Free Spins Bonuses? We Got You, Bro!

What Exactly Are Free Spins Bonus Offers?

First things first, they’re not free bonus money. We really can’t blame you if you saw an online casino bonus that said 25 free spins, got all excited, actually got a winning match, and realized you couldn’t cash in those winnings. Don’t worry, this happened to all casino players with their first free spins bonus.

While there are free spins that you can get without paying a single dime, when it comes to Canadian online casinos, it’s generally rare to get ANYTHING without making a deposit first. So let that sink in: Free spins are, in most cases, not free at all.

You may not exactly pay directly for these free spins, but you will have to pay for something. Because of this, free spins are often referred to as free spins bonuses. In other words, they act as a little something extra – the ketchup bags you get with your favourite burger menu.

Have we just destroyed your expectations? Good, that was our plan all along. However, it’s all uphill from here. Even if free spins aren’t exactly what they claim to be, we can still take advantage of them. If you are lucky, you may even be able to make them profitable. Before that, let’s talk about something: Why are casinos giving free spins bonuses at all? Nobody is making them, yet they all do it.

Free Spins Casinos: How To Claim Free Spins Bonuses In Canadian Online Casinos?

So you see an online casino, enter it, and there you see an ad for a free spins bonus. Clicking on that link won’t get you free tokens or coins. Instead, it will just send you to the “Create an account” page or the terms and conditions page. Getting free spins today is a bit more complicated than how it was back in the day. However, their purpose is still the same. So how do you actually get those free spins in an online casino? Well, there are a few types of free spins bonuses:

The First Deposit Free Spins Bonus Offers

Most online casinos will offer you deposit bonuses the moment you make a deposit. This first deposit bonus usually comes in the form of a percentage boost (50%, 100%, 150%, etc.) on your first real money deposit. In some cases, casinos will offer free spins with deposit. This usually consists of about 20, 25, or even 50 free spins.

It’s a rare sight to receive only free spins with your first deposit bonus because that is considered a very lousy deal. So, to sum up, you can receive free spins as part of your first deposit bonus offer.

Canadian Online Casino Free Spins Paired With Other Deposit Bonuses

After that first deposit bonus, no other deposit bonus will feel the same. Each other deposit will feel less valuable than the previous one. This is what you get for hogging the free spins offers more often. This can come in form of a second deposit, monthly or weekly deposit or just a reload deposit bonus. Simply put, you may receive some free deposit bonus spins with your other deposits, just like you did with that first one.

Of course, most of the time, there will be fewer free spins on offer. If the first free spins offer gave you 100 free spins, this one will probably only give you 50 or maybe just 20 free spins. This always depends on how generous an online casino is.

Get Free Spins Bonus Offers On A Daily Or Monthly Basis

Some of the best online Canadian casinos offer a daily or monthly dose of free spins to keep things exciting. Essentially, when you make a deposit, you can get a small number of free spins (about 20 free spins) to boot.

Acquiring Free Spins Bonuses Via Bonus Codes

Sometimes, in order to claim free spins bonus, you have to know the right people who have the right stuff. By right stuff, we are referring to a bonus code. Even though we find them annoying, many online casinos love to use a bonus code. In fact, a lot of online casinos will display the bonus code on their homepage to goad you into creating an account. FYI, we usually offer every single bonus code for each casino we review.

In order to get these bonus code free spins, you have to create an account and then enter the bonus code on your account page. The bonus codes are really simple. They’re displayed in capital letters. Example: 100 Free spins on Starburst, Use Code: FREESPINS100.

Sometimes bonus code free spins are sent directly to a player’s email so it may be a good idea to subscribe to certain online casino newsletters.

VIP Free Spin Bonus

A lot of online casinos have a VIP program and sometimes free spins are part of the VIP benefits. Again, this largely depends on how generous a casino is but we’ve seen casinos reward players with 25 free spins every week for being a certain VIP level. Keep in mind that, in order to become a VIP, you’ll need to make frequent deposits at the casino. Make sure you check the benefits of each online casino before you start climbing the VIP ladder.

Claim Your Free Spins By Playing Casino Games

Some Canadian online casinos actually offer free spins bonuses by playing other free games at their casinos. These free spin bonuses act almost like daily login rewards in online mobile casino games. You simply log into your casino account, play a free game and you might just earn a few free spins.

OK, so what’s the catch? The catch is the modal verb MIGHT. While there is a chance of winning a couple of free spins, you probably won’t be able to get them every time you play the free game.

Few of the casinos we reviewed used this method. The casino rewarded chances of winning free spins at the end of the month. Basically, if you logged in every day of the month, you had the most chance of winning free spins at the end. Then again, even if you logged in every day, it wasn’t guaranteed that you would actually win anything.

As you can see, all of these free spin bonuses have one thing in common: They all require some sort of payment options before you actually get them. Do you see now what we meant when we said that free spins aren’t actually free? But we’re not done yet. There is one more type of free spins bonus that deserves a section of its own.

Using Free Spins With No-Deposit Required

This is pretty much the closest you’ll get to receiving free bonus money for the slot machines. The free spins no deposit bonus means getting free spins without depositing any real money beforehand. All you have to do is create an account at the online casino (maybe enter a bonus code) and you’ll have a few free spins already added to your account.

The only problem: No-deposit free spins are extremely rare. 

