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Getting To Grips With The Different Types Of Free Spins

Almost all online/mobile casinos will offer free spin bonuses to players at some time or another these days and for many, it can be confusing at best, feel like a trap at worst. Here’s everything you need to know to get you started.

Updated Aug 5th, 2022
Types of Casino Free Spins Explained
Types of Casino Free Spins Explained
18+

Two simple words; ‘free spins’. It’s enough to entice anyone into playing a mobile slot game and arguably, these words are what make this type of online casino game so popular.

Free spins really are as straightforward as the name of this bonus suggests. When you receive free spins, you can spin the reels of mobile slot games without having to spend your own money.

And that’s true whether the free spins are offered as a bonus in the machine you are playing or by the mobile casino online.

However, not all free spin bonuses offered by online casinos are the same and there are actually many different types of free spins available.

Before you accept every single free spin bonus that is offered to you, it is important that you know what these bonuses are and what they actually mean for you as a player.

So, to help out any online casino newbies, below we have looked into the different types of mobile slot free spin bonus in more detail.

What is a no deposit free spins bonus?

This type of mobile slot free spin bonus is fairly self-explanatory.

Simply put, a no deposit free spin bonus is a casino bonus you can use without having to deposit any money into your account first.

No deposit free spins tend to be the ones that players lookout for most and they are a brilliant way for you to try out new casinos and new online slots without having to spend any money.

No debit card, no PayPal account needed, you just register and play 10, 20 or 30 spins on a slot machine of the casino’s choice.

What to be on the lookout for:

It is worth noting that you do sometimes have to deposit money into your casino account before you can actually withdraw any winnings made from the free spins though.

So, it is always beneficial to double-check this before you accept the bonus.

And as we will look a little later on, no deposit bonuses of all kind will usually have wagering requirements. So even if you win big, you will need to wager the money back into the account ‘X’ amount of times.

Think of it as a taster of all the possibilities the gambling site has to offer rather than a free casino bonus.

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What is Deposit free spins bonus?

Now that you know what no deposit free spins are, you can probably guess what this type of bonus this is. Yes it really is as simple as it seems.

A deposit free spin casino bonus will have to deposit a certain amount of money into your casino account before you’re given the free spins to play with on a certain machine.

The amount you have to deposit will differ from one bonus to another and the number of free spins that you receive after depositing the money will also change according to the offer.

The good news is because you are having to make a deposit and you are committing to playing, the free spin bonus on offers tend to be larger – think 100 or 200 free spins.

It isn’t uncommon for this type of free spin bonus to be part of the welcome bonuses offered by online casinos as well.

What to watch out for

Other than the wagering requirements (as always) the biggest pitfall with a deposit free spin bonus is making sure the game is worthwhile and the spins given are fair.

What does that mean? It means that we would rather get 20 free spins on the excellent high paying Book of Dead slot than get 200 spins on the ‘you’ll never see a dime’ Dirty Dancing game.

Equally, this isn’t a problem as long as you know of it, some of the bonuses will split your free spins over several days. So from the moment, you deposit you’ll then get 20 free spins for 5 days, but you will have to come back to claim.

It’s a little annoying, as if you don’t come back you’ll lose the spins, but on the other hand, as long as you use a good mobile casino, it’s easy enough to just log when you have a couple of minutes.

Explaining Wager-free free spins

Many will say that this is the holy grail of free spin bonuses and they are almost always worthwhile accepting.

Wager-free mobile slot free spins are those that aren’t restricted by wagering requirements and it means that you can withdraw any winnings that you make from your free spins whenever you’d like.

This type of free spin bonus gives you much more control over the money you’ve won and you won’t have to meet any frustrating conditions.

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It is easy to see why they are by far the most sought-after type of free spin bonus.

What to look out for:

Well a casino that offers them is probably on the top of the list. Problem is there isn’t many around.

Rizk Casino offers wager-free free spin bonuses on all its rewards, so you might want to check them out. But they are also a good reminder of the pitfalls of this casino bonus.

Which is that just because the free spins are wager-free, doesn’t mean they come with no terms.

You may have to make a deposit first. And if you take any other type of deposit bonus, those may have wagered, so don’t assume that just because you have no wagering requirement free spins bonuses, all the rest will be the same.

In short, always read the T&Cs. Nothing is free in this world.

And then there’s Wagered free spins

You can probably now predict what this type of free spin bonus is and it can be less attractive than wager-free free spins, however, it’s what you will find 99% of the time.

As you probably know, wagering requirements are rules put in place by an online casino in order to ensure that any bonus you receive can’t be instantly withdrawn the moment you get it.

It makes sense right? Otherwise, you’d get people depositing $100, get a $100 bonus and withdraw $200 without ever playing. The Casino would be broke in days.

In free spin bonuses, the wagering requirements will be on anything you win from the spins. Don’t accept any wagering on free spins any higher than 35x if you can. You are unlikely to clear the wagering.

Wagering requirements can differ quite a lot, and you may have to play a fair while before you can actually withdraw your winnings.

What to watch out for:

So, before accepting any type of bonus with wagering requirements, you might want to use our bonus calculator to figure out how likely you are to clear the wagering.

You also need to make sure the wagering is on the bonus money only, not the bonus AND the deposit. If you see those two words run like the wind and never look back!

Free Slot Tournament Spins

These are a little different in that they are run side by side on slot tournaments.

Not all slot tournaments, but some, will have an entry fee or entry requirements ( from as little as being a player there to as much as having played on x amount of games, for example).

These kinds of slot tournaments will then give you X amount of spins on a slot machine to win as much as you can, or to get the biggest win relative to the size of the bet.

All the players spin at the same bet size to keep things fair, and you only win cash if you get on the leaderboard in the tournament.

To give you an idea of what we are talking about, check out the Battle of Slots tournaments at Videoslots Casino.

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Just to confuse… don’t forget in-game free spins

When you read any of our mobile slot reviews you will see that we talk about free spins. A lot.

That’s because casino use the term free spins bonuses, but slot machines did it first.

A free spin bonus IN a slot machine is when you trigger X amount of spins at no cost to you, usually by hitting special symbols such as three scatters. These are called bonus games and usually richer and you are more likely to win big.

A free spin bonus ON a slot machine given to you by a casino is X amount of spins given to you on a game. These spins will be played in the base game of a slot, so the normal game as if you’d just opened up the machine. You could, potentially, trigger the bonus games whilst playing these spins.

Making the most of the best free spin bonuses

Hopefully, you will now know the differences between the types of free spins that are offered to you when playing mobile slot games and you can now ensure that you’re choosing the best bonuses to accept.

Of course, it goes without saying really, but it is always worthwhile repeating, you must ensure that you read the terms and conditions of any free spin bonus before you accept to prevent any disappointment later down the line.

When searching for mobile slots with free spin bonuses, be sure to visit the Lucky Mobile Slots website. We will keep you up to date with all of the mobile slots bonuses on offer and we will tell you the basics you need to know before you accept these bonuses too.

With our help, you can ensure that you’re not missing out on any casino bonuses that you really should be taking advantage of.

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