Online NZ Casinos with a No Deposit Offer

Table of Contents

• Why New Zealand casinos offer cash bonuses with no deposit needed to new players
• What you have to do to claim a no deposit offer
• The best way to use a no deposit offer
• The small print you need to know with no deposit offers
• Wagering explained, why casinos use it and why you should learn about it
• What is better: a no deposit free spins offer or a no deposit cash offer?
• The situation with bonus codes and whether they are needed to claim a no deposit offer
• Regular players should focus on the casino, not the offer, here is why
• Casinos with a No Deposit Offer FAQS

Why New Zealand casinos offer cash bonuses with no deposit needed to new players

You may be surprised to learn that several New Zealand casinos offer cash bonuses with no deposit needed to new players. After all, it is not normally the best business strategy to provide your wares completely free of charge. So, why is it that New Zealand casinos make this offer and how can you profit from them?

No deposit, cash bonus offers, is a variation of its cousin, the no deposit free spin deal. By providing a cash bonus for potential new clients, casino operators are giving players the chance to have a really in-depth examination of their platform before formalising the relationship. 

There are many examples in the business world of the use of ‘try before you buy’ deals that act as a gateway between wary consumers and newly formed firms. Just in the same way that you would send back an ill-fitting shirt that you ordered from Amazon or Barker’s, you need to make sure that your online casino of choice fits for size. 

One of the reasons that a cash bonus with no deposit needed can be so powerful is that players can often use this cash across a range of games. By doing this, casinos let you explore every nook and cranny, allowing you to see if the casino is going to be right for you in the long term. 

If you are a Baccarat, Blackjack, Pokies, Roulette, or Slots fan, it is unlikely that you will use the services that an online casino provides if a decent range of these games are not in place. 

By offering a no deposit, cash bonus, online casinos understand that new players are likely to be drawn to their site. If casinos have designed a compelling platform, this initial generosity will likely result in the gain of a loyal customer for the long term. For casinos the calculation is simple, the initial cost of providing you with a no-strings bonus will be dwarfed by your spending over a lifetime if you are turned into a regular customer. The New Zealand Herald reported in 2019, that NZ $895 million was spent by Kiwis on “non-casino gaming machines”, any casino that can build up its number of clients will increase the chance of gaining a share of this cash (Davison, 2019).

So, a cash bonus for no deposit deals might be a good marketing ploy for casino firms to use, but should you be taking advantage of these offers, and can you profit from them?

As with all free lunches, there is often a catch. In the case of cash bonuses with no deposit deals, I would certainly suggest that there are limitations, but this does not mean that they are bonuses that should not be explored. 

As a generalisation, no deposit welcome offers that are deployed by online casinos become less generous the more well-known a brand is. William Hill, Betway, and Leo Vegas have less need to drum up custom than Captain Spins, Gday Casino, and Slotnite, so tend to offer slightly less imaginative new player deals. For those sites that do offer sizable bonus cash sums to newbies, such as BetZest, terms and conditions are normally attached to free cash bonuses to insure these firms from suffering big losses as a result of their kindness.

Rules that may be applied to cash bonuses with no deposit offers, include wagering terms or payout caps. Any casino that instigates a no deposit deal will likely require you to wager your bonus a minimum of 35x, and there are very few brands that will allow you to walk away with winnings of more than NZ $50. That said, there are at least 200 separate casinos that serve the New Zealand market at this time, so if you could profit by this amount at every venue, you could profit by a figure of up to NZ $10000.

What you have to do to claim a no deposit offer

It is easy to claim a no deposit offer at many online casino websites, but a deposit offer does not necessarily come at no cost at all. 

I say this because to sign up for any no deposit offer you are normally required to sign up for an account with your chosen provider. In the age of ‘KYC’ (Know Your Customer) guidelines, respectable online casinos require a lot of information about you before you can be officially verified as a customer. Amongst other things, you will be asked to provide your mobile telephone number, address, name, and age. Online casinos will then pass this information on to credit checking agencies to confirm you are who you say that you are. 

For most players this inquisition is very much expected and all part of proceedings when you sign up to trustworthy sites where high levels of player protection are advocated. However, this does not mean that your personal information is not also valuable to those to who you pass these on. At the very least, following any sign-up process with an online casino, you can expect several messages that extol the virtue of promotions that are currently being run, but then again some of this correspondence may be lucrative, so if you can put up with a barrage of info from your casino of choice this may well add to your armoury when taking the fight to the natural profit edge that all casinos hold. 

