When coronavirus reared its ugly head in the United States and Europe, the majority of countries put all activities on hold. Public places were shut down, and people were asked to work from home or were laid off from work, because quarantined companies had to cut their losses. Among all public places, casinos were the first to close their doors to visitors. This is understandable: large casinos usually welcome thousands of people a day. Thus, more than 30,000 people enter Niagara Falls casinos every day a week. Las Vegas attracts even more tourists. Statistics show that in 2019, before the outbreak of the coronavirus, 42.52 million visitors tried their luck in Vegas. Eager to win a fortune in a game of chance, people also do not ask themselves when is the best time to play slot machines or poker in casinos, but engage in round-the-clock gambling.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that casinos turned into a hotbed of infection, once the coronavirus pandemic started. With so many people crowding casinos, it becomes next to impossible to keep social distancing there. The nature of casinos is such that chips, cards, and money are constantly transmitted from dealers’ hands to customers’ hands, and buttons on slot machines are pushed by thousands of people a day. If left open, casinos would have made the virus unstoppable. To avoid mass infection, casino operators around the world rushed to empty them of visitors and staff. Even such countries as Sweden that imposed only minimal restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing people to gather in gyms and restaurants, shut down the four venues of Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, and Sundsvall. As soon as the Swedish government limited public gathering to 50 people, Svenska Spel, Swedish state-run gambling operator, locked all doors of Casino Cosmopol, directing gamblers to locally licensed casino websites.
Sweden’s neighboring Finland took coronavirus more seriously and introduced stricter lockdown in its cities. Once Finns started catching coronavirus, the government forbade them to gather outside and bring children to schools. Companies asked their employees to work over the internet and began to conduct meetings on Zoom. Veikkaus, the Finnish national gambling operator, deemed it necessary to close all gambling sites across the country. Its task was more difficult than that of Svenska Spel, because Finns are so fond of playing slot games that the government put up slot machines almost in every supermarket, kiosk, restaurant, and gas station. There are approximately 18,000 slot machines activated in Finland, and Veikkaus had to shut all of them down in March.
The gambling agency also suspended lottery draws and cancelled all customer events it had planned to organize in casinos. Casino Helsinki, Paf Casino in Mariehamn, Pelaamot, and Feel Vegas were placed under quarantine. To relieve Finnish gamblers’ disappointment, Veikkaus promised to continue selling scratch cards and coupon games and encouraged them to gamble online. Veikkaus’s websites offer a rich choice of games and bonuses. In the paragraphs below, we are explaining what kind of a casino bonus Finns can receive once they register on Veikkaus website, or on any other gambling website, for that matter.
During the time of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 3,000 new customers joined Veikkaus’s digital casinos. All of them received a welcome bonus. Before newcomers received this bonus, they had to deposit a specified amount. As a rule, the majority of online casinos give 100 percent or 200 percent of the welcome bonus on players’ first deposit. Some of them are more openhanded, however, and present new customers with up to €500 on their first deposit. Finnish gamblers can meet this generosity on the digital casinos called Sons of Slots and King Billy.
New customers are also given a gift of free spins, which always comes handy, since they can practice playing without wasting their own money. A free spins bonus is also alternatively called “bonus spins,” “welcome spins,” or “cash spins,” but, whatever it is called, it implies that gamblers can spin free of charge as many times as their casino operator specifies. The majority of casinos allow players to spin for free up to 100 times. But gamblers should keep in mind that some free spins have wagering requirements . That is to say, Finnish gamblers might be required to play the bonus a few times before withdrawing their money. Free spins might prove to have a price, after all.
If the quarantine continues, Finnish players may claim a monthly deposit bonus or, as it is also called, a reload bonus. To receive it, they need to remain loyal to their casino operators for some time, since it is given on their monthly reloads. The monthly bonus is appealing for several reasons. Gamblers do regularly need to put money in their accounts to continue gambling. It is merely more profitable to receive the reload bonus for their deposited amount rather than miss to do so. Unlike welcome bonuses, which are given only once, monthly bonuses are repeatable. They are given to gamblers as long as they continue playing on the same website. The longer they remain faithful to their casino operators, the more money they will receive from them eventually.
The coronavirus pandemic is stressful and dangerous. Even when people are lucky not to get infected, they may still feel nervous when confined to their homes and deprived of their usual social activities. The generous bonuses that Veikkaus and other digital casinos offer to their customers will undoubtedly make any confinement more cheerful and profitable. Even if Finland will soon face a second wave of coronavirus, as doctors predict, and will not open its land-based casinos, Finns will still be able to entertain themselves with online gambling.
