Are Prizes really Bonuses in Disguise

[neilw]

I don't play bonuses myself and I very rarely promote them on my website, but I do put up promotions where prizes are offered.

I'll even promote prizes that are bonuses when it's clear what you're getting.

I found twice the other day that one of the casinos I promote was advertising cash Prizes, but when i read the small print they were actually bonuses with wagering requirements.

I got a bit angry as I felt the promotion was misleading.

Surely a prize is something you win with no strings attached.? A bonus is something different. That's how I look at it.

So I called the Casino out and emailed the CEO. They did the right thing IMO and removed the wagering from the promotions, and will continue do so going forward. A result.

I just wonder how many other promotions get mis-represented like this, or was this just a one off.?

What's your experience?

 

[Vibroverb]

well, the whole industry is getting a lot stingier when it comes to prizes, so they have to find promos where they feel they can get away with less, for instance
"Amazing $5,000 prizepool!" - where the 1st prize is a prize, and the rest are all bonuses to the value of prize, they don't require a deposit, but you need to wager it.

Same thing with Free Spins instead of prizes, 1st place is 500 free spins, with x50 wagering requirements and a short time period of up to 3 days to wager it....

To them it's still "giving money away" not taking into account all the requirements imposed to the players to get the money.

Sadly, I think this will continue, as they're feeling how far they can push these terms before players just stop playing, they've already noticed players aren't depositing as much when they don't give bonuses.

I think the only solution for them to take the players concerns seriously is if players just stop depositing and wagering until they're given fairer terms, then the Casino will ask themselves what they're doing wrong, but as long as they have profit, they don't care how the players feel about their terms and promos, just on how they can increase revenue

 

[goatwack]

"Congratulations on winning our weekly cash race and as a reward you have won £150!! Please note that it carries a 35 times wagering requirement with a maximum cashout of £50, and that every game except Lights, is excluded. Thanks for playing with us!"

The future is here

 

[jjezebel37]

I won a race with Betsafe on Rune craft and was appalled that it carried a wager. I was raging as I could have simply got a bonus elsewhere. It was £40 and had 35 wagering.

 

[DreamRJ]

Yes it is out or line and well done to the OP for getting a result in that particular casino.

But i can just say this statement. Stay away from those casinos with such promotions with prizes and play at casinos that have prizes that do not have wagering, Example Videoslots casino is one that springs to mind.

Eventually casinos will see people are not playing there and then will start to question the causes and reasons behind it. Or maybe what we all should do if you are affiliates is go through every casino that run these types of promotions and contact the CEO for each of them, and try and get the same result for those other casinos as well.

Lets hope the revolution starts and Casinos start to care for the playerbase for a change and not just care about filling their own pockets.

 

[spintee]

You should not of thought so, but in this casino world that is exactly what it is,

Win 100 free spins (small print) 35x wager

I know a familiar thing has been bought up before now and that was when casino stated 100% cash match or what ever the cash match was, this had to be changed to bonus match because as we know they always had a wager on them.

Some sites only had like 1x wager attached to them but still not allowed to call them free if it involves a wager. I believe some sites was warned or even fined due to this

 

[Playford7]

"Congratulations on winning our weekly cash race and as a reward you have won £150!! Please note that it carries a 35 times wagering requirement with a maximum cashout of £50, and that every game except Lights, is excluded. Thanks for playing with us!"

The future is here

Lights can actually pay rather well imo!..

 

[theapple]

Lights can actually pay rather well imo!..

well they could always exclude it when you are like halfway through your bonus

 

[lockinlove]

I really hate when casino's email and tell me I can win a share of 5000 euro rake race on a slot. Yeah ok, im not going to sit there for the weened and play one slot to maybe win $50 since I dont play high like the high rollers play to win these. $100 spins and whatever. Then yes the wagering too.

Newsflash casino's this is not a good promotion at all. but you must have suckers who think it is since you keep dishing them out UNIBET

I think how they calculate bonuses are flawed too. I had a casino I was down $15,000. I asked for a bonus and they said since playing here we have given you $3000 in deposit bonuses sorry we cant offer you anything at this time.

Oh ok so because Im down $15,000 and you gave me a few deposit bonuses, you feel like you have given too much?

I have been part of another casino where I was actually up good in it. $25,000 and they still kept giving me bonuses. One time they refused and said no deposit bonuses today we have given you $27.000 worth of bonuses. Lol more than I deposited. But I knew their end game, try and keep me playing and giving me bonuses hoping I hit the cold streak and lose it back. Oops

 

[Simmo!]

If the competition is free to enter, then I don't mind a 1x wagering requirement: indeed, it may even be necessary where a customer hasn't yet been ID'ed. But if it is a competition where you stake money to win, then a prize should come with no restrictions unless clearly stated (IE: not tucked away in the Ts&Cs).

 

[Playford7]

well they could always exclude it when you are like halfway through your bonus

I really hate when casino's email and tell me I can win a share of 5000 euro rake race on a slot. Yeah ok, im not going to sit there for the weened and play one slot to maybe win $50 since I dont play high like the high rollers play to win these. $100 spins and whatever. Then yes the wagering too.

Newsflash casino's this is not a good promotion at all. but you must have suckers who think it is since you keep dishing them out UNIBET

I think how they calculate bonuses are flawed too. I had a casino I was down $15,000. I asked for a bonus and they said since playing here we have given you $3000 in deposit bonuses sorry we cant offer you anything at this time.

Oh ok so because Im down $15,000 and you gave me a few deposit bonuses, you feel like you have given too much?

