Reviewed on September 30, 2016
LIKED
As welcome bonuses go 188Bet's offering is fairly unimaginative - a simple 100% match on your first deposit with a maximum bonus amount of £50 and a 30x deposit plus bonus wagering requirement in order to convert the bonus money into withdrawable cash. I remember being surprised that there was no mention of permitted games or contribution percentages within the terms and conditions and this doesn't seem to have been updated between now and then either therefore you should be able to play this bonus on any game if you wish, even Blackjack or Roulette. That's a huge plus as far as I'm concerned and makes this bonus well worth a shot!
DISLIKED
Unusually the bonus is not added to your account automatically when making a qualifying deposit and I had to e-mail the promotions department with my username to request the bonus be credited manually. I'm amazed to see that this is still the current procedure when looking at the 188Bet website today in September 2016. Surely they've had long enough to integrate the bonus procedure into their systems by now?!
The reason I particularly dislike this setup is that the terms and conditions don't state that you have to wait for the bonus to be credited before you start to play and as they do tell you it may take up to 48 hours for the bonus to be added to your account it would be wholly unreasonable if they did insist that you had to wait for the bonus to be added if you wanted to receive it. This means your left in a situation where you can play with your real cash funds and potentially lose the whole lot before the bonus arrives, which wouldn't be so bad as you could then treat the bonus money as a "second chance" (although you'd have a mountain to climb with 60x your balance to play through before you could make a withdrawal) or alternatively you might find yourself making a reasonable profit in the time you are waiting for your bonus money but then have your withdrawal request refused on the grounds that you have an active bonus, which is exactly what happened to me.
Out of all the garbage scenarios that arise from playing with a bonus at on-line casinos this has to be one of the worst as far as I'm concerned, okay perhaps not as terrible as having your winnings confiscated for breaking an unjust rule but the fact is this whole situation would not be possible if 188Bet implemented a proper system for crediting the welcome bonus automatically like at pretty much every other on-line casino. I also don't like the fact that there are two sets of applicable terms and conditions which are not clearly linked - the general promotional terms and those that are specific to the welcome bonus - and I can imagine some players could get caught out as a result of this.
The reason I particularly dislike this setup is that the terms and conditions don't state that you have to wait for the bonus to be credited before you start to play and as they do tell you it may take up to 48 hours for the bonus to be added to your account it would be wholly unreasonable if they did insist that you had to wait for the bonus to be added if you wanted to receive it. This means your left in a situation where you can play with your real cash funds and potentially lose the whole lot before the bonus arrives, which wouldn't be so bad as you could then treat the bonus money as a "second chance" (although you'd have a mountain to climb with 60x your balance to play through before you could make a withdrawal) or alternatively you might find yourself making a reasonable profit in the time you are waiting for your bonus money but then have your withdrawal request refused on the grounds that you have an active bonus, which is exactly what happened to me.
Out of all the garbage scenarios that arise from playing with a bonus at on-line casinos this has to be one of the worst as far as I'm concerned, okay perhaps not as terrible as having your winnings confiscated for breaking an unjust rule but the fact is this whole situation would not be possible if 188Bet implemented a proper system for crediting the welcome bonus automatically like at pretty much every other on-line casino. I also don't like the fact that there are two sets of applicable terms and conditions which are not clearly linked - the general promotional terms and those that are specific to the welcome bonus - and I can imagine some players could get caught out as a result of this.
