Are casino bonuses worth it?

[snowdogg]

I'm researching a bit about the noble art of bonus bagging but every guide I seem to find on the topic is a couple of years out of date. Is there anything I can read that is a bit more current and relates to the state of current casino offers (ie no blackjack and much higher WR's)?

I realise the glory days of this are long gone but is there any mileage left in it?

[wobbler]

There is as you rightly pointed out zero mileage left but any crumbs (however small) can be found in the Beating Bonuses forum mate.

Not sure what the atmos is like over now as I stopped going there reguarly a long time ago but I occasionally take a look.
It used to be a great and very informative place, a victim of it's own success but still worth a look at.

[fraser]

I remember good times over at Beating Bonuses. I started in 2006 when people said it was rotten and had fallen from heady heights, but what I wouldn't give to have the conditions of 2006 back now!

[wobbler]

I remember good times over at Beating Bonuses. I started in 2006 when people said it was rotten and had fallen from heady heights, but what I wouldn't give to have the conditions of 2006 back now!

Ha me too mate! Those were the days!

[AllGone]

I've been reading up on the subject here and at other forums and unlike match betting I can't seem to find a defiant answer. Maybe I'm missing something who knows.

I understand they are not risk free, however are they worth the potential cost in time and money?

The reason I'm not sure is that no one really talks about them anymore, there are no up-to-date guides on which offers to start with and what you need to understand etc. I know the one here is a good place to start, but the thread is out of date

Anyway would very much like to hear people’s views on the subject

[biggles]

They used to be very profitable, but over the years the terms have got increasingly bad and in the last 6 months or so a lot of sites have upped the gubbings and restrictions. Still some reasonable sign ups if not done already. Check out the info at Beatingbonuses.com.

[johnsmith]

back at the turn of the century most bonuses were 1xwr on BJ

[GibletHead2000]

The reason I'm not sure is that no one really talks about them anymore, there are no up-to-date guides on which offers to start with and what you need to understand etc. I know the one here is a good place to start, but the thread is out of date

Okay, here's my take on the state of play, circa August 2010, if you are considering staring out on casino bonuses with no prior experience...

I started matched betting last December, and after a couple of months decided to try a few casino bonuses. Since then I've made around £7,000 in total, and I would say around £2,500-£3,000 of that has been from casino bonuses. If this is "crumbs" to you, then stop reading, but it's an amount that's made quite a difference to me this year.

Basically, I went down the beatingbonuses.com list and did all the easy blackjack bonuses. These are definitely the best place to start, due to the low house edge, and low variance. (Don't try "live" blackjack bonuses to start with, as they tend to require a high stake)

At some point during this I tried a video poker bonus, but was put off these because it went badly. (I lost about £100, which was a lot at the time, although I wouldn't really think much beyond mild annoyance at losing that now.) Also, video poker takes a while to learn how to play properly, particularly if you don't know how to play poker already, which I didn't.

After running out of decent BJ bonuses, I tried VP again and managed to turn a decent profit on the next couple of bonuses, so went through the list again with an eye to doing more varied bonuses and managed to make quite a bit more money.

One of the things to consider is that they can be significantly more time consuming than matched betting. I'm quite risk-averse, so tend to grind out wagering requirements at quite small stakes. You can easily spend one or two evenings sat in front of your computer doing nothing but playing blackjack hands over and over again. (I find that having two monitors helps.. One for the casino game and a strategy calc, and the other for iplayer or a DVD)

I began all casino games knowing nothing about the rules, let alone strategy, so relied on the various strategy guides and calculators available on beatingbonues.com. As such, my wagering on a new game at the beginning was often extremely slow. I found it usually takes a good evening's play at least to be comfortable enough to start pushing up the playing speed.

What I usually do is once I'm up to a good speed on a game, is use my knowledge of how quickly I can play to decide what stake to use. I set myself a minimum wage that I'm happy to work for, and base my stake around that. For example, let's say I'm doing a £200 BJ bonus with a 50x WR, and the software is Playtech (there are big differences in the speed of different software) - I know that on this configuration I can average about 1,000 hands per hour (some people can do more, but I'm usually a bit distracted by the DVD I'm watching!) -- So. I need to clear £10k of wagering. The EV on this bonus would be about £140. Given a minimum wage of £25 per hour, I need to clear it in 6 hours. That's 6,000 hands... £1.60 per hand. So I'd probably pick £1.50 or £2 stakes. -- Using Chartwell software, which is a lot slower, I'd go for higher stakes.

Note, some people will probably not advocate this as an optimal strategy. The EV on a bonus is the same no matter what size stakes you use. What using small stakes does is keep the variance down. I.E. If you were to do a very large number of bonuses, it would stake size makes negligible difference overall... But for an individual bonus, using a small stake size significantly decrease the chances of making a loss on that particular bonus.

I kept track of my first month of casino bonuses here. I did mean to keep that diary up, but never quite found the time. Note that some of the T&Cs will probably have changed (as Biggles mentioned, they're changing a lot atm) so it's very important to read them before jumping in.

