Free play at Ruby Fortune, Spin Palace etc

[DaKing008]

I'm curious about Ruby Fortune Casino (and the sister sites look the exact same Spin Palace and Mummys Gold). I signed up and saw I had to play freeplay to qualify for my bonus. Now I know I'm probably going to lose my money so I do like the bonus since it gives me more time playing. So I start this freeplay. If you aren't familiar with it you have an annoying timer in the corner counting down 60 minutes and that's all the time you have to "win" your $100 bonus. Now I really don't want to play freeplay but this is the hoop they make me jump through to get the bonus. So I go to blackjack and see the max bet is $4!!! Now how the hell are you supposed to win $100 in a hour betting only $4? It's a joke! I looked at a variety of games and all the limits are micro level.

You basically need to hit a jackpot on slots or a royal at video poker to have a realistic shot of "winning" your bonus. If they don't want to give you a bonus then just don't do it, don't instead come up with this stupid way of pissing off a player. I'd be mad if I did hit a jackpot and all I got is the same bonus I can get at a million other casinos without jumping through hoops. I didn't play at the actual casino but I assume they have the same limits? If so then why would I want to play if all they offer are micro limits? If not then I think that is rogueish behavior to slash the freeplay limits to such a silly level.

What is the point they are trying to make with Ruby Fortune, Spin Palace etc? Is this supposed to make customers happy? All it did to me was frustrate me, get my blood pressure up and ultimately got me to deposit at a friendlier casino. Am I alone in these feelings? Does anyone actually deposit here after losing at freeplay? Why would you after such an unenjoyable experience?

[vinylweatherman]

If you fail to win at the free play, they will offer you the standard sign-up bonus anyway rather than see you go.
Freeplay is designed to prevent an easy route to the $100, which is why the bets are so low, although a mere $4 seems too low to give a fair chance with Blackjack.
The best bet is with the higher variance slots, such as Thunderstruck, although you could start out on the likes of Munchkins, as bonus rounds are more likely. Your target is a win of the max allowed, not as much as you can, which is why you should start with low variance games and move to higher variance as the payout needed to get the $100 increases.
Many players will fail to win their free $100, and will have to settle for the standard offer, which is likely to be less generous, and involve a larger deposit.
The purpose of this offer really is to give you an extra 60 minutes of "fun", rather than net a big bonus.

If you did hit a big win, such as the RF in Video Poker, you would be better off doing so with a standard deposit bonus, rather than free play capped at $100.

[DaKing008]

If you fail to win at the free play, they will offer you the standard sign-up bonus anyway rather than see you go.
Freeplay is designed to prevent an easy route to the $100, which is why the bets are so low, although a mere $4 seems too low to give a fair chance with Blackjack.
The best bet is with the higher variance slots, such as Thunderstruck, although you could start out on the likes of Munchkins, as bonus rounds are more likely. Your target is a win of the max allowed, not as much as you can, which is why you should start with low variance games and move to higher variance as the payout needed to get the $100 increases.
Many players will fail to win their free $100, and will have to settle for the standard offer, which is likely to be less generous, and involve a larger deposit.
The purpose of this offer really is to give you an extra 60 minutes of "fun", rather than net a big bonus.

If you did hit a big win, such as the RF in Video Poker, you would be better off doing so with a standard deposit bonus, rather than free play capped at $100.

I get that but my point is why not just offer the same bonus to everyone rather than make you work for it? I would never play freeplay, not get the big bonus and settle for the "standard". My view of the casino is not good at that point, I'm frustrated that I didn't win and I'm mad that they made the max bets so low to make it hard to win. I can't see how this attracts customers. If I was an affiliate I wouldn't think this is a good site to attract. If I wanted 60 minutes of just "fun" I'd sign up for a play money account.

[LaHutti]

I've done the freeplay thing in a few places .. think 3 different casino's, and sofar I've come out with more than the original 100% bonus they offer, just playing slots, 2 times with a 200% bonus....better than 100% after all
Besides...I don't think they "force" you to play it, if you can't be bothered...as far as I remember you can still just take the 100% bonus or whatever, and ignore the freeplay thingy.

