No Deposit Slots & Bingo Offers

No Deposit Offers

New slot sites often have a no deposit slots offer so new players can get a feel for what the site is like and what the slot games themselves are like with no deposit required before deciding whether to go on and make a deposit.

It’s not just new slot sites that have this type of offer, either – there are literally hundreds of UK casino, bingo and slot sites, and older sites frequently introduce no deposit or free spins offers to try and attract players away from the competition.  For players, these no deposit slots offers can be very useful as it gives them the chance to try out several different slot sites before committing to one of them.

Back before operators started having to pay tax on no deposit offers, many more UK sites featured a no deposit bonus as it didn’t cost them anything unless the player managed to play through the (usually extortionate) wagering requirements and turned winnings to withdrawable cash.  These days, operators have to be a lot more careful about no deposit slots offers, no deposit bingo and no deposit spins because if lots of players take up the offer but never go on to deposit and play with real money, it can get very expensive for the casino.

The result of this sounds weird, but is obvious when you think about it – the quality of casinos that offer a free sign-up bonus with no deposit required is now considerably better than it used to be.  For the operator, a no deposit offer only really works if it gets you to try out their site and find you like it so much that you stick with it.

As we go into 2025, no deposit offers have been having a bit of a resurgence. Because of the commitment required from the player before claiming a no deposit offer which typically involves verifying a mobile phone number and adding a debit card as well as name, address and date of birth, there are far fewer, well, time wasters claiming them.  Hardly anyone who has zero intention of ever actually making a deposit wants to part with all that information.  The result is that no deposit offers, although still expensive for operators, are much more effective at attracting genuine real money players than they used to be.  That explains why we are now seeing quite a few more of this type of offer.

No deposit slots offers come in two forms, no deposit free spins and no deposit slot bonus. Very occasionally these days, you might come across a no deposit bingo offer.

No deposit free spins

No deposit free spins offers are simple to claim and fun to play but can have lots of strings attached; most of them pay winnings as a slot bonus and you’ll then have to complete a wagering requirement in order to convert them to withdrawable cash.  Even then, there may be a limit on what you can convert and a fee to withdraw.

The Best New Bingo Sites view on free spins (which is based on guidance from the Gambling Commission and Advertising Standards Authority ) is that unless the winnings are paid in real money with no limits on what you can win, they aren’t really free spins and should properly be referred to as bonus spins.  Just to make it crystal clear:

• Free spins offers pay winnings in withdrawable cash
• Bonus spins offers pay winnings as a slot bonus with a wagering requirement

These days, operators have to do age and ID checks on player before they are allowed to play any gambling game, even free demo versions.  This also applies to no deposit free spins.  Getting the player to supply debit card details is one way of doing this and this is why in 2025 we’re still seeing a bumper crop of the sort of no deposit offer where you add your card details to get free spins.

The usual deal with a no deposit free spins offer is this:

• The spins are for use on a specific slot (or very occasionally a short list of slots)
• They typically have a short expiry time (24 hours is not uncommon)
• Free spins are normally used, when you open the game in question, before anything else in your account – unlike a bonus which typically won’t be used unless and until your account is empty of cash.
• They are almost always bonus spins rather than genuinely free spins, with winnings paid as a slot bonus.  Again, this may be for a restricted range of slots and/or have a short expiry time within which the wagering requirement must be completed
• The wagering requirement is worked out on the value of the winnings, not on the face value of the original spins
• There may be a win cap on the amount that can be won from the spins
• In the case of bonus spins there may also be a max convertible (more on this below)

How To Use Your Free Spins

In most cases using free spins is really easy.  Simply load up one of the games the spins are for and they pop up automatically.  Sometimes they also play automatically, but usually you have to keep hitting Spin until they are all used.

Here, for example, is how it’s done with Playtech slots.  Hit the Spin button to use the free spins one at a time.

Blueprint and Netent slots are other providers whose slots are often used in free spins offers.  The free rounds load automatically when you open the game you want to use them on, so do make sure you open the right game if there’s a choice.

In the case of Red Tiger slots, it’s slightly more complicated.  Free spins on Red Tiger slots come as a bonus offer that you need to accept after loading up a Red Tiger game.  This can be confusing as it’s possible to load up a game where the spins can’t be used, but still accept the bonus from there.  After accepting and opening the right game, the spins pop up and once you’ve played them all the winnings will be paid to your account.