Statistically, about every 20th online casino we review features a free spins no-deposit bonus. Online casinos in Canada simply do not want to give anything away for free. We even like to joke about how the no-deposit bonus is just a myth at this point.

Finding a no-deposit free spins bonus is hard, but finding good free spins no deposit bonus is next to impossible.

A Free Spins Bonus Isn’t Universal In Canada

Before you get any bright ideas about using those free spins on your favourite slot game, know that free spins casino bonuses normally work with just one specific casino game. Sorry to burst your bubble. Even if a casino hosts over a thousand slots, those 50 free spins are only good for one game. Sometimes, you’ll get a choice between a few games but after you’ve made your choice, things are set in stone. This is mainly because casino sites like to promote their newest casino games, so they match them with the free spin bonus.

Also, it’s important to note that free spins have an expiration date. In other words, don’t hang onto your free spins for too long. Each free spins bonus is usually valid for at least 24 hours, which is more than enough time to use them all up.

So What’s The Catch?

So, when all is said and done and when you consider all the limitations, free spins seem like a good casino bonus, don’t they? When you think about it, if you are planning to deposit some real money into an online casino, a free spin bonus only sweetens the deal. Even if you don’t care at all about slot games, it’s nice to have a few free spins around. Who knows, you may even win real money by using those 50 free spins, right?

Well, yes. You can win real money but there is one more catch. The same catch that is present in every single casino bonus:

The Wagering Requirements

We say this in every single one of our bonus guides and we will say it again: Always check the wagering requirements before you get excited about a casino bonus! This includes free spins bonuses, too.

You know how some deposit bonuses offer you 100% deposit bonuses for your real money deposits. They literally specify that if you deposit $100, you’ll have $200 at the casino. So what’s stopping players from depositing $100, getting the bonus offer, and withdrawing $200? The wagering requirement, that’s what!

Let us burst your bubble: When you get a casino bonus (match bonus, free spins bonus, etc.) the bonus amount needs to be wagered a certain amount of times before it turns into real money. Otherwise, it’s practically worthless.

So how many times do you have to wager your bonus amount? Anywhere from 1x to up to 150x. We’ve only seen one casino that offers a 1x wagering requirement, which is an ultimate bro move. However, we’ve also seen quite a few casinos that have 150x, which is absolutely abysmal. The standard wagering requirements usually go from 30x to about 50x. So what does all of this mean?

Here’s an example: Let’s say you deposit those $100 and get a bonus of another $100. Now you have to wager those $100, let’s say, 30x. This means $100 x 30 = $3000. This means that you’ll have to wager $3000 from that $100 bonus amount.

Does it sound like a bad deal? Believe it or not, that’s the “good” wagering requirement. Try doing that with 100x wagering requirements and you’ll see how best those “best free spins bonuses” really are.

Wagering requirements for free spins

The same rules apply to free spin bonuses. When you use all of your free spins, you’ll have to wager your winnings – no matter how small the number of spins was before they turn into real money.

Confused yet? We do this for a living and we sometimes get confused, too. Don’t worry, experience is the best teacher. Most deposit free spins have 30x up to 50x wagering requirements but the free spins no-deposit bonuses are another story.

Generally speaking, the wagering requirements for free spins no deposit bonuses are hard to win. Almost impossible. We’ve seen best no deposit free spins bonuses with wagering requirements raging from 100x up to 150x. Yeah, some casinos really don’t want you to win anything.

Limited Winnings For Free Spins

Of all the free spin casino bonuses limitations and catches, this one is probably the most tolerable one. When getting your free spins from a deposit, casinos will place winnings limitations on your free spins bonus. So if there is a limit of $30 on your free spins bonus, you can only win that much.

The reason why we prefer these over the “regular” free spin bonuses is that they tend to have a lower wagering requirement. Yeah, casino free spins with limited winnings can have wagering requirements from 1x to up to 5x (from our experiences). Heck, sometimes, they may require no wagering at all.

Rating Free Spin Casinos: What Makes Free Spins Bonuses Good?

So, now that we’ve learned everything we can about free spins, let’s try and figure out what makes a free spin bonus good.

First, check and see how much you actually have to deposit in order to get the free spins. While having an extra 50 free spins with your first deposit might sound tempting, remember that it often isn’t worth it. Do you really want those free spins if you have to deposit an extra $100? While we can’t answer this question for you, we can advise that you weigh your options before you do.

Secondly, check and see which game will actually get the free spins. If the bonus says “20 free spins on Starburst, Use code: 20STAR” don’t expect to get 20 free spins on the Boon of Dead. Remember, free spins are usually exclusive to one game only.

Thirdly, make sure you know the limited winnings (if there are any) and that you can use up all of the casino free spins while they are valid. Remember, they can expire.

Finally, and this is the most important rule, make sure you check the wagering requirements. We can’t stress this enough. Even 1,000,000 free spins will be worthless if you have to wager them 150x. Don’t forget that no-deposit free spins generally have worse wagering requirements than those with limited winnings.

So a good free spin bonus would look something like this:

• Free spins with deposits: 100 free spins on Book of Dead, WR 15x
• Free spins reload bonus: 25 free spins on the Dog House, Use code: 25DOG, Max winnings: $20, WR x 3
• Or the fabled, Free spins no deposit bonus, 20 free spins, Use code: WELCOME20, WR 1x, Max Winnings $10

Even though they are hard to find, there are good free spins offers out there!