One advantage to playing at online casinos is the bonus many of them offer. Because the casino is online, and there is not a staff to pay, online casinos can offer large bonuses and still remain profitable. However, if you plan on playing live dealer casino games and using a live dealer casino, there are some things to understand before claiming the bonus offered by online casinos.
The most important thing to do when deciding whether to claim a casino bonus is to read the terms and conditions of the bonus. Some online casino bonuses require you to play so much you have little chance of ever cashing out. Casino bonuses require a rollover or playthrough requirement which means you must pay the amount of your deposit and bonus a certain amount of times. For example, if a bonus has a 20x’s rollover requirement you must play your bonus amount 20x’s before beg able to make a withdraw. So if you claim a $1000 bonus, you must wager $20,000 in the casino before making a withdraw. Look for online casino bonuses that carry no more than a 25-30x’s rollover. Anything higher and it will be difficult to really benefit from the bonus.
Now to live casino bonuses. In most cases live casino play does NOT count towards earning your bonus. In other words, playing in the live dealer casino does not count towards meeting the rollover requirement of the bonus. The reason for this is pretty simple. Because it is a live casino the casino has to actually pay the dealers much like a land based casino. In addition, live casinos carry more overhead which the casino has to recoup in order to be profitable. They must have a physical building housing the tables and dealers as well as the cameras and other equipment it takes to run a live casino. Another main reason live casino play does not count towards earning your bonus is the fact live dealer casinos have a much lower casino advantage. Because it is a live casino and not a computer, you as the player have a better chance of winning! For this reason alone we like playing at live dealer casinos more than standard online casinos.
When signing up at an online casino, standard or live, be sure to read the terms and conditions of any bonus you are thinking of claiming. And as a general rule, if you are only going to play live dealer games, you probably should not claim any bonus being offered. With that said however, the fact the casino edge or casino advantage is lower at live casinos is enough reason for us to choose a USA live dealer casino over a standard online casino.