📝Survey: What is the Deciding Factor for You to Sign-up and Deposit?

Tammy · Jun 6, 2025

We’re collecting feedback from our CardsChat community to learn what truly motivates players to make a real-money deposit at a poker or casino site. While many sites offer free play options, we want to know:

❓What makes you take the leap and put actual funds on the site?

Some common factors might include:

A generous welcome or deposit bonus
Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
Payment method availability or ease of deposit
Game variety or tournament selection
Recommendations from friends or the community
VIP programs or rewards
Fast or guaranteed payouts
Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!)

🗨️Let us know what matters most to you in a reply below.
Your input helps us better understand our community’s needs and preferences when it comes to choosing where to play.

🎰Get VIP Chips! Members completing this survey will receive 10 VIP Chips.

Posts subject to Moderator approval before VIP Chips are awarded.
You must answer the survey question with a good quality post, that directly answers the question.
Check the VIP Program Guide for more info about the CardsChat VIP Program.

mattiebumpo · Jun 6, 2025

For me, the most important factors are these:
1. Reputation and trustworthiness
2. Ease of deposit (don't make me have to convert $ to crypto)
3. I have friends who play on the site
4. Free rolls/daily bonuses
5. Variety of low buy in tournaments

monkeytilter · Jun 6, 2025

1. Reputation and trustworthiness of the site

I won't go near a poker site with my money until it's been operating for at least a year (I'm not a new adopter) and has had good reviews and no negativity associated with it (scandals, talk of bots, poor paying etc.)

2. Generous deposit bonus(es)

Despite being a hobby, I do play poker to make a (modest) profit. Having good deposit bonuses helps the bottom line even if I don't play/run so well.

3. Ease of depositing.

Having to set up wallets or jump through other hoops to deposit is unattractive to me, to the point where I will not bother if it's too great an effort to put money on a site.

R.Melnyk77 · Jun 6, 2025

The main motivators for me to make a deposit are:
1. Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!)
2. Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
I should note that in my opinion, our CardsChat freerolls are the first evidence of the reliability and good reputation of the site. So, as it should be, the second point I mentioned follows from the first.

neverbluff0799 · Jun 6, 2025

Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
I would not even bother with shady sites that don't respect the law and offer only Bitcoin and so on.

Payment method availability or ease of deposit
Receiving your money is the most important thing.

Game variety or tournament selection
I would mostly say player selection, and of course some good structure.

Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls)
I have joined Replay and WPT exclusively for that, so I would say that’s a big plus for me.

Goggelheimer · Jun 6, 2025

For me only deposits on poker sites, casino gambling like slots and roulette is not mine.

So the 4 points below count for me.

1. Reputation and trustworthiness of the site

2. Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!)

3. Payment method availability or ease of deposit/withdrawals

4. VIP programs or rewards if there are any options due to regulations.

Bluffzone68 · Jun 6, 2025

I would normaiiy not make a deposit due to trust reasons
so it should be trust worthy
perks will tempt me next like deposit bonus
ease of deposit is another problem I have faced earlier
lastly the games offered online like low buy ins in tourneys and cash games

zorro222_zorro222 · Jun 6, 2025

Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
Game variety or tournament selection
Recommendations from friends or the community

The reputation of the site is very important to me, if I am not familiar with the site I will always do some research and talk to my peers before making a deposit. I am also more prone to make a deposit at a site with a high player pool and a wide variety of games they offer, and especially if they spread mixed games.

margmilo44 · Jun 6, 2025

I rarely find deposit or welcome bonuses worthwhile. The wagering requirements to withdraw are usually astronomical.
Being able to withdraw funds without hassle is extremely important to me.
Obviously, the site cannot be filled with bots and should have a solid reputation.
Lastly, freerolls make a huge difference. In my experience, the CardsChat freerolls are among the best.

R.Holynskyi · Jun 6, 2025

For me, reputation and reliability will always come first. The second place will be the presence of freerolls, the more of them, the greater the chances that I will make a deposit. In third place is the availability of payment methods for depositing and withdrawing funds.

valeski 28 · Jun 6, 2025

Whenever I I want to play on another poker site. the first thing I do is read about its good reputation,excellent promotions ,0 problems with deposits and withdrawals and finally the bonus would be daily CC freerolls

YLAN · Jun 6, 2025

I only deposit real money primarily for 2 reasons.

