Are you a bonus lover or hater ?

LaurieJim

Paleo Meister (means really, really old)
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Location
In the Beautiful South !!
I have been playing for many years , when I first started gaming i almost never took a bonus and won most of the time. As money got a bit tighter I decided to give bonuses a shot, usually 100% matches was what I looked for, I find that when taking a bonus, it is so hard to hit a feature , make the roll over or just have fun playing, it makes me edgy sometimes. I am thinking of just going back and playing on straight deposits , sure the extra money is great if you want to increase you gaming fun or chance to win but I find it so very hard.

I find it hard to take a 50% bonus with a 30 x roll over or have even seen 25% bonus with 25 to 60 x roll overs , this just makes me cringe as it will give the house an almost 70 % or more chance of not letting the player cash out, not real certain on my math numbers.

We all know that the casinos say they do this as a courtesy for its players , I have doubts about this as far as the 25% or 50% bonuses are concerned.

There have been players that have even been bonus banned , so someone must know how to play them and win or otherwise they would not be getting bonus banned, right ?

Has anyone else ever played both sides , bonus or not and which one do you prefer as a player?

Ok , done rambling !!!!

Laurie
 
Honestly I`ve mostly played with bonuses but I have noticed that it seems a long grind for wagering but once it`s met the slots seem to loosen up a bit. I`m sure it`s just a coincidence though since it is all random right. :)
 
When I had played online for several months back in 2008 I discovered that I didn't have to use bonuses :oops:
That's what can happen if you start playing without knowing either the language properly or the rules.

I stopped using bonuses all the time and it was great to know I was able to cash out whenever I wanted, and I didn't have to be afraid of haven broken any rules.

These days I use bonuses at 32Red if there are any but rarily anywhere else, and only where I get my cashouts as fast as possible since it's to easy to keep going otherwise.

I have never noticed any difference in how the games are playing if I have a bonus or not, since there aren't any. What I can see is that I might play a little different if it's not all my money. Higher stakes can be fun.
 
I stopped using bonuses all the time and it was great to know I was able to cash out whenever I wanted, and I didn't have to be afraid of haven broken any rules.


That's how I feel as well. It sucks to start off with a nice win right out of the gate, and then realize you still have a wagering to meet, which can eat through a lot if not all of the winnings. I've used my fair share of bonuses though in the past, and still do from time to time, but I normally avoid them. The ones I normally use would be at casinos I frequent often, so it would be loyalty level based bonuses, which or normally a bit better in regards to WR.

I'm not sure if the Club World group of casinos still does them but I remember fun times taking that 500% bonus that had the insane WR attached to them. Sometimes I'll do something like that just to have an crazy balance to start with and plenty of play time for the night. I don't go in though thinking or even trying to win on those. Just do it to have fun, and if I win more fun to be had.
 
It's all random, but humans control the randomness! :D
There is a window for control, and rogues sometimes go beyond that.

Now back to bonuses.
It just comes down to how you have more fun.
If you feel you have more fun with the bonus, take it. If not, don't.
Personally, that is what I do. And most times, I don't. :)
 
I just love bonuses. I enjoy playing slots very much. There are just two options for me when playing with bonuses:

1. I bust out

2. When I want to stop playing the wagering requirements are almost always met already and I can just withdraw.

I don't think I have ever wanted to do a withdrawal and been disappointed that there is still wagering to do. I just like spending time playing slots, so the wagering is not a problem for me :)
 
I am still inexperienced in gambling online, only with around 3 months behind me.
I had a good win on my very first play at a Casino with a bonus, cashing not far from a grand from a £20 deposit. At this point I thought, "Wow, bonuses are great, I could win like that every time!" and so took each and every bonus I could for a time. I soon realised of course, that taking these bonuses and locking yourself into the wagering requirements is actually pretty hard to complete, and that my first win was a sheer fluke.

Just lately made a turn away from taking bonuses, and began to see just how beneficial it can be to just play with cash, any win, as early as it may come, is a win then.

So for me I guess both sides have a place, though I don' t agree in noticing any particular difference in the way certain slots play when with a bonus or not, a good session is just a good session as I see it, and it could come anytime, or not.

As for how I played when i won with bonuses, I pretty much just stick to minimum bet, particularly on the bigger slots like TSII, IR, Playboy, BDBA. I started out making bets like £1.50 a spin on a £20 deposit thinking I would get somewhere, soon realised that that is not the way to play such slots and you probably need to get many hundreds of spins in to have good session.

