History of Deposit Bonuses

The fascinating history of deposit bonuses goes all the way back to the history of online casinos themselves. Back in 1994, the Free Trade and Processing Act of 1994 and Barbuda was considered a landmark event for forever changing how players will gamble. When this law was approved, that small Caribbean nation state was now able to offer licenses to different companies looking to establish their own online casinos. This was a remarkable thing, and no one knew how much history was made that day. Gambling has been around long before casinos and long before online casinos, but in 1994 they took the first steps into creating the amazing online casino industry we know and love today. Microgaming is known for publishing the first online casino in the world. Microgaming still exists to this day, and if you're an avid gambler you've probably undoubtedly played a few Microgaming games. Microgaming has a spotless reputation and produces some of the best online casino games out there.

The Start of It All

It's obvious Microgaming was instrumental in establishing what we know of as your basic online casino today, thanks to technology along with establishing the financial systems you'd associated with online gambling. The software was developed so a casino could host a variety of games. They developed many slots, picking popular themes based on movies and other pieces of media to popularize and normalize online gambling for many. This is when the first online casino bonuses began.

It all started with welcome bonuses, which are a type of deposit bonus a player receives when they first sign up for an online gambling platform. It offers an incentive for players to sign up and try the casino out. Plus, if they end up winning a lucrative sum from the casino, that's even better! So welcome bonuses began as a way for players to ease their minds and not worry about any perceived security risks. After all, this was the 90s and the internet was very different from what it is today. The deposit welcome bonuses offered lucrative sums of money, and even had fewer terms and conditions associated with them. Of course, that's also because now terms and conditions are explained more explicitly because casinos are more transparent about such things. There were also fewer resources available to research a casino with, so everything that has changed since the 90s has been for the better.

Online Casinos Now

While things have gotten a little more secure when it comes to being able to research the platform you join, the fundamental basics have stayed the same. You claim a deposit bonus by depositing a certain amount, and the bonus offer will either be equal to that amount or greater than the amount that is deposited. As years have gone on, the rules have gotten a tad more complex and there's higher market competition now, so it's easier to abuse bonuses. That's one of the reasons the terms and conditions have gotten a little stricter. However, many legitimate casinos are more transparent and simple when it comes to their bonuses because they want to ensure players understand the fundamental rules associated with them. All that matters is fulfilling a wagering requirement and meeting the deposit minimum. However, you do have to fulfill the wagering requirement within a set period of time, but some casinos give players as much as 30 days to complete that task.

All and all, things have changed, but the core of the deposit bonus has stayed the same.