Been around these offers long enough now that I barely get excited when a site says you can have a crack before loading any cash. Most of the time it's tiny credit, half the decent pokies are excluded, and the playthrough is cooked. You spin around for an hour, finally land something half decent, then realise there's a winnings cap so low it was barely worth the arvo.
The ones I actually rate are the simple ones. Clear terms, sensible max bet, not hiding half the rules in some dodgy little promo page, and they let you play more than 3 dusty games nobody touches. If I see weird stuff like massive wagering, instant expiry, or "bonus balance not cashable until" paragraphs that read like legal homework, I just move on. Been burnt by that too many times.
Big thing for me now is whether the site feels normal once you do win something. No point getting a free crack if they turn into bloody detectives the second you try to withdraw 80 bucks. Fair enough asking for ID, but some places drag it out way longer than they should, especially when they were happy enough to sign you up in 2 minutes.
So yeah, my rough review after trying heaps of them: decent for testing a new site, decent for checking game range and how the lobby runs, but I wouldn't treat these promos like real value unless the terms are unusually clean. Keen to hear which ones you lot reckon were actually worth it, and which ones were a total stitch-up.