Enjoy Legal Real Money Casino Games Without Making a Deposit
You have options to take advantage of no deposit casinos in almost every state these days. Casinos regularly offer free play for new customers to try out their games. You can win real money with this free play – and withdraw it to your bank.
Key to getting the most from these no deposit casino deals is to be aware of the common rules that casinos put in the ‘small print’.
There are different types of no deposit casinos which allow you to play with real money. These include casino apps in regulated states and sweepstakes casinos elsewhere. If you live in Canada, the UK or India, you’ll have a different choice of no-deposit bonus offers.
This page has everything you need to build a casino bankroll without risking your own cash. This includes a detailed look at how free-play bonuses work, and specifics of offers for your location.
Casinos work hard to attract new players. No deposit offers are an important part of their marketing strategy.
A typical online casino real money no deposit deal gives you between $10 and $25 for registering an account. Sometimes you’ll need to download an app, other casinos work in your web-browser. Your free play comes with terms attached. You’ll need to play it through a specified number of times on slots, with table games sometimes included.
While a handful of casinos have a 1x ‘play-through’, this is typically 5x or more. This means that in order for your bonus funds to be transferred from your bonus account to your cash balance, you need to bet your profits several times.
There are some other important terms and conditions to be aware of:
All casinos will have clauses about ‘bonus abuse’. This will cover creating multiple accounts per person or household and things like covering both red and black on a roulette table. These behaviors are easy to detect. Save yourself time and effort by avoiding them.
So far there are 4 states with regulated / legal online casinos. These are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia.
In these states, local casinos have partnered with some of the biggest and best national brands. You’ll be able to play at 888, Tropicana Casino, Golden Nugget and Tropicana branded sites. In turn these casinos license games from well-known developers. You can play online versions of popular casino slots from IGT, Aristocrat, WMS and others.
All state regulated casinos offer bonuses. Some have no deposit deals, while others require at least a small deposit to unlock the rewards.
Below you’ll find the best current deals from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Michigan and West Virginia will be live very soon.
The Garden State was the first to go live with both online casinos and sportsbooks. The casino brands work with properties in Atlantic Cities and the racetrack casinos. With plenty of competition between them, there are a lot of no deposit bonuses to take advantage of.
Here are three worth checking out, along with an overview of the casino:
Pennsylvania has a mix of bigger brands and local online casinos to choose from. As you’ll see from the list below there are plenty of good bonus deals to take advantage of. With the casino scene in PA relatively new, the brands are keen to take market share. This provides you an opportunity to take advantage of several deals and check out the different Pennsylvania online casino apps.
Here are 3 deals to help build your casino bankroll in PA:
You can take advantage of fully legal no-deposit casino bonuses in almost every state. There are casino sites which run games as sweepstakes contests. Brands include Funzpoints Casino.
You can win money at these casinos, though you can’t directly buy-into the games.
They work by offering a dual currency model. You can buy ‘Gold coins’ or ‘Standard Funzpoints’. These are for entertainment only – much the same as coins you buy for mobile phone games. The casinos then give you ‘Premium Funzpoints’ or ‘Sweeps Cash’ for free.
You play slots, keno or limited table games with these coins. If you win, you can swap them for dollars and cash out to your bank.
To stay legal, there needs to be some way of entering the ‘contests’ for free. You can get small amounts of Premium / Sweeps points by sending a letter. You’ll find the address in the small print of the terms of each sweepstakes casino.
Here are two no deposit casino bonuses at sweepstakes casino brands, along with a quick summary of what you will find:
In many countries, gambling has been legal and regulated for decades. This means a big choice of casino brands for residents of Canada, Ireland the UK and elsewhere.
No-deposit bonuses can be big in some jurisdictions, for example the $88 offered by the 888 Casino. You’ll find a lot of casinos offer free spins bonuses instead of free chips outside of the USA. These give you a set number of spins on slot games. The idea is that you keep what you win (after playing it through).
The biggest bonuses, including 100+ free spins at some casinos, will come when you make a deposit.
You can find out more about the specific bonuses at international casinos on our country-focused pages:
No deposit bonuses are only the starting point when it comes to the marketing offers from online casinos. While these make a great way to check out an app or two, you’ll get much bigger benefits if you make a deposit.
Here are some of the other types of bonuses you’ll find at both state regulated and international online casinos:
One-off promotions are more varied than the key casino bonus types covered above. A good rule of thumb when looking for a new casino is to check out their current and past promotions. Good casinos come up with new deals all the time – as well as having reoccurring offers.
Real money online casinos will steer you towards slots and scratch-card type games when you take advantage of their no-deposit bonuses. They do this either by completely excluding other games or weighting them to make it hard to clear your bonus by playing them. Some casinos will explicitly state that your bonus may be voided if you play games other than slots.
There are many types of slot. Some have 3 reels; most have 5 or more. There are complex on-reel features, bonus games and progressive jackpots. If your casino does give you a choice of game, then whether they allow you to win jackpots is a key factor. If not (for example, your wins are capped), then you should avoid slots with progressives. The reason is that part of each spin cost goes towards this jackpot – making the returns on regular wins smaller. Ideally, a lower variance game with regular smaller wins will work for clearing your bonus.
Table games are always weighted. Typically, only 10% to 25% of the money you wager will be counted. This can be lower or even zero for some games. Video poker also has a low weighting. Live dealer casino games are typically excluded.
If you enjoy table games, then no-deposit casino bonuses can still be worth taking. Instead of thinking of maximizing your returns from each bonus – they are better thought of as a free way to play a few hands of your favorite games.
No deposit bonuses are a popular way to check out the games and features on offer at online casinos. These are smaller bonuses, though they do give you a shot at winning big prizes.
Key to getting the benefits from no-deposit offers is to make yourself aware of the terms and conditions. This will help you steer clear of hard to clear deals (high play through multiples) or deals with too many exclusions or winnings caps.
No deposit bonuses are one of several ways you can take advantage of legal online casinos in your jurisdiction. Others include free spins, deposit bonuses, no-lose play and loyalty schemes.
If your casino is not offering many of these bonuses in addition to your no-deposit deal, it is time to find somewhere else to play!