The questions our readers ask most often, answered in one place.
In twenty years the same questions have reached us again and again, and most of them concern three things: what a free bonus is really worth, what a casino asks before it pays, and how to tell a serious operator from one to avoid. The answers are gathered on this page, short where the matter is simple and longer where a figure helps, and each of them points to the guide in which the subject is treated in full.
An independent editorial team that has followed online gambling since 2006, as players and as readers of its rules, and that is not owned by any operator. The site lives on "affiliate" commissions (when a reader registers through one of its links, the casino may pay a fee, at no cost to the reader). The commission never decides a rating or the presence of an offer, as the pages About and Affiliate Disclosure explain in detail.
Some of them, and every review says when and how (and within which limits). Betway was tested directly, casino and sportsbook, from one of the regulated European markets, and at Las Vegas USA we claimed the "free chip" and asked the "support" how the bonus codes worked. The slots are all played in "demo" mode.
The other casinos are assessed on their licence and on the reputation gathered from independent sources, which we cite as context and never present as a test of our own (the method is described on the page How We Review).
Because the offers change, and the casinos with them: a promotion ends, a brand is closed or absorbed by another of the same group, a link stops leading to the operator whose name it carries. When that happens the card is removed (it is never redirected to another casino under the old name), so a casino can leave the lists from one week to the next and return, with a new offer, some months later.
For adults, first of all (18+, or the legal age of the reader's country), and for the international market. The operators listed on our pages address the international, non-regulated market and do not hold a licence in every country from which our readers arrive. Before registering, it is your responsibility to check that the law of the country in which you are located allows playing with them. The national rules described on several pages serve as "examples", never as a guarantee.
A small amount of value that the casino credits to a new account without any payment, in one of three forms: a "free chip" (a balance usable on most of the games), a number of "free spins" on a named slot or, more rarely, a sum of "play money" to be used within a fixed time. It serves to let a new player try the games and the "cashier" before deciding whether to deposit, and the page on no-deposit casinos lists the ones we consider worth knowing.
Less than the "headline", and the arithmetic shows it at once. Twenty free spins at ten cents are a stake of two units, which on a slot with an RTP of 96 per cent return on average 1.92; if the winnings carry a wagering of forty times, the player must then bet about 77 units before withdrawing.
On the same slot that volume of bets costs on average about three units, more than the spins produced! This is why most free bonuses end at zero, and why the ones worth claiming are those with a low wagering and a reasonable ceiling (the figures are on the page on free spins).
Because the rules against money laundering, in every serious jurisdiction, oblige the operator to verify the identity and the age of a player before paying a withdrawal, whatever the origin of the money. The check usually arrives with your first "cashout" (an identity document, a proof of address, sometimes a photo of the card used), and it is wise to complete it before asking for the money rather than after; a casino that never asks for anything is not more "generous", only less controlled.
Usually not, because the casinos that share an owner often share the database of their players as well. Their terms allow one free bonus per person, household or address across the whole "family" (the four casinos of one group listed on the page of no-deposit casinos are an example), so that a second account, even at a "sister brand", can cost the winnings of both.
That the bonus, or the winnings it produced, must be bet forty times before it can be withdrawn: on a bonus of ten units that means four hundred units of bets, placed on the games the terms allow and within the deadline they set. "Wagering", "playthrough" and "rollover" are three names for the same thing, and the guide to bonuses and wagering requirements shows how to read them, with the figures (and with the mistakes that most often cost a bonus).
Slots normally count in full, while table games such as blackjack and roulette often count for a tenth or a fifth of the stake, or not at all. Some slots with a high return are excluded by name; the list is in the terms of every bonus. It is worth reading before playing, because a hundred units bet on a game that counts ten per cent clear only ten units of the wagering.
Because the casino has given money without receiving any, and it protects itself with a ceiling on the winnings that can be converted (the "max cashout"), often around one hundred units of the account currency. Whatever is won above it is removed when the wagering is completed, which is why the ceiling is the second figure to look at, after the wagering, and why a free bonus is a way of trying a casino rather than a way of earning.
Sometimes, and it is less strange than it sounds. A bonus with a heavy wagering locks your deposit as well until the conditions are met, and a player who wants to withdraw quickly, or who prefers table games that count little, may do better without it. Several regulated markets now limit the wagering (in Great Britain to ten times since January 2026), and there the arithmetic changes, as the page on welcome bonuses shows by comparing two offers "with a pencil".
In five minutes, on the "public register" of the regulator. The licence number is normally at the foot of the casino's home page, and the register (of the Malta Gaming Authority, of the Gambling Commission in Great Britain, of the authorities of Gibraltar or of the Isle of Man) says whether it is valid, to which company it belongs and for which domains.
A "seal" without a number, or a number that the register does not know, is a reason to stop there; the guide to licensed casinos shows the check regulator by regulator.
As safe as their licence, no more and no less, because the currency changes the way the money moves and not the protections of the player. A deposit in bitcoin also carries the risk of the price (a balance can lose a tenth of its value in a day without a single bet being placed), which is why many players prefer the "stablecoins", and why the page on crypto casinos starts from the licence before the coin.
Every serious operator offers limits on deposits, losses and time (daily, weekly or monthly), "cooling-off" pauses and self-exclusion in the settings of the account, and these tools work best when they are set before playing rather than after a loss. National self-exclusion schemes (GAMSTOP in Great Britain, for example) cover only the operators licensed in that country and not the "offshore" ones, which is why the exclusion has to be requested from each casino as well; the page on responsible gambling lists the services that can help, country by country.
As little as possible: there are no accounts on this site, and the analytics cookies (those of Google Analytics, through Google Tag Manager) are set only if you accept them in the banner, a choice you can change at any moment from the cookie page. The data processed, the legal bases and the rights that the GDPR gives you are described in the privacy policy.
By writing to bonuswithoutdeposit@atomicmail.io, the address on the contact page: corrections are the most useful messages we receive, and we act on them. We cannot settle a dispute with a casino on anyone's behalf, but we can say which body to turn to (the regulator, or the independent "dispute service" named in the licence), and an operator that treats its players badly does not stay on our pages for long.
If a question is missing, it is probably the next one this page should hold, and the contact page is the way to ask it. In the meantime the guides linked above treat each subject in full, with the figures that a short answer cannot contain (and with the examples of the main markets), while every offer on the site remains for adults only and for entertainment, never a way to make money!