In addition to providing your new provider with a wealth of personal details, many casinos will also ask that you register a payment card. Although this might seem unnecessary to claim a no deposit offer, it does make a lot of sense. If you do win you will need to provide these details so that you can claim your pay-out and as with KYC rules, casinos are also mandated to ensure that you are not committing the crime of money laundering. To ensure that you are not merely funnelling illegal funds to your online casino account to convert it into ‘clean’ money, casinos may also ask you to provide evidence of where your funds come from. So the fact that you are setting up a payment card early in your relationship with a new casino bodes well, as all of these checks can be completed promptly, allowing you to crack on to bring the house down!

For no deposit cash bonus offers, it is generally the case that bonus funds are transferred once you have set up an account. Although, in the same way, that free spins are often drip-fed, ensuring that you log in to your account on a succession of days, some casinos may spread bonus payments out over a predetermined period. It is certainly worth reading the in-depth terms and conditions that are normally available in conjunction with Welcome Offers, to familiarise yourself with the manner that your reward will be released. 

The best way to use a no deposit offer

No deposit cash bonuses are best viewed as a chance to try out what a new casino has to offer rather than strictly being a chance to build up big profits. I say this for a couple of reasons. First, even though a casino may provide you with a no deposit, cash bonus, this does not mean that you are likely to be able to use this money to bet on all products. In the same way, those headline-grabbing welcome bonuses tend to exclude progressive jackpot games and table games from adding to wagering requirements, so it is that bonus cash cannot normally be spent on these products. Where this is the case, you are left with the chance of playing traditional pokies and classic slots, where the chance of winning depends on the RNG technology that is embedded in these products. Essentially, you are trusting in luck when investing in these products, so winning can only be viewed as being a bonus.

There are always choices that you can make that might boost the chance of returning a win that is close to the cap that online casinos often apply. Primarily these choices often involve slots games of different variance. High variance slots tend to have higher average payouts, but payout less frequently. Low variance slots normally have lower average payouts, but payout more regularly. 

I look to invest any bonus that I receive on slots that I know has a good feature. Often free spins features require you to have three qualifying symbols in view, so games such as Gonzo’s Quest, Starburst, and Cleopatra are ideal to play bonus cash on. At least you can play your bonus cash on these titles in the knowledge that if you happen to unlock the feature you are likely to land a significant prize, making the no deposit rewards a potentially lucrative pursuit. 

Of course, if you do chance upon a good payout when using your bonus booty, you will still probably adhere to imposed wagering requirements before this sum can be removed. But playing games with features should at least provide you with the opportunity to qualify for this part of the process. 

Second, because payouts from no deposit deals are capped at most providers, there is little point in worrying too much about the result of these spins. The only mainstream online casino that appears to offer no deposit bonuses without a payout cap or has wagering requirements attached is PlayOjO. Unfortunately, at this time there is little information about the top prizes that this firm has paid out as a result of this generous attitude. 

The small print you need to know with no deposit offers

Competition amongst casino firms in the New Zealand marketplace is more fierce than ever. It cannot be a surprise then that new entrants look to poach customers from their rivals with ever more spectacular welcome bonus sweeteners. But, to gain a proper understanding of whether a no deposit bonus lives up to the headline billing that it might receive you must take a lingering look at the attached terms and conditions. 

On closer inspection, there is little reason to suggest that you will get rich from a no deposit, cash bonus. However, you might be able to turn over a big enough win to ensure that your bankroll is feathered for a little while. When it is considered that the cap that is placed on no deposit bonus wins typically lies at around NZ $50, there is no reason to believe that you will be walking home with any form of jackpot prize when you unlock this type of freebie. 

Several different restrictions that are enforced by online casinos when they operate with no deposit, cash bonus benefits, means that you may not even be able to play on most pokies when you take up this offer.

Other restrictions include,

• Betting Restrictions
• Location Limitations
• Payout Conditions

When utilising a no deposit bonus you may be restricted in two key ways. First, you will only be able to use your bonus money or free spins on a small selection of pokies titles. And, secondly, you will be restricted in the size of bets that you can place with each spin. 

Now, I do not have a great deal of sympathy for casino owners, after all a collection of them have dined out on my stake money for several years, but in this instance, I feel that these restrictions are fair. Most casinos will not allow no deposit players to play on progressive jackpot games because a portion of funds from every spin goes towards the top prize in these games. Essentially casinos would be subsidising the jackpot prize if no deposit spinners were allowed to take part and it would seem inherently unfair for a player who had never contributed to a jackpot prize to walk away with the treasure. 

