I gave a few of those sign-up freebies a crack lately, mostly out of boredom on the arvo, and yeah... they look better on the banner than they do once you actually click through. A couple were decent for a muck around on the pokies, especially the ones that just chuck you some free spins straight up, but heaps of them come with proper annoying strings attached.
Main stuff that got on my nerves was the tiny max cashout, weird game restrictions, and rollover that feels like it was written by a bloke trying to dodge paying anyone. One site gave a nice enough starting bonus, then half the games I wanted were excluded anyway. Another one let me play, hit a little win, then capped the withdrawal so hard it barely felt worth the effort. Still better than getting nothing, I guess, but bloody hell some of these offers are stingy.
The ones I rate highest are the simple ones — sign up, verify, spin a bit, and if you fluke a win you can actually cash something without needing a law degree to read the terms. If a site starts doing the whole "wager this, only on these games, withdraw by Tuesday, max this much" routine, I’m usually out. Too much faffing about for a free crack.
Curious what everyone else reckons — have you found any join-up deals lately that were actually worth it, or are most of them just bait now? Keen to hear which ones were decent and which ones were a hard pass.