Reputation and trustworthiness of the site. Lots of scams out there & need to be wary.
Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!). The site must be interesting enough to keep me playing & daily freerolls is certainly an attractive feature. A lot of players so as not to have long waiting time for SNG & microstake games.

G0930 · Jun 6, 2025

For me the most important factors are:

--- Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
--- Payment method availability or ease of deposit
--- Game variety or tournament selection
--- Recommendations from friends or the community and rakeback and freebies which are for me , best at GG

Sunz of Beaches · Jun 6, 2025

Cardschat Events alone are enough for me to put money on a new site. they only work with regulated sites and I'm sure my money will be safe everywhere CC events take Place

To Cash out winnings you have to deposit anyway. So I am basically cashing in to have a cash out option.

If there is no free stuff u can convince me to deposit if there is a lot of Traffic and a smooth Software.

Poker Orifice · Jun 6, 2025

Tammy said:
We’re collecting feedback from our CardsChat community to learn what truly motivates players to make a real-money deposit at a poker or casino site. While many sites offer free play options, we want to know:

❓What makes you take the leap and put actual funds on the site?

Some common factors might include:

A generous welcome or deposit bonus

Reputation and trustworthiness of the site

Payment method availability or ease of deposit

Game variety or tournament selection

Recommendations from friends or the community

VIP programs or rewards

Fast or guaranteed payouts

Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!)

🗨️Let us know what matters most to you in a reply below.
Your input helps us better understand our community’s needs and preferences when it comes to choosing where to play.

🎰Get VIP Chips! Members completing this survey will receive 10 VIP Chips.

Posts subject to Moderator approval before VIP Chips are awarded.

You must answer the survey question with a good quality post, that directly answers the question.

Check the VIP Program Guide for more info about the CardsChat VIP Program.

If there's a CC link to the site then my main motivation for signing up to new site is >>
TO HELP SUPPORT CARDSCHAT! Of the sites I currently play on, I'm certain that 3 of them are linked to CC. I'd like to believe I've generated rake (if that's even a possibility today) more than I've taken from any free games.

I ALWAYS Deposit on every site I'm going to play any games at all. It's best to have your Dep./Withdrawal method in place prior to playing (& hopefully winning) any games. And after a short while playing I will also do a test withdrawal to make sure everything is running smoothly. I wouldn't deposit though unless I believed the site was reputable/trustworthy in the first place.

fwiw, I haven't seen a good 'deposit bonus' on any site in awhile (I'm not familiar with some sites though... ie. Coinpoker, KK Poker).

KrazyKoo · Jun 7, 2025

Most important:

1. Reputation and trustworthiness of the site
2. Fast withdrawals
3. Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!)
4. Less cluttered client, easy to find the tourneys I want to play
5. Friends recommendations but only so far has applied to private exclusive events

pentazepam · Jun 7, 2025

It used to be:

1. Payment method availability - ease of withdrawals ( I only had to deposit once on most sites

)

2. Reputation and trustworthiness of the site

3. VIP programs or rewards. A good rakeback is always welcome

4. A generous welcome AND other bonuses (the only reason to deposit again was usually if you got a good bonus).

Now it just:

Game variety or tournament selection

Since the Swedish Government doesn't allow me to get any bonuses, rakeback, or rewards of any kind.

Plus, the fact that I almost have no time to sit and grind poker anymore.

And believe me: if you get NOTHING extra from the sites, you have to grind A LOT if you play for money.

So now I play for fun.

It's only pokerstars that can get my money again if needed, since they offer a wide range of poker variants. To play NLH or PLO all the time bores me.

fundiver199 · Jun 7, 2025

I dont try new sites out all that often. I started playing online poker in a serious way in 2016, and since then I have opened accounts AND then deposited at 3 different sites for quite different reasons:

PokerStars
This was the first, and I guess, my motive was just, that I needed somewhere to play, and it was a name, I had heard of.

888 Poker
Finding 25 NL cash games on PokerStars pretty tough, I read somewhere, that cash games on 888 Poker were very soft and decided to give it a shot. Turned out they were not, but I had a lot of success in 888 Pokers tournaments, which made me more or less give up cash games to focus on tournaments instead.