Most online casino platforms make it really easy to find and use your free spins but it’s a bit more complicated at Dragonfish and there’s a potential pitfall at Jumpman.

Using Free Spins at Dragonfish

Dragonfish slot and bingo sites have a weird and complicated arrangement for free spins in general.

Before you can play Dragonfish free spins, you’ll need to click on the icon of a gift box or ticket at the top right hand side of the lobby to find the free spins voucher.  The voucher will tell you which game the spins are valid on.  Click on the voucher to use it.

If the spins are for Starburst or another NetEnt slot they will play through in the normal way and the winnings will be added to your account as a bonus queued behind any other bonuses you may have.

If the spins are for a slot game by Eyecon (e.g a Fluffy game), they will play through in “points” rather than in real money. The points get converted to a bonus after all the spins have been played, and because Eyecon free spins normally come with both a minimum and a maximum win limit, the bonus you get at the end can bear little or no resemblance to the way you saw the spins play out. Talk about complicated and weird!

Dragonfish have also been known to offer a couple of exotic mutant types of spin:

• Speedy Spins – instead of a set number of spins, the player has a time limit to complete as many spins as possible.
• Jackpot Spins  – the player has an (extremely tiny) chance of winning the progressive jackpot but no other winnings are paid out.

To claim a no deposit free spins offer at Dragonfish you MUST add your card details at the same time as registering an account; if you wait until later you won’t be able to claim the free spins.

Using Free Spins at Jumpman

To take up a no deposit free spins offer at a Jumpman site, the first step is to go through the registration process.  After filling in your details and choosing a username and password you’ll see a screen showing you the offer and its significant terms and conditions again plus a form for adding your debit card details.  You’ll then have to wait for them to be verified by instigating but not completing a test transaction, which is normally done very quickly.  You’ll then see a screen showing you the number of free spins you have and the slot they are to be played on.  And here’s the poential pitfall – you need to play them right away!  Closing the screen or accidentally clicking on “reject free spins” will make them vanish with no recourse.

No deposit slot bonus

No deposit slot bonus offers are far less common than free spins offers but arguably score better for entertainment value.

• A slot bonus allows more flexibility as you can choose which game to use it on – up to a point, anyway.   Most slot sites these days have a list of slots which are excluded from bonus play, which may include high variance slots such as Dead Or Alive, high RTP slots such as Bloodsuckers, progressive jackpot slots and possibly even all games from certain providers.
• A slot bonus doesn’t have to be used all in one go or all on the same game whereas free spins normally do, and the expiry on a bonus is typically a bit longer than on spins.

Whether you are playing with a no deposit slot bonus or bonus winnings from no deposit free spins, your winnings will be paid back to your bonus wallet until and unless you complete the wagering requirement.

No deposit bingo

Almost all no deposit offers at bingo sites are not bingo offers at all – they are no deposit spins offers.  So while you can sign up and try the site out for free, that doesn’t include being able to try out any bingo rooms unless there’s a free bingo room that you can access without making a deposit – and guess what, in 2025 the vast majority of newbie rooms require a deposit (or require you to have made a real money wager on bingo which means making a deposit)!

But sometimes, you’ll come across a true no deposit bingo offer, which could either be a bingo bonus or free bingo tickets.

• Bingo bonus – this can typically be used to buy bingo tickets in any bingo room and comes with a wagering requirement
• Free bingo tickets – these could be for a specific game, or else redeemable in specified bingo rooms against tickets up to a specified face value.  You may or may not have to be in the bingo room shortly before the game plays to use them. Winnings from free bingo tickets are usually but not always free of any further wagering requirements.  Free bingo tickets are mostly used as part of deposit based welcome offers or given as rewards to existing players, but sometimes they can feature in a free sign-up offer.

The rarity of no deposit bingo offers, when they used to be so prevalent, may seem pretty disappointing.  But when you think about it, there’s a problem with no deposit bingo bonuses – and indeed with bingo bonuses in general if operators give them out too freely.