Betting restrictions (as far as casinos are concerned) also seem to be a sensible precaution. After all, if you are allowed to place a huge single bet on a pokie (and your bonus winnings are not capped) you would have a puncher's chance of walking away with a substantial return. Doing this would appear to be somewhat at odds with the spirit of no deposit rewards. Yes, we all want a freebie. And, yes, who doesn’t like to see a casino being fleeced? But in the same way, we expect casinos to play on a level playing field, where we have a chance of receiving a nice pay-out at some point. It seems a little unfair to suggest that we should hammer home the advantage that a free bet gives us by giving the casino little chance to fight back if we get lucky.

The reasons that lie behind the imposition of Location Limitations are a little less obvious. But, you do sometimes have to check the small print to find out if the bonus, which is on offer to many, also applies to the jurisdiction in which you currently reside. Some offers are not universal, which will be of disappointment to casino fans in some locations. However, Kiwis are fortunate in this respect, as all of the casinos that evaluate on our platform offer a full range of rewards to New Zealand based casino fans. 

Payout Conditions often apply to the proceeds of no deposit, cash bonuses. Sometimes it is the case that these winnings are converted into cash, but often you will find that no deposit wins are converted into bonus credit which must then be wagered on specified products. Occasionally, online casinos also like to check that you have been making fair bets before you can relieve them of your winnings. An unfair bet, in the eyes of casinos, appears to be where you cover a substantial number of outcomes in any one event. For example, if you cover more than two-thirds of all of the squares on a roulette table, this normally contravenes the fair play rules that are set out. Casinos do not like you to win in this manner!

I don’t believe that it pays for a casino to make it too difficult to get your hands on bonus winnings, after all, if you feel good about taking a small win away from a new provider you are much more likely to engage with this brand again. I for one, would not be keen on playing at a site that erected numerous barriers to me picking any bonus win. I believe that any firm that did this would lose a sizable amount of goodwill.

Wagering explained, why casinos use it and why you should learn about it

It is difficult to find any bonus offered by an online casino that does not have an attached wagering element added to it. But, what is wagering, why do wagering requirements exist and how can you adapt your playing strategies to best comply with these rules?

If you look at the rules section of any reputable online casino platform you will be bombarded by a series of rules and regulations. Many of these conditions apply to the running of bonus schemes, whether this is a no deposit offer, deposit bonus, or free spins reward. Normally similar wagering terms are attached to each. 

Going back to basics, wagering is just another name for the bets that you place at an online casino. Wagering becomes an issue when you sign up to take part in any deposit, no deposit, or free spins scheme that your online casino provider advertises. As part of the rules of these promotions, you are normally required to wager your bonus sum multiple times. 

For example, let us take a look at the terms that G’day Casino applies to its promotions on its Slots, Pokies, Baccarat, Blackjack, and Roulette, range of games. 

G’day Casino advises that bonus credit must be wagered (played through 35x) before this sum is converted into cash and then placed in your cash balance. Once this amount is transferred to your cash balance you can then withdraw this sum in the normal manner. 

G’day Casino requires that bonus sums of any form, whether this is derived from a no-deposit, deposit match, or free spins offer, should be wagered 35x before these amounts can be transferred to the cash balance. 

However, if you have accrued an NZ $10 bonus, wagering conditions are not necessarily met by placing NZ $10 X 35 + NZ $350 of bets on any product. 

G’day Casino has a comprehensive list that attributes wagering weightings to every game that it hosts. For games with 100% weighting, this means that all of the stakes that are placed on these products (subject to maximum bet caps and fair play rules) will count towards the total wagering requirements. However, some games have a substantially reduced weighting or contribute nothing to wagering terms at all. 

