Free spins: what is free about them and what is not

A free spin is a round for which no stake is debited. What comes out of it lands in most cases not in the withdrawable account but as bonus balance with a wagering condition of its own. Knowing that, you read the number «100 free spins» differently: it is a promise about rounds and not about money.

The second point that rarely stands prominently is the stake value per round. A hundred free spins at ten centimes is a different offer from a hundred at one franc, and the headline names the same number in both cases.

Only all four together make an offer that can be compared with another one.

Free spins apply as a rule to a particular title or a small selection. That is no disadvantage, but it shifts the question: anyone who would play the title anyway is given rounds; anyone who dislikes it is given an occupation. Which title it is stands in the bonus rules.

As for the rounds themselves, the same holds here as everywhere on this site: figures on a title's return appear only where a source comes with them. A return nobody can evidence is an assertion.

The most honest comparison converts both offers into the same denominator: number times stake value gives the gifted total stake. After that comes the question of which wagering condition sits on the proceeds — and that decides whether anything withdrawable ever comes out of the gifted stake.

That sum fits on a napkin and is more accurate than any ranking of bonus offers, because it works with the figures of the concrete offer rather than with last week's. The wagering page shows the second part of it in detail.

Before accepting, it is worth converting into gifted total stake: number times the stake value per round. Only that figure can be compared with another offer, and only afterwards does the question of what condition sits on the proceeds make sense. Compare only the number and you are comparing headlines.

The reason this stands on a site about bitcoin casinos: a bonus does not change the balance but the condition under which something withdrawable comes out of it. Anyone planning the way back — and with a cashier that settles in coins that way is the longer one anyway — should know which clause stands between them and the withdrawal.

What stands here about free spins describes the build of such offers and not the offering of a particular operator. Concrete amounts and rates stand in the bonus rules of the cashier concerned and change there faster than a comparison can follow.