casinos pay out on time and within the time frames set out on their banking pages and/or their general terms and conditions. They know if they don’t that they’ll do their reputations and their new signups serious damage. Avoid casinos that refuse to pay out player winnings.