• Slots – 100%
• Selected Slots – 20% (including 300 Shields, 300 Shields Extreme, Big Bad Wolf, Blood Suckers, Bloodsuckers II, Dead or Alive, Jackpot 6000, Kings of Chicago, Lucky 8 Line, Secrets of the Stones, Super Nudge 6000 & Victorious).
• Other Slots – 0% (including 10 001 Nights, 10 001 Nights, 3 Secret Cities, 9 Blazing Diamonds, 9 Masks of Fire HyperSpins, Africa X UP™, Age of Conquest, Age of Huracan, Alchemy Fortunes, Amazing Link™ Apollo, Arcade Bomb, Arcade Bomb, Arthur Pendragon, Astro Legends Lyra and Erion, Atlantis Rising, Balls of Fury, Bandida, Bank or Prank, Bar Slot, Beat the House, Beautiful Bones, Big Bounty Bill, Big500 Slot, Black Dragon, Black Horse Deluxe, Blazing Bull, Blazing Bull 2, Bloxx Zeus, Bombuster, Bombuster, Book of 99, Book of Gods, Boxo, Butterfly Lovers, Candy Links Bonanza, Captain Cashfalls Treasures of the Deep, Carribean Anne 2, Cash Elevator, Cash Ultimate, Cash Ultimate, Casino On the House, Castle Builder, Castle Builder II, Chronicles of Olympus X UP, Cleopatra Plus, Codex of Fortune, Cool Buck – 5 Reel, Creepy Carnival, Crown of Valor, Crystal Cavern, Da Vinci Creations, Da Winci, Dancing on Ice, Diamond Blitz, Diamond King Jackpots, Diamond Mine All Action, Divine Fortune, Dr Electro, Dragons Myth, Ducks Till Dawn, Dwarfs Gone Wild, Dynamite Riches, EggOMatic, Egypt King, Expendables Megaways, Extra Chilli, Extra Chilli, Fantastic Fireworks, Finnegan's Formula, Football Mania Deluxe, Forsaken Kingdom, Fort of Fortune, Fortunes of Egypt, FoxFire, Fruit Mania Deluxe, Fruits Gone Wild, Fruits Gone Wild Deluxe, Fruits Gone Wild Supreme, Gemix, Ghostbusters Plus, GLADIUS A.K.O, Goblins & Gemstones, God of Fire, Gods of Power, GoldenTsar, Hammer Fall, HarleCoin, Hellcatraz, Hero Clash, Heroes Hunt, Hexbreak3r, Holy Diver, Hong Bao, Hot 777 Deluxe, Icy Wilds, Interstellar Attack, Irish Coins, Its Magic, Jammin Jars2, Joker's Luck Deluxe, Joker's Riches 2, Knights of Fortune, Kraken Conquest, Larry the Leprechaun, Leaders of the Free Spin World, Legion Hot 1, Lil Devil, Lone Rider, Lucky Cat, Lucky Clucks™, Lucky Fridays, Mad Monsters, Mahjong 88, Marching Legions, Martian Miner Infinity Reels, Maya Gold, Monopoly Electric Wins, Monopoly Megaways, Monopoly Utility Trails, Mystery Express , Night Roller, Party Pop, Peek-a-Boo, Piggy Pirates, Pirates Plenty, Pirates Quest, Poker Dogs, Power of Gods Egypt, Power of Gods The Pantheon, Primate King, Prize Fighter KO, Psycho Candies, Pyro Pixie, Quadruple Da Vinci Diamonds, Rage to Riches, Rainbow Riches Race Day, Reel Clash, Reel Heist, Reel Hero, Reel Talent, Relic Hunters and the Book of Faith, Retro Riches, Rome: The Golden Age, Santa Pays Lucky Tap , Scarab, Scarab Kingdom, Scarab Link, Scudamores Super Stakes, Sea Hunter, Serengeti Wilds , Slot Vegas MegaQuads, Solar King, Solar Queen, Sonic Reels, Spin Town, Spin-vention, Spirit of the Beast, Squealin' Riches, Starburst XXXtreme, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Slot, Telly Reels, The Return of Kong Megaways, The Rise of Tzar – Empire Awakens, Three Musketeers, Thunderstruck Wild Lightning, Tidal Riches, Tiki Tastic, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider Secret of the Sword, Tower Quest, Treasure Tracks, Triple Da Vince Diamonds, Untamed Giant Panda, Valhalla Towering Pays , Van Gogh, Viking Raid Zone, Viking Runecraft, Voodoo Reels, Well of Wishes, White Rabbit, Wild Spartans, Wild Wild Cash Out, Wilderland, Zombie Hoard, Zombie Queen, Zombie Rush.
• Table Games – 0%
• Video Poker Games – 0%
• Scratchcards & Keno – 100%
• Other Games – 0%
• Progressive Jackpot Games – 0%

By generating such a list, G’day Casino and most other casino platforms are protecting themselves from the risk that skilful gamblers could abuse the terms of any promotion and cost G’day a significant amount of money. By eliminating table games from the list of wagering contributing games, G’day Casino is ensuring betting strategies cannot be used against. Players on table games, such as Roulette and Baccarat, can use the randomness of these products to instigate betting strategies that may return small wins in the short term. By using methods like the Martingale and D’Alembert strategies, players vary their stakes depending on previous outcomes. Doing this can be an effective way to make a profit on these gambling games when results are close to expectations. However, as with anything, when a game returns an unusual run of results the house can quickly recoup any short-term losses. However, casinos do not want to expose themselves to the chance of having to pay out large sums on bonus offers so wagering conditions generally need to be met by gameplay through the much more random media of Slots.