ACR Poker
At this point I had moved back to PokerStars, since the game selection on 888 Poker no longer gave me, what I wanted. I had ended up playing a lot of SnGs and was a bit tired, there was no rakeback or any other rewards at all. I read in this forum about ACR Pokers leaderboards for cash games and SnGs, and this is the main reason, I opened an account there.

hajaehyun · Jun 7, 2025

I believe the site is being recognized.
Payment method availability and ease of use
Fast payments and intermittent payments
I think these 3 things are important

Flyer35 · Jun 7, 2025

The deciding factor for me has always been the reputation and trustworthiness of the site. I wouldn't be playing there in the first place if not for some/all of the other factors that you mentioned. But the bottom line if I'm going to give the site all of my personal info, and in particular banking info has to be whether or not I'm going to later regret exposing myself to possible fraud.

CRStals · Jun 7, 2025

I'll rank the choices listed in order for myself:

Reputation and trustworthiness of the site --> Always #1. If I can trust the site to hold my money I'll play there. Some sites - no chance but most sites in Ontario are regulated and as such, no issues playing on them
Payment method availability or ease of deposit --> I want to be able to move money into a site easily and some sites are way better than others. If I can avoid Interac transfers I will because I don't want my banking information out there, but outside of that most sites aren't the best for getting funds on. Now that Ontario is regulated and we can use PayPal I'm set.
Game variety or tournament selection --> If the site has my stakes of cash going when I want to play, or offers a great tournament schedule, including opportunities for live satellites I'm in.
VIP programs or rewards --> I would like to be rewarded for my play, so sites that do this better than others I will prioritize if the three options above are also met
Fast or guaranteed payouts --> Most sites I play on pay out within 24 hours, and have been reliable to date. Sites that take their sweet ass time...no thanks. It's my money, not yours.
A generous welcome or deposit bonus --> Most deposit bonuses stink to clear, so this is not high up on my radar
Recommendations from friends or the community --> Most people recommend the sites I play on, so unless someone comes along with a recommendation of a site I've never heard of, I'm already probably playing on it
Exclusive events (like CardsChat freerolls!) --> Sadly all real money sites I play on now do not have freerolls from CC so this is no longer a feature I look for. Back in the day yes, I put money on Stars because of CC freerolls!

Gutshot Gus · Jun 7, 2025

I like to play variants like Seven Stud , Seven Stud H/L , and Omaha H/L.
The site must have those games in cash games and tournaments.
Being in the states gives me limited options and now the best bet for me is ACR,
I was using BetOnline some, but now they are not as varied as ACR.

Any of you want to take my money come on over to ACR and look up "Lucke71"

theStarfish · Jun 7, 2025

I decided to deposit a small amount at a poker site when I was sure that this particularsite was trustworthy and reliable. I wanted to play all the games, so that was the other reason and some freerolls were also a nice bonus. But yeah, first I checked if the site was a good one and if some known players played there too.

Risto234 · Jun 7, 2025

Payment ability is probably one of the most crucial things cause i've only used skrill in gambling sites godknowhowlong therefore it's kinda shame when i see some interesting promo or whatever in site X but cant use it since they are literally delusional enough to not offer e-wallets for deposits ...

As for poker then yeah i would imagine a very special event (like cardchat freeroll or some community MTT with 5$ buy-in would help me making deposits on that site - take a hint pokerstars)

Gritz18 · Jun 7, 2025

Tammy said:
❓What makes you take the leap and put actual funds on the site?

I can honestly say that the few times I have deposited money at a poker room, it was because the room required it in order to withdraw money.

I am not interested in deposit bonuses, as I do not play higher limits, only freerolls, so I do not see the need to make deposits.

📝Survey: What is the Deciding Factor for You to Sign-up and Deposit?

Tammy

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mattiebumpo

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monkeytilter

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R.Melnyk77

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neverbluff0799

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Goggelheimer

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margmilo44

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R.Holynskyi

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valeski 28

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YLAN

Sida Nga Taraki

G0930

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Sunz of Beaches

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Poker Orifice

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