The casino business is a very competitive industry, and all of the online casinos have to have something to grab the attention of a new player who is considering signing up with an account. That is where the idea of having a "match bonus" or "welcome bonus" comes into play.
As an inducement for a potential customer to sign up as a cash customer at an online casino, that casino will offer a bonus to the player. This bonus will generally be expressed as a percentage of the initial deposit. It would not be uncommon for the so-called match bonus to be 100% of the deposit that is made.
What this means is that, upon qualification, the customer can literally double the bankroll he or she is playing with. Of course, that is something that is theoretical; the bankroll that the player opened the account with has to be used to satisfy such a "wagering requirement," which is a multiple of the sum of the deposit PLUS the bonus, which has to be put into action for the bonus to converted into actual cash. Wagering requirements are by no means standard, although usually they will fall anywhere from 25 times to 40 times the amount of that "deposit plus bonus" equation.
There are other names that you see will this identified by. You might see references to a "welcome bonus," a "signup bonus" or a "deposit bonus," and essentially they all mean the same thing. Some of these bonuses indeed offer some interesting value, while some of them do not, and are a little more deceptive in the way they present themselves. The bonuses always favor slots players; i.e., a slot player will always have an easier wagering requirement to meet.
We made mention of the 100% that you could possibly consider something of a "standard." But it could actually be a lot higher. Some casinos have been more aggressive about it and have offered 200% or 300% to the incoming player. And sometimes the bonus is offered not just on the initial deposit, but on a number of subsequent deposits that are made. All of these present different levels of value; remember that this matching bonus is only good up to a certain amount of money, and, as we alluded to, they all require the player to put a certain degree of action forth as a pre-requisite to actually using the bonus money.