The prizes in online bingo games are funded by ticket sales, and the more tickets that are sold the bigger the prize gets and the smaller chance each ticket has of winning.  This is all very well and good when everyone’s playing with cash.  But what if half or even more of the players in the room are playing with a free bonus or free tickets?  The number of tickets in play will go up, but the prize money won’t go up as these players are not contributing any cash to the pool.  If there’s only the occasional player using a bonus the effect won’t be noticeable, but if the network is awash with bonus as has happened at certain groups of sites in the past, anyone playing with real money will soon realise that they are winning less often and/or winning smaller amounts.

Free bingo rooms don’t have this issue as everyone is playing with free tickets.

No deposit offers – what happens next

Withdrawing winnings from a no deposit offer

Let’s face it, the wagering requirements on no deposit slots offers are set to make it pretty unlikely that you’ll be left with anything much (or at all) at the end of the process but who knows, you might get lucky and win some real money.

If you do manage to complete the wagering requirement without reducing your bonus balance to zero, your winnings will convert to cash but this does not necessarily mean you’ll be able to withdraw them then and there.

• The site will probably need to carry out further account verification before you can withdraw, over and above the age verification that was needed for you to be allowed to claim the bonus in the first place.  This may involve sending copies of documents to prove your name, address and identity.  We expect these procedures to get even more intrusive and rigorous in 2025.
• The minimum withdrawal may be more than your winnings.  Although players have to be allowed to withdraw their deposit and cash winnings from their deposit at any time, meaning that the minimum withdrawal allowed can’t normally be more than the minimum deposit, this doesn’t apply to players who have never made a deposit so the minimum can be set at a higher amount just for them, and it often is.
• It’s common for bonuses to have a maximum convertible in the terms and conditions. Sometimes it’s a fixed amount and sometimes it’s multiple of the original bonus.  Essentially, it’s the maximum amount you can possibly end up with as withdrawable cash.  For example, if there’s a max convertible of £250, and you have £500 of winnings after playing through the wagering requirement of your bonus, you’ll be able to withdraw £250 in cash and the rest simply disappears.

A max convertible is NOT the same as a win cap – a win cap restricts winnings at the START of playing through the wagering requirement on free spins and a max convertible restricts winnings at the END of playing through the wagering requirement.  A good illustration of this difference was to be found at Jumpman sites where they used to have a max win of £8 per batch of 10 spins AS WELL AS a max convertible equal to the player’s lifetime deposits.

Going on to make a deposit

If you are lucky enough to have winnings from a no deposit bonus or no deposit free spins that you haven’t yet withdrawn, you should probably read the terms and conditions carefully and thoroughly before making a deposit.

• Play order may be a problem if you deposit when you have winnings from a no deposit bonus and haven’t completed the wagering requirement.  Assuming that it’s cash first (as it usually is) you’ll stop playing with your bonus and start to use your deposited cash instead, and this usually won’t count towards wagering, so the rest of your bonus will effectively be frozen until you’ve used all your cash (or lost if you don’t lose all your cash before the bonus expires).
• Play order may also be a problem if you deposit when you’ve completed the wagering requirement on your no deposit bonus but haven’t withdrawn your winnings.  This time, the issue is what happens to any bonus that you claim when you deposit.  You’ll be using your deposited cash and previous winnings before starting on the fresh bonus, and withdrawing cash and winnings may cause you to forfeit the fresh bonus.

It can get worse, though – just look at what happens to the max convertible at Jumpman sites when you make a deposit!

• Non depositing accounts: max convertible £50
• Depositing accounts: max convertible equal to lifetime deposits up to £250

So if  you make only the minimum £10 deposit required to claim the welcome offer, your max convertible gets reduced from £50 to just £10 – and THAT’s why it’s so important to read the terms and conditions!

Last updated: March 12, 2025

Sue Dawson

Creating iGaming content since 2013

Sue Dawson has been writing about (and playing) online bingo and slots since 2013, putting her unique spin on everything.  She has written pieces for iGaming industry news sites, appeared on panels at industry events and on podcasts, helped to judge industry awards and is a member of iGB Executive, an industry think tank.  In her spare time she enjoys gaming, hiking, dancing, watching motorsport and reading science fiction.

LinkedIn

Twitter

Blog

Facebook