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Slot Vocabulary: Free Play

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas bounceback offer
Written by Joshua

If you have a player’s card and play enough at a given casino, you might see various offers, among them the ability to come in and claim free play. If you’re new to casinos or don’t know what free play is, this post is for you!

The concept of free play is pretty simple – you’re given money by the casino to gamble with on slot machines! When you do, you’re able to use free play like cash in any slot machine. The wrinkle is you must wager the free play at least once. Whatever you win is then cash and can be cashed in or used to continue playing.

Casinos used to give out cash outright; free play is a way to avoid giving out cash and not getting at least some play for it; most players will keep going unless they hit something substantial, so it encourages continued play.

There are a variety of ways that players can receive free play. Here’s examples:

  • Regular casino offers: Casinos will routinely send marketing offers to players with free play as a way to entice them into a casino.
  • Bounceback offers: Some markets the casinos will send out a bounceback offer for players who were just at the casino, as a way to encourage them to come back. This is most often in the form of free play.
  • Bonus free play: Some casinos will offer bonus free play for coming at a certain time of day (usually when they’re less busy) or for completing a certain task, like earning a certain number of points in a day.
  • Drawings: Some casino drawings award free play as a prize for the player(s)’ names drawn.
  • Slot Tournaments: Free play is usually at least some of the prizes in slot tournaments.

It’s a flexible offering for the casino marketing team, so it tends to be leveraged quite a bit. But all of it ties to the use of a players card. As I’ve said many times, you leave money on the table if you don’t use your player’s card whenever you’re gambling at a casino.

About the author

Joshua

My name is Joshua, and I’m a slot enthusiast who works in tech as a marketer by day, and dabbles in casinos periodically during off-times. Know Your Slots will reflect my interests in understanding the various ways you can play slots, travel, casino promotions and how you can get the most out of your casino visits.

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