That's another thing to point out: The T&Cs for bonuses change ALL the time. Usually much more frequently than sportsbook bonuses. It's very very important that you do a good job of reading the T&Cs before jumping in on a bonus as there's no guarantee that the referring site was up to date. Important things to look out for are:

• Games that are allowed for the bonus (some sites start by offering blackjack, and then nerf it later when loads of people pile in and take money off them)
• The amount that each game contributes to the WR (some sites have blackjack only count 20% for example, so the WR is effectively 5 times more for BK - sometimes this is still +EV, often not)
• Countries allowed by the bonus (some casinos regularly restrict and un-restrict certain countries)
• Payment methods allowed (some casinos don't allow bonuses for moneybookers, or add an increased wagering requirement if you use it)
• Note that often a casino will have a limited page of T&Cs, with a hard-to-find link to the full T&Cs somewhere on it. I've been bitten by this once or twice, by starting a bonus that looked much better than it actually was, before finding the full T&Cs.

Biggles also mentioned that generally more people have been gubbed and restricted. This has only happened to me once, and I managed to fix the problem. See here and read the following few posts for a description of what happened. It's worth checking here and at SBR for negative reviews before jumping in though. But don't assume that just because a casino has done something unpleasant to you, that they should be able to get away with it. If they have are signed up to a regulator, they can help you sort your problem out. The 'casinos' link at the top of the page as a link to the regulator for all casinos that have one. Note however that a casino's relationship with a regulator is entirely voluntary and not legally binding in any way whatsoever, so it is no guarantee that you'll get your money back if they decide they don't like your ID documents or whatever excuse they use.

I would have loved to have been around in the heady early days, but alas I only discovered this kind of thing quite recently. But, if you have patience, are willing to persevere and don't mind spending long periods of time sat at your computer playing boring card games over and over again for cash, then it can be worth a pop.

I've pretty much run out of sites on the beatingbonuses list now, which is a shame. (I've also just about run out of UK bookies, so am starting on US ones, but that's a different story) -- I haven't done any of the sticky bonuses yet though, so there are still a lot I could do, mostly the ones towards the bottom of the list, but sticky bonuses are a whole new level of scariness for someone who is risk-averse like me. You're much likely to lose per-bonus on those, even if they are +EV, so you have to do a lot of them to pan out.

Part of the problem is that beatingbonuses.com is a bit like MSE, in that once an offer is up there then everyone piles in and it's gone before too long. Rumour has it that they have a private forum over there, but I don't think I'm cool enough to get access to it. ;-) -- Having said that, I do still check the list for new offers, and just this list I did the Challenge Jackpot offer that appeared there, and made the full £200 bonus and a bit for luck on Casino Hold'em... So there is still stuff about. Again though, it was 2 evening's play.

Some people on here might baulk at the idea of only making £25 per hour at gambling-related activity. It's certainly a lot less than I get for my day job, but I'm salaried and don't have the opportunity for overtime, and enjoy the extra cash. And if I did some freelance web design or similar as another way of making the money out of work, I'd have an awful lot of extra responsibility. It's a decent way of making a few extra bob without the stress of working for a client or employer!

At least until you run out of casinos, anyway. -- Anyone got any good offers up their sleeves? ;-)

[munk]

Blimey that's a cracking post, star post award for that, cheers GibletHead

http://www.thegamblingtimes.com/boar...tml#post238510

[sharpshooter]

Some people on here might baulk at the idea of only making £25 per hour at gambling-related activity. It's certainly a lot less than I get for my day job, but I'm salaried and don't have the opportunity for overtime, and enjoy the extra cash.

Are you on another planet?

You must be either a stock broker or corporate lawyer or something as I think few people would baulk at £25ph tax free working in the comfort of their own home! I get paid less than half that from my day job and that's before tax (note to self: must check those careers vacancies some time...)

And another thing: With a huge salary like yours, unless you have a mortgaged house in Kensington, your bankroll should easily be sufficient to sustain £5+ per hand wagering.

But anyway, I am straying OT so... a few additional thoughts:

Beating Bonuses has handy calculators so you can check variance, hourly rates and so forth.

Bonuses are much worse than when I started 15 months ago but there is still ev to be made, especially for sign ups. Also, it is sometimes worth joining a casino with poor sign up offers, as they can send you attractive reloads from time to time.

An additional clause you have to be very careful about, especially with Microgaming casinos these days, is some offers restrict your hand wagering to a percentage of the bonus (usually 30%). So if the bonus is £100 in this instance and you bet £35 in one hand, you might lose the bonus and any winnings you made.

There are certain techniques to increase your ev but they are often high variance and should not be attempted with limited bankroll.

Be careful who you sign up to - there are so many rogues about. Safest IMHO are Alderney and Guernsey regulated casinos. Kahnawake should probably be OK now they are with eCogra. Malta is risky so do your research. Netherlands Antilles I have found to be a mixed bag, probably not worth taking the chance, and Costa Rica based casinos are becoming more and more dodgy - would not touch these (except one or two exceptions but only after careful checking).

Keep a check of your mental state. Don't be tempted to tilt. If you lose cash, and you will many times, don't blame yourself as it is mostly down to bad luck. It is so easy to get emotionally attached (and I still do though less than before) but to get the most from bonuses you have to distance yourself.