As well as providing casinos with a means of protecting their profits, wagering requirements also act as a means of foiling would-be fraudsters. If wagering requirements were not put in place there would be no barrier to prevent criminals from investing the proceeds of their crimes into bonus schemes and then walking away with payouts of ‘laundered’ cash. Casinos, inadvertently, would be ensuring that these individuals had a good reason for holding the sums of money that they do, with the link between initial crimes and their perpetrators being broken. 

So, now we know what a wagering requirement is and why they are in place, what can we do to mitigate this imposition?

First, if you have built up a sizable amount of bonus credit while you have been utilising a casino promotion, finding the right game to play on is important. I would advise in this situation to play on a slots game that has low-volatility. By this, I mean that you should find a game that pays out consistently, even though there may be a reduced chance that you will receive a jackpot-style pay-out. If you have NZ $100 in bonus credit and you can find a slot that pays out close to its expected RTP (return to player), normally somewhere between 90-95%, it is still likely that you will be able to convert NZ $90-95 back into withdrawable cash. You could of course invest thus cash on a high-volatility title, one where a jackpot prize may be higher but where small wins are paid out infrequently, but this may result in more of your bonus credit being eroded before you can withdraw this sum. 

Second, ensure that you have played your bonus money in a way that is consistent with the casino fair play policy. If you have met all of the casinos T’s & C’s, you will have done all that is asked of you, and you will be able to walk away with your profit.

What is better: a no deposit free spins offer or a no deposit cash offer?

You can look at this question in two ways.

First, what is better, an offer that provides you with NZ $10 worth of free spins or one that provides you with NZ $10 in bonus cash to spend across a platform as you wish? 

Or, secondly, is it better to look for a free spins offer or a no deposit cash offer as one is likely to be more valuable than the other?

Graduate Economists (Yes, me too!) will instantly be able to tell you that the value of the cash that you can spend freely is worth more than other schemes of the same value. So if you have the choice between a free spins offer and a no deposit cash offer at two different sites of the same value, you should always explore the cash offer first. Although some restrictions are likely to be attached to these bonuses, you may be able to use your bonus on a wider range of games than a free spins deal would allow. If nothing else this will allow you to take a more in-depth look at a new casino platform rather than being restricted to playing on just one title. 

In terms of whether the best offers tend to be free spins or bonus cash deals, it appears that cash offers are generally more lucrative, even though they are harder to come by. Although Spin Casino and King Billy are currently offering 100 free spins, no deposit, offers. These deals will easily match most of the cash bonus rewards that are currently available from bonafide vendors.

At this time, there are no MGA or UKGC licence online casinos that offer the chance to play a no deposit free spins and cash bonus. As is always the case though, we will keep an eye on the New Zealand market for any changes in this area.

The situation with bonus codes and whether they are needed to claim a no deposit offer

Some online casinos require their players to insert a bonus code on sign-up to unlock certain no deposit bonuses. However, on the majority of occasions, it is the participating platform that tends to advertise this information in the first instance. Occasionally, though, it is worth keeping your eye out, as top casino affiliate sites such as casinos.win can provide offers to bespoke deals for its readers. 

However, on the majority of occasions, access to no deposit free spins or no deposit cash bonus offers is automatically triggered once you have completed the sign-up process with your provider of choice. 

Regular players should focus on the casino, not the offer, here is why

At the end of the day, with the limits that tend to be applied to no deposit deals, the thought of profiting from these offers should be placed below other advantages. By signing up to a site and investigating its platform thoroughly, you can determine whether you are going to have a successful partnership with that casino for years to come. If you encounter any problems in withdrawing your no deposit winnings then this should certainly start alarm bells ringing. Forewarned is forearmed, so they say. If you are not happy with a site after you have played through just a few spins this is a good indication that a casino has some underlying problems. You may well be best advised to steer clear of any such site in the future. 

The content range held by promotion offering platforms may also help you to decide about your long-term intentions. After all, if you cannot sit at an Evolution Live Gaming Roulette table after you have fulfilled your wagering requirements in the Slots lounge then what is the point of investing your cash!

Hopefully, by taking up a no deposit bonus you will find a decent casino with a good range of games that pays out with little fuss. These are exactly the types of casinos that we like to go to. Take a look at our review of the best casinos in NZ for further guidance.

Casinos with a No Deposit Offer FAQS