There is no doubt that we all love a bargain, and as every retailer knows there is nothing like a price reduction to persuade us to spend money. Recently of course there has been a great deal of negative publicity for some of the major supermarkets in particular about how real some of their special offers actually are, but we are still tempted. There is however no doubt that special offers and incentives will continue to be a major marketing tool for most companies trying to attract consumers to their product. Here at gambling.ie we constantly see almost every online gambling site using generous looking welcome bonus offers to attract new customers, but just how good are these online gambling bonuses. Let’s look at the sports gambling bonuses first. Most online sports gambling sites offer bonuses to new and sometimes existing customers in the form of free bets, and in most cases these offers are clear and easy to understand and are usually good value. When it comes to the online casino gambling sites however, the value of some of the welcome bonuses may not be so clear. Almost all of these casino gambling bonus offers are based on the concept of providing a 100% bonus to match your initial deposits, effectively doubling the stake money you have available for gambling on their casino gambling games. For some people this type of welcome bonus is as generous as it seems, but for many the sting is in the terms and conditions, particularly the play-through requirements. Almost all the welcome bonuses you will find at an online casino gambling site stipulate a multiple of the deposit plus bonus money which must be gambled before any money can be withdrawn from your account. This can be as high as 30 times the total of the deposit plus bonus amount, and there may also be a time limit on how long you have to satisfy this requirement. Remember accepting these bonus offers is voluntary, so make sure you understand and are able to satisfy the terms and conditions before you sign up to them.