What's the point of a free chip?

[funeralparty]

Out of sheer boredom tonite I decided to download the notorious Portofino Casino and see what I could do with their $35 free chip. Well, 4 hours and 81 comp points later I was looking at a balance of $4,700. Of course I realised before I started playing that I could only cash out $175 ($35 x 5). So I am going to try to cash in the $175 and see what happens...although judging from some older threads on here, i'll probably never see my money. Which begs the question....

What IS the point of a free chip???

I wonder if it actually gets the operators more depositors? Doubt it. This is the way I see it.....gambler comes across 'Casino X' and sees they offer a no deposit free chip. They decide to try it out....but, more than likely, they lose the free chip fairly fast....become disgruntled with the casino/software, and quickly uninstall. On the unlikely event that they do win, more than likely 'Casino X' will find some reason to disqualify the win, either that or put said gambler thru hell just to cash out the measley win....after the astronomical wager requirements or met. Do you think they will actually deposit here in the future? Doubt it.

Isn't this a lose/lose situation for the casino?

[suzecat]

Originally Posted by funeralparty

Out of sheer boredom tonite I decided to download the notorious Portofino Casino and see what I could do with their $35 free chip. Well, 4 hours and 81 comp points later I was looking at a balance of $4,700. Of course I realised before I started playing that I could only cash out $175 ($35 x 5). So I am going to try to cash in the $175 and see what happens...although judging from some older threads on here, i'll probably never see my money.

WOW!! Funeralparty, how did you manage to win $4700 on slots? BTW, the playthrough on a free chip is 40x the free chip, all on slots. So you need to play $1400 on slots to cash out. Your 81 comp points probably represents $810 in play (if you started at zero comps). So keep playing (before you request a withdrawal or they will kick it back - hopefully - and not just say "sorry, you requested a withdrawal before your wagering requirement was met" and take your money out of your account. Believe me, I have lost hundreds (probably thousands) at RTGs by not strictly following their T&Cs.

Keep playing and Good Luck!

[mucullus]

One of their usual practices is to lock your account after you win and accuse you of multiple accounts.

[dickens1298]

Originally Posted by funeralparty

Out of sheer boredom tonite I decided to download the notorious Portofino Casino and see what I could do with their $35 free chip. Well, 4 hours and 81 comp points later I was looking at a balance of $4,700. Of course I realised before I started playing that I could only cash out $175 ($35 x 5). So I am going to try to cash in the $175 and see what happens...although judging from some older threads on here, i'll probably never see my money. Which begs the question....

What IS the point of a free chip???

I wonder if it actually gets the operators more depositors? Doubt it. This is the way I see it.....gambler comes across 'Casino X' and sees they offer a no deposit free chip. They decide to try it out....but, more than likely, they lose the free chip fairly fast....become disgruntled with the casino/software, and quickly uninstall. On the unlikely event that they do win, more than likely 'Casino X' will find some reason to disqualify the win, either that or put said gambler thru hell just to cash out the measley win....after the astronomical wager requirements or met. Do you think they will actually deposit here in the future? Doubt it.

Isn't this a lose/lose situation for the casino?

Just like any other free, non-match money offer out there - it's a publicity tool, and a lure to whet gamblers' appetites. If you lose the money, then the casino hasn't lost anything, and there's a possibility - however remote - that you may have enjoyed the experience enough to want to come back. If you win money, then the likelihood of you returning is greater. You may rationalize that "since I won $100 with $35, imagine what I would have won if I had started with $100", and may therefore return with $100 of your own money at risk.

Your rebuttal may be that (1) gamblers who lose at a site would not likely return there and (2) no one could ever reason that they would have won more if they had a larger bankroll. But casinos also realize that there are a limited number of casinos offering free money, that there is a relative barrier of entry to trying other casinos because it involves installing it on the computer, and therefore the free money offer has just placed the offering casino on the customer's radar, geometrically increasing its chances of a revisit sometime in the future.

[funeralparty]

Believe me Suzecat, it was a matter of patience and and lots of luck! I actually think I wagered more than 100x the free chip on slots. At Portofino, each comp point represents $1,000 in wagers, I think.....so I actually wagered over $81,000....although not all of it on slots.....With the $35 I just kept going back and forth between $1 Cleopatra and BJ until I finally got the free spins feature...which brought me over a hundred.....then $2 Cleopatra and some higher BJ wagers, until I got the free spins again....eventually moved up to $5 and $10 Cleopatra spins as my bankroll grew. As you can see, this worked pretty well for me

Now for those fax back forms.......

[Mugwump]

Originally Posted by dickens1298

Just like any other free, non-match money offer out there - it's a publicity tool, and a lure to whet gamblers' appetites. If you lose the money, then the casino hasn't lost anything, and there's a possibility - however remote - that you may have enjoyed the experience enough to want to come back.

Then, of course, there are the times where the free chip doesn't give the casino the publicity it wants...

I recieved some junk mail (real mail, not email) the other day from a casino called betonusa.com. The casino offerred me a $50 no-deposit bonus. I'd never heard of them before, so I figured what the hell. The T&C's for the bonus were bizzarre, I could only cash out $1000 or more, up to a limit of $1500, but there was no WR on it. Just some general warning against bonus hunters. (At that point, I figured even if I did work $50 into $1000, I'd be lucky if I got payed)

After a while, I lost the $50. However this was not until I spent a little time looking at their user interface, vp paytables and the like. All VP payed out at about 95% (6/5 jacks or better. Whoo hoo!!!!) And their software has absolutely the ugliest user interface I've ever seen. In addition to that, each game had a button to click on for game help, but when clicked, didn't show any game rules.

Needless to say, I saw little reason to go back, and unistalled the software. Thanks for the free trial, betonusa!

If you are going to spend postage on your marketing, shouldn't you at least have something worth marketing?

PS: Oh yeah, I also thought the jingoistic marketing statement: "If you're going to bet, betonusa.com!" was also a bit obnoxious.

[dickens1298]

Just like some players really shouldn't be gambling (like those wonderful people who would split 10s in blackjack), some casino operators shouldn't be operating.

Candidly, a number of casinos out there seem to be quite mediocre, possess onerous T&Cs (I read one that had a 100X WR!), have acquired a rather dubious - and therefore risky - reputation, or simply look to fly-by-night to make playing there worthwhile.

Must be why most long-time online players seem to gravitate to the same names over and over....

Originally Posted by Mugwump

Then, of course, there are the times where the free chip doesn't give the casino the publicity it wants...

I recieved some junk mail (real mail, not email) the other day from a casino called betonusa.com. The casino offerred me a $50 no-deposit bonus. I'd never heard of them before, so I figured what the hell. The T&C's for the bonus were bizzarre, I could only cash out $1000 or more, up to a limit of $1500, but there was no WR on it. Just some general warning against bonus hunters. (At that point, I figured even if I did work $50 into $1000, I'd be lucky if I got payed)

After a while, I lost the $50. However this was not until I spent a little time looking at their user interface, vp paytables and the like. All VP payed out at about 95% (6/5 jacks or better. Whoo hoo!!!!) And their software has absolutely the ugliest user interface I've ever seen. In addition to that, each game had a button to click on for game help, but when clicked, didn't show any game rules.

Needless to say, I saw little reason to go back, and unistalled the software. Thanks for the free trial, betonusa!

If you are going to spend postage on your marketing, shouldn't you at least have something worth marketing?

PS: Oh yeah, I also thought the jingoistic marketing statement: "If you're going to bet, betonusa.com!" was also a bit obnoxious.