Over the last few years there has been a big rise in 5 pound deposit bingo sites. The
rise in popularity with these websites has been linked to the economic factors that the
UK has faced over the last few years. As unemployment rose and the cost of living
increased, peoples disposable income decreased. Naturally bingo players started to
tighten their belt and therefore reduce the amount they would spend playing games
online. A number of the big operators noticed this trend so acted and decided to do
something about to keep new customers rolling through there doors. This lead to the
invention of the £5 deposit bonus. The larger operators realised that most people would
stretch to spending £5 instead of £10. They realised that a first deposit of
£10 was
seen as stretching things just a bit too far, hence the birth of the lower deposit
bonus.
Really it is just a clever marketing ploy by new bingo sites to get new customers on
board. As once you’ve signed up you’re then bombarded with a tempting array of big
jackpots and other bonuses. The impact of a recession leads people to believe that they
could win their way out of financial trouble, even though very few people would admit to
that. So while it was initially seen as a small outlay, it often turned into bigger
spending habits as people looked to win bigger and better prizes. Fortunately the UK
Gambling Commission has since tightened the reigns on how bonuses are advertised and
there are now very strict guidelines in place to stop ‘false advertising’. Of course, we
are only talking about a small population of online players.
A 5 pound bingo website is ideal for those players who like to dip in and out. Where the
bingo is more about the online engagement with others rather than trying to win big.
It’s about playing a few games, chatting with your online roomies and watching your
spend. Therefore a website which offers a deposit bonus with an initial spend of £5 is
perfect. It will allow the individual to fully test all the games on offer. It will also
allow you to happily play for longer as you have more bonus funds from your first
deposit.
Naturally it is not all good news and there are a number of areas where extreme caution
should be advised. It may seem obvious but the advert of ‘free money’ doesn’t actually
mean ‘free money’ at all. The ‘money’ is bonus money, which is not real cash. This means
if you seen an advert for ‘deposit £5 get £25 free’ you won’t get £25 in cash,
but in
bonus bucks. This will allow you to play all the games in the normal way but it does
also have an affect on withdrawing your winnings.
If you were lucky enough to win then you’ll rightly want to withdraw your winnings. But
virtually all websites have a wagering requirement. This means that in return for them
giving you lots of ‘free money’ you’ll have to spend lots of money before making a
withdrawal. The most common is four times your deposit + the bonus amount received. Here
is an example £5 + £20 = £25 times 4 = £100. This means you’ll need to
play through £100
before being able to withdraw the bonus funds you were awarded. To summerise while a
five pound bingo site may seem like the perfect way to win with spending a little, the
reality this may not be the case.
But its not just the initial bonus award that carries a wagering requirement. The bingo
site you’ve just signed up to will also bombard you with emails and different promotions
– usually advertising more bonus offers. Heres the catch, that bonus will carry a
wagering requirement. It is often the case that a player will sign up, claim a bonus,
play, claim another another bonus and then win. This time around however the wagering
requirements have doubled from before, therefore making it near on impossible to
withdraw the winnings – unless you spend nearly everything you’ve just won.
But in the not too distant future bonus awards could soon become a thing of the past.
Later in 2017 the UK government is introducing a tax on all bonus awards that are given
out by different bingo operators. The bonus to be taxed will be the ‘£20 free’ that you
get when you initially become a customer at a new site. So what impact will this have?
Ever since the launch of online bingo, bonuses have been a way to entice new customers.
It is what generally tended to set one bingo site apart from another. Why join one
website and get a £10 bonus when you could join another and get a £20 bonus? Also,
comparison websites much like this one display the amount of bonus awarded. Its a tried
and tested way for bingo players to test a site. But what will happen without it?
Well it may not all be totally bad news. Although you the player will no longer have the
opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ there will no longer be those wagering requirements
that are hidden in the terms and conditions. In theory this should eradicate complaints
from players who are unable to claim their winnings after winning the jackpot. No
bonuses will exist, so therefore no wagering requirements should exist. This can only be
good news, as this transparency will help all parties understand what they can now
withdraw.
But what will be on offer from the different bingo sites instead of a deposit bonus?
This is a good question and there are rumours of gifts being offered. So instead of
depositing £5 and getting a bonus award, instead you may well get a free mug or other
type item. So are these bingo site owners becoming more generous? Sadly not. Items such
as mugs and other goods are tax deductible, which means the website owner will get a
break in their tax allowance. It is essentially another way for the website owner to
avoid paying tax. So rather than offering a deposit bonus and get taxed every time it is
awarded, they’ll use the initial outlay to buy the gifts and then get a tax break at the
end of the year.