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Casino Bonus Money: How Bonuses Are Used and Abused
In the world of internet gambling where there's none of the glamour and allure you find in Las Vegas houses, the virtual casinos have few options when it comes to attracting new players. They cannot tempt you with food and beverage, comps or sights n' sounds like you see in traditional casinos. So what can they offer as a come-on for new customers?
Answer: Money.
Bonus money is the casinos' way of attracting people to play in their gambling sites. Casino bonus money is usually given as a gift to a new members. The amount varies from site to site and may depend on how much a player deposits. With bonus money added to their initial deposit, players can play longer and have more chances of winning at least, they would like you to think so).
Sounds like a good idea. But abusive gamblers have found a hole in this arrangement that they now exploit. What these abusers do is they manipulate this bonus money to surmount the house edge in every game in the casino site. House edge is the advantage the casino has over a player for a specific game, and is measured in percentage. If the house edge of a game is 5%, it means for every $100 you wager, you get back $95 on average; the casino keeps $5. But if the casino matches that same $100 with, say $50, then at the end of the day, you bring home $145 minus $5 for the casino, which is deducted from the bonus.
To do that, the abusive gambler has to play the best strategy for a game. Optimal strategy reduces the house edge to a bare minimum. Once the bonus abuser has succeeded with their strategy and gotten their money, they never play in that casino again. Instead they look for other sites with big bonuses and prey on them in the same way, and so on and on. Most gamblers don't have the patience or desire to do all that. But those who do that hurt the casinos so much that they are unable to sustain their business amid the persistent abuse.
Casino sites are now taking measures against bonus money abusers. If you look at any casino site now, you will find stringent betting requirements linked to their bonuses. You must wager a minimum amount before you can withdraw your money. You can only use the bonus for specific games (often games that are hard or impossible to win even with optimal strategy). Or you may not be able to withdraw the casino bonus money at all. The latter is known as a "sticky" bonus and is good for wagering purposes only. You never get to withdraw it like real money, so you make no profit.
That is the sad result of bonus money abuse. It prevents "honest" gamblers from enjoying the benefits of casino bonus money due to the abuses of a few.
So don't end the fun for everyone! To avoid such abuses, please show support for the casinos you join by playing there often. Not just when you make a profit off their bonus money. Play regularly. By doing so, you not only help keep honest casinos in business, you also stand to get more bonuses, invitations to tournaments and other benefits.