One of the features of almost all online gambling sites is the welcome bonus for new customers. Whether you are contemplating sports gambling or casino gambling at an online gambling site you will be offered some form of incentive to register with a particular site in the form of what they call a welcome bonus. At most sports gambling sites these bonus offers usually take the form of free bets of varying values, a simple and easily understood arrangement with which here at gambling.ie we have no particular concerns. However when we look at the welcome bonuses offered by some of the casino gambling sites we do worry that some new customers who are looking to try playing casino gambling games online may not totally understand the implications of accepting these apparently generous offers. Most of the casino gambling sites structure their welcome bonus offers in the form of a promise to match the initial deposit made by a new customer with a 100% bonus, thus doubling the available stake money with which to play their casino gambling games. A very attractive offer on the face of it, but there is almost always a sting in the tail when you read the terms and conditions associated with these bonus offers, particularly the play-through conditions. It is this element of the terms and conditions which we know causes the most problems for some new online gambling customers. The play-through conditions stipulate the amount of money that has to be staked on playing the casino gambling games before any money can be withdrawn from an account, and can be as much as 30 times the deposit plus bonus. This means that a deposit of 100 euros plus the bonus of 100 euros would require 6000 euros to be staked on their games before any withdrawal can be made. This is a significant sum of money for most people and may well far exceed the sort of money they proposed to gamble. We recommend that anyone considering accepting one of these welcome bonuses reads the terms and conditions carefully and understands the implications. Remember that accepting a welcome bonus is voluntary and not a condition of registration.