[Simmo!]

The Freeplay idea has actually proved a good acquisition tool for casinos (if you believe what you are told) and there is a certain logic to it which isn't perhaps immediately obvious. Freeplay ensures the player stays at the casino for a certain amount of time and encourages players to play a variety of different games, the idea being that hopefully they find one or two they really like and thus will return to at a later date.

The standard $100 bonuses tend to see players try a handful of games only and from the casino perspective (and player I guess) it doesn't perhaps offer enough time or incentive to try a variety of games. This is also why bet limits are usually capped, to encourage players to switch around games.

IMO it's quite a clever way of returning to the "old way" of bonuses being there to allow players to try a casino before the fraudsters screwed it up for everyone. It probably also helps tackle bonus abuse too by lowering bet limits and capping withdrawals. So essentially, it's good news for the average punter looking for a place to play and not so good for the free money profiteers, which is essentially what the casinos want to achieve.

[SlotsWizard]

I've done a couple of these "free play" promos and there was always a button labeled "End Free Play" or something similar near the timer. I don't think you're forced to play it out.

[Jufo]

FREE PLAYS SIMPLE STRATEGY

Even if the bet limits are low, just go to roulette table and put bets on half or 2/3 of the numbers individually (or make a clever bet "carpet"). Then spin until you reach max win or bust. This way you get the maximum bonus amount 80-90% of the time.

I don't think the free play promotions are bad at all. I once withdrew 300x my deposit from such a promotion.

[KasinoKing]

I get that but my point is why not just offer the same bonus to everyone rather than make you work for it?

As a matter of fact, the group you are talking about (Palace Group) is one of the worst.
I list loads of these 'free-play' offers on my site, some of which equate to getting up to a 2000% welcome bonus if you can win the max bonus with them. But with this group the max bonus is 100 & you have to deposit 50 to get it, so the max you can get is 200% of your deposit.
Hardly seems worth the effort when you can just deposit 75 & get a 100% bonus on it anyway, after all the WR is still B x 30 on this (and just about all other MG bonuses) no matter how the bonus is earned. So it's only just about worth it if you can make the max, but if you don't then I agree it's a bit of a waste of time.

As for the low minimums - well there's a fairly obvious reason for that, as I think Simmo explained.
No good for cards, but OK for slots

PS; Welcome to the forum!

[Jufo]

Hardly seems worth the effort when you can just deposit 75 & get a 100% bonus on it anyway, after all the WR is still B x 30 on this (and just about all other MG bonuses) no matter how the bonus is earned. So it's only just about worth it if you can make the max, but if you don't then I agree it's a bit of a waste of time.

If you take the larger bonus (200 - 1000%) then there is much bigger chance that you will lose your deposit because of large wagering requirements. Actually this type of bonus requires advanced strategies to squeeze out as much value of the bonus as possible. The reason casinos can offer these bonuses is simply because most players play them wrong. On the other hand if you are not playing to win but simply for entertainment I would still go for the max bonus simply because it extends your playing time and the you get more "entertainment" for the same price.

[kimss]

Personally I found the $1000 chips bonus the easiest to win with. Surely you don't spin with $0.09 spins, this would be plain dumb if you expect winning anything. If I recall correctly you can only win $200 anyways, so you need to end up with $1200. So if you get a good win on $20 wagering, you easily win $5000 and then making the wagering on $100 spins becomes pretty straight forward.

If I recall correctly I've played atleast 5 of theese bonuses and only 1 time did I go bust! The other ones however, starting with only $500 is harder to win any! I usually start with Tally Ho! on $9 wagering and get the freespin after $450 of wagering and get back into $400 or so, then go for $9 spins on Good to Go only to get the bonus with two scatters and bust! So in my experience $500 is not enough, $1000 however is great!