We all get excited when we see our favorite online casinos offering a free chip or when that new online casino advertises free chips to all new players as a way to try out their site and games, but are those free chips really free?

To answer that question, first you need to understand what a casino is offering when they advertise "free chips". This is not actually money that's free, what it really means is "free casino credits" which is a horse of a different color than free cash.

Free casino credits are play money, from which you can win real cash. This play money can never be cashed out, so it should never be mistaken for actual cash. For example, say an online casino offers a player $100 in free chips and you take up their offer and enjoy yourself playing their casino games and you actually end up with $200 and you decide its time to cash out while your ahead.

You will find that despite your casino balance reading $200, you can only cash out $100 as the other $100 is the free chip and, as such, non cashable. Of course, these 'free chips' pretty much always come with a wagering requirement. This means that, before you can cash out, you will need to wager your initial $100 between 20 and 40 times, depending on the terms and conditions of that particular casino.

Of course, there are other rules. There are often restrictions on which games you can and can't play. Some games (often roulette and blackjack) don't count towards the wagering requirements so these are to be avoided while playing with bonus cash.

Make sure you carefully check every casinos terms and conditions to be certain which games count towards the wagering requirement for the bonus chip you are using. There is one other factor involved when playing a 'free chip' and that is: what is the maximum cashout for that bonus.

On some free chip casinos they have rules about how much actual real cash you can win off their fake money! Say you were given a free $10 worth of casino credits to gamble with and you win $2000 of that chip, the casino may limit you to only winning $50.

All online casinos should cover this in their terms and conditions and we strongy suggest our make sure you know these rules before accepting a "free chip" offer.

So, just how free do you think that 'free chip' really is?

Jim Haines regularly writes on online casinos and you can find his Paradise 8 Casino review along with many others at http://www.usa-players-welcome.com