If you’re just starting your Casino Matched Betting journey, without ever having encountered online casinos before, you might find yourself quite overwhelmed by the frenetic graphics, the profusion of games, and the surfeit of new terminology you have to get to grips with.
Golden chips are at least a relatively straightforward concept. They’re a type of bonus offered by certain bookies and casinos (notably Betfred and Bet365), which can be used on live casino and table games.
If you’ve been awarded golden chips and don’t know what to do with them, or you’re nervous about tackling an offer that promises you golden chips as your reward, you’re in the right place.
Read on to find out how to get golden chips, how to use them, and what the most profitable strategies are once you’ve got them.
What Are Casino Golden Chips?
Casino golden chips are free rewards offered by some bookies or casinos, which can be used on table and live casino games.
They’re essentially the equivalent of free spins for slots games, or of free bets for sports betting.
A golden chip can be used on live casino with zero risk. If you lose – no biggie, it was free in the first place. And if you win – hooray! You get to keep the cash for yourself.
One thing to bear in mind with golden chips is that, much like with free bets, if you win you don’t get the value of the chip itself as part of your winnings.
For example, if you’re playing roulette and place £1 of real money on red, you’ll receive £2 back if you win – your original £1 stake plus £1 in winnings.
If you use a £1 golden chip, however, you’ll only receive the £1 in winnings.
You should be aware that not all bookies and casinos offer golden chips. Many will simply offer you a certain value of live casino bonus (which can be quite useful, as it’s more flexible).
You’ll usually use golden chips or bonus funds in roughly the same way, though, and both are well worth having.
How Much Is A Golden Chip Worth?
That entirely depends on the offer! Golden chips don’t have a standard value; instead, their value is confirmed as part of the offer you complete.
That said, it’s very common for golden chips to be worth £1, though you may well see higher value golden chips with some bookies or casinos.
The downside of higher value golden chips is that you won’t normally be able to split them. If you’ve got a £5 golden chip, for example, you’ll be able only to make one bet of £5, rather than 5 bets of £1, which would reduce your variance.
If the bonus is being offered simply as bonus funds, on the other hand, you can usually make your stakes as high or low as you like (so long as you don’t run out of bonus altogether!).
How Do You Use A Golden Chip?
When you’ve been credited with golden chips, or a similar live casino bonus, your bonus will be available to use in any eligible game.
Golden chips will normally appear alongside regular chips in a live casino game, usually in gold, with their value shown on them.
To use a golden chip, click on the symbol and then on whatever you want to bet on, whether that’s a number in roulette or a hand in blackjack.
If you have bonus funds rather than golden chips, it’s equally simple – just click the value of the chip you’d like to place, and then on the bet you want to make.
How Do You Get Golden Chips?
There are a few different ways you can receive casino golden chips, or other live casino bonuses.
Some offers will be available only to new customers (known as sign up offers), while others will be available to everyone (reload offers).
Whichever kind of offer you complete, there’ll usually be some sort of qualification requirement. Most commonly, you can earn golden chips in the following ways:
- Wager your own money. Naturally, casinos like it when you put your own money at risk. You might see an offer to wager £10 to receive 5 golden chips, for example.
- Deposit. Sometimes, you’ll have to fund your account, but not to put those funds at risk. This situation is ideal, as it means you can play through your golden chips without any risk to your own cash.
- Play a free game. Many bookies and casinos have free daily (or weekly) games, with golden chips as one of the possible prizes. You won’t have any guarantee of receiving golden chips as a reward, but you might as well play the game if it doesn’t cost you anything.
- Place a sports bet. Sometimes bookies will have promotions that span their sportsbook and casino, and ask you to stake a certain amount on a sports bet to receive a casino bonus. This can be particularly profitable for matched bettors, who can minimise or even eliminate their qualifying loss, making the offer virtually risk free.
- Exchange credits for golden chips/a casino bonus. Some bookies and casinos use their own credit system (such as ‘comp points’ with Betfred), with credits awarded for staking money, playing free games or taking part in competitions. These can be exchanged for bonuses, which often include golden chips or other casino bonuses.
Is There Any Risk With Golden Chips?
When it comes to using the golden chips themselves, there certainly shouldn’t be! Golden chips are the equivalent of a casino bonus – so even if they don’t win you anything, you won’t have lost any of your own money.
However, you might have to risk some of your own money to be awarded golden chips. If you’re completing qualification requirements in order to receive your golden chips, there’ll usually (although not always) be some risk involved.
If so, you should consider carefully whether the risk involved as part of the qualification requirements is too great to be worth the reward.
You can use our Expected Value Calculator to help you work out whether a particular offer is worth the potential risk involved.
Can You Guarantee A Profit With Golden Chips?
Sometimes – but not always. The exact terms of golden chips can vary from bookie to bookie, and it won’t necessarily be possible to guarantee a profit with golden chips.
If you’ve got enough golden chips, and the game you’re playing will permit you to cover every possible option, then you will certainly have an opportunity to guarantee a profit.
However, that won’t always be the case. Most roulette games won’t allow you to cover more than 50% of possibilities, for example, and you may not be permitted to play more than one golden chip at once.
Even so, you can still boost your chances of making a profit from your golden chips with shrewd play.
For example, if you have, say, 5 golden chips worth £1 each, you have a good chance of making a profit by playing £1 stakes on either red or black on roulette. You won’t end up with a huge win, but you have a good chance of coming away with something.
Similarly, if you decide to play your golden chips on blackjack, you can use the handy Oddsmonkey strategy guide and blackjack calculator to give you the best possible chance of making a profit from your golden chips.
In short, in most situations you won’t be able to guarantee a profit – but with smart tactics you can give yourself a very good chance of one.
Other Ways To Make Money From Online Betting Sites
Casino golden chips and other live casino bonuses can be a fun way to make some potential profit – but they aren’t awarded all that often, so it’d be unwise to rely on them as your only source of extra income from online betting sites.
If you enjoy casino generally, Oddsmonkey’s All Access membership package grants you access to over 100 casino sign up offers, plus lots of ongoing reload offers, giving you the chance to make ongoing profits from casino offers.
However, it’s important to remember that there is a risk with casino. Statistically, you ought to end up in profit on average, with the reliability of your profits increasing the more offers you complete, but it’s also possible (if unlikely) to fail to make any money at all.
You therefore shouldn’t ever stake more than you can afford on casino offers, as there is a risk of losing your initial stake.
If you’re starting out with a relatively small kitty, you can look at building up your bankroll with Matched Betting before you embark on casino offers.
Matched Betting is a strategy that involves betting both for and against the same outcome, and using freebies from bookies to come out in profit. Oddsmonkey’s handy tools and guides make this a super straightforward process, even for complete newcomers to sports betting.
To find out more, take a look at our beginner’s guide to Matched Betting – or if you prefer to learn by doing, give our free trial a go and earn your first £29 in Matched Betting profits.
