The bright lights, the sound of jackpot coins hitting the tray of a slot machine, the free drinks, the superstar shows. Places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City use all of these things to entice their customers to come back time and time again. How can an online casino compete, then? Bonuses. Match bonuses, reload bonuses, no-deposit bonuses; call them what you want, the thinking behind them is the same.
As far as an online casino is concerned, offering bonuses (or “free” money) is an investment just like the free hotel rooms or coupons that brick-and-mortar casinos offer. They want those players to come back to the online casino and spend even more money, hoping for that big jackpot.
The most basic form of a bonus is the sign-up bonus, which is usually in the form of a percentage match. For example, a casino may advertise that they will match a new customer’s deposit by 100% up to a maximum amount of $100. Therefore, the customer can deposit $100 into their casino account and receive $100 free.
Casinos will also offer no-deposit bonuses to have a player try out their casino. Here, a player simply registers an account with a casino and receives a small amount of money, like $15 or $20. Casinos may also offer player re-load (or monthly) bonuses to come back to their casino, though these are sometimes less of a percentage than the casino’s initial sign-up bonus offer.
Are all those different offers really free money, though?
Just like lunch, the bonus money isn’t really free either. Since the casino essentially gives the player money, the player has to abide by some rules (or “Terms and Conditions” or sometimes appropriately titled “Rules”) before they can withdraw anything out of their casino account. Depending on the amount of “free” money offered, the casino may impose a lot of conditions, or only a few, on the player.
A very basic, and almost-always present restriction that a casino will impose, is called a wagering requirement (or WR). This means that a player must wager a certain amount of money before they can withdraw any money. Using the above example of a $100 match bonus, a casino may state that the player must wager 25 times the amount of the deposit and bonus. This means that the player must wager a total of $5000 (or ($100+$100) x 25) before making a withdrawal.
Almost all online casinos will also restrict the games a player can play after they’ve accepted a bonus. For the most part, the standard games that are excluded are craps, roulette, baccarat and sicbo. When online casinos first started, these games were very easy for players to place equal bets on (such as betting “red” and “black”, or “odd” and “even”, at the same time in roulette). This type of play reduced the risk that a player might run and made it more likely that the player would be able to keep most, if not all, of the bonus. Once the player had met the WR, they were free to withdraw as much money as they wanted.
What does all this mean to you as a player? Here’s an example:
Casino A offers a 200% bonus up to $200. The casino’s WR are that players must wager an amount of 20 times the total of the deposit and bonus before taking out any money. Casino A also states that players cannot play roulette, craps or baccarat in their attempts to fulfill the WR.
Player B decides to take advantage of this and deposits $100, receiving the $200 bonus. Multiplying the 20x WR and the $300 total, this means Player B must wager a grand total of $6000 before he can withdraw. Quite a bit of money to wager, isn’t it?
Player B can help himself a little, though.
Playing blackjack is the first step. When you look at all the games offered by a casino, blackjack has the one of the lowest house advantages (HA). Casino A offers a blackjack game that has a .5% HA (the average house advantage for blackjack). This means that Player B, by betting small all the time (the importance of this will be explained later), will lose on average $30 after having wagered $6000 (or $6000 multiplied by .5%). Because some casinos will offer slightly different rules in blackjack, the house’s advantage in that game may rise, leading to more of a player’s loss. Obviously, if the house’s advantage is lower because of more favorable rules to the player, the player will lose less.
If Player B falls within the normal statistical range, he now has $170 left of the $200 he started with. That’s a $70 profit! All players should remember that this is profit is not guaranteed; the statistical range is based on millions of hands of blackjack. If the player plays basic blackjack strategy, though, he stands a good chance that some of that “free” money will be left over after he meets the WR.
Variance, or the expected difference in wins and losses, plays a hand in a player’s expected profit, too. The more a player bets on one hand, the more the variance in his game will be. Most players should try to find a happy medium between the time needed to play while betting the smallest amount, which keeps variance at its smallest and allows players to withstand losing streaks, and raising their bet amount slightly in order to finish the WR in less time.
Because of blackjack’s low HA, some online casinos will not allow players to play it in order to finish the WR. If it’s allowed, video poker or war is the next best option. Video poker does have a higher variance against the player, along with a slightly higher HA, but the increased payouts for a better hand offset those negatives.
Nowadays, some online casinos will only allow players to play slot machines if they accept a bonus. Because of slot machines’ volatility and highest HA among casino games, no real strategy exists to take advantage of bonus offers with these restrictions.
Another condition that a casino may put on the bonus money is that it is “phantom” or “sticky.” This condition means that a casino will remove the bonus when a player makes a withdrawal. Basically, the casino allows the player to gamble with more money, but the player can’t get that money. If a bonus is “sticky” or “phantom”, players may see a common line in a casino’s Terms and Conditions that “All PLAY BONUS credits are for wagering purposes only.”
Very rarely, a casino will allow the bonus to stay in the player’s account, even after a withdrawal. Hence the term “sticky”; the bonus “sticks” to your account and will never leave it unless you lose it.
Most casinos, though, have a “phantom” bonus where the bonus disappears (like a phantom) from the account. An example of the “phantom” restriction may be worded:“Upon your FIRST withdrawal (regardless of the number of deposits), any amount up to the equivalent value of the PLAY BONUS will be deducted from your play balance or winnings prior to settlement.”
Different casinos may use either “sticky” or “phantom”, so players should know the basic principle that the bonus will be deducted after their first withdrawal regardless of what the casino calls it.
One strategy to effectively use a “sticky bonus,” as long as the casino allows blackjack to meet the WR and has a high enough bet limit, is to wager half the available bankroll on the first bet. By doing this, players still allow themselves the opportunity to double or split. If the player wins that hand, he can lower the amount of his bet and complete the WR out with flat-betting. Another strategy is for the player to bet everything (again, if possible), but a player then can’t split or double if the opportunity arises.
Here’s another example to clarify strategies for a “sticky” bonus:
Casino Z offers a 100% “sticky” bonus up to $100 with a WR of 15 times the deposit and bonus. Player Y deposits $100, gets a $100 bonus and must wager $3000 before he can make a withdrawal. The player decides to use the “bet-half” strategy and bets $100.
The player wins the hand and now has a bankroll of $300, with $2900 of WR left. Multiplying the WR and the HA (we’ll use .5%) again, the player should statistically lose $15 when he’s completed the WR. That leaves him with a bankroll of $295 (minus the $100 “sticky” bonus) and a profit of $95 (not to mention the $100 he started with)!
To compare, if the player loses that hand, he can bet another $100. If he’s unlucky and loses that hand, all the player has lost is $100. However, if he wins, the player’s back to the original $200 and can decide to make another big bet or flat-bet.
Another restriction a casino may put on bonuses is not allowing players from certain countries to redeem a bonus because of prior abuse or international laws. If a player lives in one of these countries, they can play at the casino (based on their own laws), but the casino will not award a bonus to them. Each individual casino has the right to decide what countries to exclude, so it only helps the player if they discover this in the beginning. A very simple way of finding out if your country is allowed is to check the pull-down list of countries that’s available when you create a casino account.
Lastly, online casinos may limit how much you can withdraw after you’ve taken a bonus. This happens more often with the no-deposit bonuses offered; with these offers, the player hasn’t even had to deposit any of their own money. Understandably, the casino then limits just how much the player can withdraw. As always, you’ll find this restriction (and maybe some new ones not mentioned here) in the “Terms and Conditions” or “Rules”.
Knowledge is key; the more you know, the less chance you have of running into problems. Good luck! |
