Playing pokies online is a massively entertaining hobby that is enjoyed by Kiwis everywhere, but there is something even better, and that's playing pokies at the casino's expense! This might sound like a rather ambitious fantasy, but there are scores of casinos that award free spins to attract new players as well as to reward existing customers.
In this article, we'll highlight the best free spin offers in New Zealand, tell you exactly how these offers work and, most importantly, explain how you can help yourself to as many as you can handle.
Play with Free Spins on These Top Kiwi Casinos
Those of you who are already familiar with free spins and how they work will probably be keen to start grabbing some without delay. In that case, here are the venues with the top free spins bonus offers currently available NZ:
What We Look For When Reviewing Casinos Offering Free Spins In NZ
It isn't difficult to find an online casino that offers free spins in New Zealand, but not all casinos are equal by any means. That's why we work hard to assess all of the casino sites available to NZ players and present the best of them in our comprehensive reviews. Here are just some of the criteria we consider when deciding whether or not a casino (and its free spins) is worth recommending. There are other qualities that we assess when conducting our reviews, but the ones mentioned below are the most important.
Range of Games: We look at the number of games on offer as well as the variety of themes and formats of those games and the quality of the providers involved.
User-Friendliness: The best online casinos are easy and intuitive to use, so we consider how user-friendly each casino is for complete beginners as well as more experienced players.
Safety and Security: We check to make sure that the casino is licensed and regulated, and that all personal and financial information provided (for example, payment details) is transmitted and stored in a highly secure manner.
Customer Support: We look at what support systems are in place for players who might want to ask a question or get help with a problem. The best casinos offer several ways of getting in touch to ask for assistance.
What are Free Spins?
Free spins are essentially free credits that you can use on one or more pokie games. Pokies are played by spinning vertical reels in the hope of lining up a set of matching symbols on a pay line. If a casino offers you 50 free spins then it simply means that you can play a pokie for 50 spins of the reels and the casino will pay for those spins instead of you.
There are several different types of free spins bonus offers that a casino might advertise, so we'll now define some of the main ones and explain how they work.
No Deposit Free Spins
A No Deposit Free Spins offer is awarded for doing something quite simple, such as signing up for a new account with a casino. As the name of this bonus suggests, you won’t need to make a deposit of your own money in order to receive the free spins being offered. There are no subsequent obligations, either, so you can simply sign up, enjoy your free spins and leave it at that.
Deposit Bonus with Free Spins
A Free Spins with Deposit offer is one that does require you to make a deposit of your own cash. Taking advantage of this kind of bonus obviously involves more of a commitment than is needed with a No Deposit Free Spins offer, but the required deposit is generally quite modest and the number of free spins you will get for making it will usually be higher.
Free Spins Variations: Extra Spins and Bonus Spins
Some casinos like to use the terms Extra Spins or Bonus Spins instead of Free Spins. Despite the difference in terminology, Extra Spins and Bonus Spins work in exactly the same way and will give you a stated number of free games on whatever pokie or selection of pokies are featured in the promotion.
Download versus No Download Free Spins
When you choose to play at a casino that gives you the option of downloading its software to your device, you may be offered free spins for doing that. Downloading software doesn’t usually take long, so if you have a few minutes to spare it can be a good way of getting some free spins.
No Download Free Spins are obviously those that can be obtained without having to download any such software. This makes them easier to claim, as you don’t have to install anything, but the number of free spins may be lower to reflect that fact.
Free Spins for Mobile Users
Some online casinos offer free spins on registration via a mobile device in much the same way as other users get free spins on sign-up via a desktop or laptop computer. If the casino in question requires you to download an app to your mobile device in order to play then you will usually sign-up through that app. Other casinos that are designed to run in a mobile web browser will simply require you to visit them on your browser and register for a new account in that way.
What are the Advantages of Claiming Your Free Spins?
There are a number of advantages that you can gain by claiming free spins from online casinos. The most obvious one is that it gives you the ability to play games at the casino's expense, but there are several other advantages that you might not have given much thought to, as follows:
- Claiming free spins allow you to take a casino for a real test drive so that you can experience it as a customer before choosing whether or not to get involved.