I have been part of another casino where I was actually up good in it. $25,000 and they still kept giving me bonuses. One time they refused and said no deposit bonuses today we have given you $27.000 worth of bonuses. Lol more than I deposited. But I knew their end game, try and keep me playing and giving me bonuses hoping I hit the cold streak and lose it back. Oops

I've had a fair few bonus ban me for being up.
Pretty shady in my opinion.
As the average player can't win all the time and eventually house edge kicks in then they get it all back plus some.
Also Miami dice got a feisty email from me earlier as i keep getting 'you have a reward in your account'
Well no Miami dice I don't, what I have is a deposit bonus not a reward.
Really boils my piss silly offers like that.

 

[lockinlove]

I've had a fair few bonus ban me for being up.
Pretty shady in my opinion.
As the average player can't win all the time and eventually house edge kicks in then they get it all back plus some.
Also Miami dice got a feisty email from me earlier as i keep getting 'you have a reward in your account'
Well no Miami dice I don't, what I have is a deposit bonus not a reward.
Really boils my piss silly offers like that.

I dont know if you saw my post about slotsmillion and I dont want to repeat myself since it comes across as too bashy. But what you explain is exactly what they did to me. I was a loyal player. Up $4000 and then they bonus banned and promo banned me. How I found out was they had a forum wide promotion. And I went to join in with the members here and they told me because Ive won too much Im not welcome to join. So yeah they banned me from all deposit bonuses, special holiday promo's and forum promos. And took away my reward level. I was PISSED.

But recently after a year of this banning. They seemed to have finally lifted it.

They seem to pump up the bonuses more than they should to be honest. A 100% bonus with 50x wagering is in their favor. Not mine so why make such a big deal about it lol.

I was VIP at fortune lounge but because ive won so much with them and told them their vip program is shit. I no longer get emails from my vip host. Seriously though, I dont get their program at all. I never got freespins, freechips bonuses. Anything. No winning of special contests. No winning of VIP cruises. Nothing. I went on a bad streak and lost about $8000 in 2 weeks. I messaged my VIP host asking for a 100% deposit bonus...not a freechip...nothing special. I didnt even get a response. Which is a good thing (only because I won) because I deposited a few times after and won that 8k back plus more. So whatever.

Freechips and freespins and whatever arent really a concern for me. I think what matters is how they treat people when they ask for one is what matters

Yeah I have a couple casino's that send me that stupid email You have a reward. 25% reload. Yeah ok...lol. Thats a punishment. Or 50 freespins on a 9 cent bet. with 40x wagering. wow so kind haha

 

[Playford7]

I dont know if you saw my post about slotsmillion and I dont want to repeat myself since it comes across as too bashy. But what you explain is exactly what they did to me. I was a loyal player. Up $4000 and then they bonus banned and promo banned me. How I found out was they had a forum wide promotion. And I went to join in with the members here and they told me because Ive won too much Im not welcome to join. So yeah they banned me from all deposit bonuses, special holiday promo's and forum promos. And took away my reward level. I was PISSED.

But recently after a year of this banning. They seemed to have finally lifted it.

They seem to pump up the bonuses more than they should to be honest. A 100% bonus with 50x wagering is in their favor. Not mine so why make such a big deal about it lol.

I was VIP at fortune lounge but because ive won so much with them and told them their vip program is shit. I no longer get emails from my vip host. Seriously though, I dont get their program at all. I never got freespins, freechips bonuses. Anything. No winning of special contests. No winning of VIP cruises. Nothing. I went on a bad streak and lost about $8000 in 2 weeks. I messaged my VIP host asking for a 100% deposit bonus...not a freechip...nothing special. I didnt even get a response. Which is a good thing (only because I won) because I deposited a few times after and won that 8k back plus more. So whatever.

Freechips and freespins and whatever arent really a concern for me. I think what matters is how they treat people when they ask for one is what matters

Yeah I have a couple casino's that send me that stupid email You have a reward. 25% reload. Yeah ok...lol. Thats a punishment. Or 50 freespins on a 9 cent bet. with 40x wagering. wow so kind haha

Totally hear what your saying and I concur.
I know when using a bonus your essentially using casino funds, but the majority of match offers, with wagering, max bet and game exclusions are so much in the casino's favour anyway I can't see a problem now and again asking should you need one.
Last one I had was a 75% at casumo. Busted granted, but was actually nice to have been given it.
Loads won't budge when you ask even after losing a fortune.

 

[Harry_BKK]

In all my reviewing of this type of promotions I have seen two options:

- bonus money counts towards the promotion
- only cash bets count

Close to 100% of the "cash bets only" promos, tournies and races have the prizes in cash, no wagering requirement. But some casinos, especially those with the great Curacao license, put even on those prizes some wagering. One was just last week with the Netent 10K Raffle for playing Jungle Spirit. I had one casino putting a 35x WR on the prizes, for 2K (top prize in the promo) that is 70K in wagering, good luck surviving that.

The usual Yggdrasil Random Cash Drop, Mission or Highest Single Coin Win tournies explicitly state whether bonus bets count and in utmost cases it is "cash only bets".

If bonus bets count for a promo, then I understand that prizes can have WR attached as you can win them with bonus money, even with a ND bonus. But i see no reason to attach WR when only "cash bets" are contributing. Especially, when it is a network wide promo by a game provider as the money for the prizes is coming from the game provider, rarely from the casino.

 

[spintee]

Do you also remember a few promos in the past. I know there is a few posts about the rubbish promos going on and alot are cross promotions.

But I remember some time back that albeit the promo was cross different sites (provider offer) yet on some sites they added wager to it and on others they did not

 

[Vibroverb]

there are also a lot of promotions that never made it live on sites because they were so terrible, mostly these ideas come from up top, to get more money and then the promo team has to make it work. There was a suggestion to come up with a promo and function to set up a direct debit for players, so the casino can automatically withdraw $5 when their account balance gets below $1.