- If the free spins that are being offered can be used on any of the pokies available at the casino, you can use them to try any new releases that have caught your eye. This allows you to see if you like those games without risking a cent of your own cash.
- Claiming free spins makes you known to the casino as someone who is interested in playing pokies online. This makes it possible for the casino to contact you with other offers in the future that you might also want to take advantage of.
- Grabbing free spins while they're available means that you won't miss the boat. Casinos can withdraw their free spins bonus offers at any time, so claiming them straight away can help you to avoid missing out.
How to Claim Your Free Spins as a Kiwi Player
Actually claiming NZ free spins is easy, but for the benefit of those who are brand new to the world of online gaming, here's our step-by-step guide to the whole process:
- First, you need to visit the casino website look at the details of the free spins offer to see what the requirements are. Some free spin offers will require you to enter a bonus code to claim them, so it's important to know if that's the case.
- Next, sign up for a new account by clicking the Join Now or Register button. You will be asked to provide some personal information, and the amount of information required will depend on the type of offer being claimed. If you only need to sign up, you may only be asked for your email and date of birth. If you also need to make a deposit, you will be asked for your mailing address and other details. If a bonus code is required during the registration process, you should obviously provide it.
- You may be sent an email containing a link. This is to confirm that you really are who you say you are and that the email address is actually yours. Simply click the link to verify the email address and you should be good to go.
- If required, make your first deposit. You will usually be given a number of ways to do this, including credit cards, e-wallets and possibly even cryptocurrency options. Choose the payment method that suits you best, enter the amount that you want to deposit, and submit the deposit request.
- Your new account will be set up straight away and when you sign in you should see that your free spins are already waiting for you.
The whole process shouldn't take more than a minute or two, and few people will encounter any problems. That said, if you do need help or more information at any point, simply visit the Help page at your chosen casino and contact the customer support team for assistance.
So, What Do You Win?
While free spins are games that are paid for by the casino, they can still help you to win prizes. Any prizes that you win from free spins will usually be awarded as bonus cash and will be subject to wagering requirements, as we will explain in the next section of this guide.
Wagering Requirements
Most online casino bonus offers are subject to certain wagering requirements, and free spins are no exception. The wagering requirements will outline how many times you must play any winnings from your free spins before they can be withdrawn as real cash. These requirements are put in place in order to protect the casino from people who only want to abuse their offers rather than actually use them to spend some time playing games.
For example, a casino may tell you that it will give you 100 free spins to use on the Starburst pokie and that any winnings from those spins will have a wagering requirement of 20 times. This simply means that if you play your 100 free spins and you end up winning a total of NZ$50, you must then play that NZ$50 another 20 times before you can withdraw it as cash.
While most free spins bonuses have wagering requirements, you might occasionally come across a casino that offers free spins with no wagering requirements whatsoever. In these rare cases, you can withdraw your winnings as cash straight away if you decide that you want to do that.
This is How You Should Compare Different Offers
We always work hard to highlight the best free spin offers in New Zealand for you, but if you ever want to compare different offers for yourself, it's worth taking the time to look at five key areas in particular. These are:
Value
How many free spins are being offered and how much are they worth? 100 free spins might sound better than 50 free spins, but if the 100 free spins are worth $0.02 each and the 50 free spins are worth $0.20 each, the latter offer is actually worth more. Always make comparisons based on value, not headline numbers.
Wagering requirements
Next, look to see what the wagering requirements are. The lower the number of times you need to wager before you can make a withdrawal, the better.
How Much You Can Cash Out
Some casinos will put a minimum and/or maximum limit on the amount of money that you can cash out from bonus offers even after any wagering requirements have been met. In most cases, the minimum is in place so that the operator doesn’t have to process impractically small amounts of a dollar or two, and the maximums are sometimes needed to meet compliance regulations.
Time Limits
Free spins usually need to be enjoyed within a certain period of time, otherwise, they expire. A bonus might also give you a fixed amount of time in which you must achieve its wagering requirement. The longer you have to enjoy your free spins, and to meet a wagering requirement, the better it is for you as the player.