I would also say though that when I have won with a bonus, I have taken a bigger win, solely because I have had to play on to make the wagering, had I been playing with just cash I would have walked away earlier, with a lesser win, maybe this will change as I play longer and become more of a gambler :)

Anyway, good luck in your future play whether with bonus, or without :)
 
If I want to play video poker, I never take a bonus. As far as slots go it depends on the bonus. I like 100% match but rollover has to be reasonable. I am taking less bonuses now than I did when I first started.
I have been bonus banned at a few places (mostly RTG). But that is ok as I can find bonuses elsewhere if needed.
 
I like playing with big bonuses. The most thrilling slot sessions I had were with very high bonus offers, e.g. 500 or even 900 %. Although there is mostly a max cashout and lots of WR to clear in case of good wins, it guarantees plenty of playtime without spending too much money, and a chance to play high variance slots without being sucked dry after 5 minutes. But thats only my personal preference. Besides, while clearing a high WR there is still a chance to have more good hits.

Cheers

Balky
 
I love bonuses and pretty much take one if there is one offered. Doesn't matter much if it's just 10% or with crazy rollover (has to be more than 10% if there is big rollover though). They add more playtime and I like that my playing has a set end for me which in this case is when the rollover is done if I'm lucky :rolleyes:
 
I usually take them if I believe they are about EV or definitely if EV+ of course....!
I have never been bonus banned; usually this is a decision by the casino based on good business rather then you being an AP. You may be up say 3k at a casino and they will not risk you making even more by giving you good bonuses. When you are well down, you often find the bonus offers come thick and fast, which I believe is the way it should be, player A not getting bonuses but he has won plenty already, player B on a downer but can extend his chances of a comeback by having bonus funds.:)
 
bonus lover
bonus hater!!!

My deposits are usually quite low these days, as are my actual bets, so trying to meet the bonus WRs, as well as staying firmly on the right side of the T&Cs, takes the fun out of it and gives me a massive headache as well. My play time may not be as long as if I had taken a bonus, but the deposit is mine, and any winnings I get along the way are mine as well.

I sometimes manage to increase my deposit through winnings, and cash out, but if I was playing with a bonus, I would be nowhere near the 30xB that seems to be the norm. Also the tales of people nearly meeting the WRs, only to have the games die on them, and thus no cashout, are legendary.

Occasionally I strike lucky with a game (Katana the other day), when I am in a position to withdraw over £1000 whenever I want. I would have been devastated to have hit that, and still had massive WRs to plough through.

So I repeat....Bonus Hater!!! I really can't see the point.
 
90% bonus hater!

I hardly ever use them (anymore....) - never really liked them and most of the bonuses I am offered these days have much higher WR than I will accept.

There are a few exceptions though:
  • Maria casino have offered me some very reasonable ones lately (and I have been surprisingly lucky in reagrds to beating them) so they are the main exception for me.
  • Sometimes I just want to play around with a few slots I find fun, but financially unattractive - I will then go in with a very small deposit and take the most ridiculous bonus offered, just for playtime and without any expectation of a cash-out. (this is mainly on RTG) - I could use free play, but if I hit something huge, I would be so pissed I would have to go outside and chew the tires of my car :p
  • Loyalty bonuses, free spins and other non-deposit bonuses

At my "main casino" (local one, accepting danish players only) I don't think I have ever taken a single deposit bonus.
 
I don't like them generally, because as others have said, if you hit something big, you then may have a massive wager requirement left that eats up all your winnings.
 
Bonus Lover

I like playing slots. I'm not happy depositing and being done in 15 minutes. It still happens with a small deposit and a small bonus. A good session without a bonus, I'm probably playing long enough to have met bonus requirements anyway.

I try not to take bonuses that make it really hard for me to win. If I think one is a great deal, I try to take it.

If the bonus is plus EV and based on loyalty, I pretty much do take it.

If I don't have a bonus offer where I like playing, I'll probably play without one, or wait a day depending on budget.

I like the challenge of "winning" on a bonus. If I'm up $20 at the end of it, I'm unlikely to cashout,but I feel I got an extra $20 to play with. All of my biggest wins have been with bonuses, and often because I'm impatient to finish a WR. I've had some crash and burn sessions where some grinding would have left me either with a cashout or a bigger cashout, but my impatience got the better of me.

If I take a bonus and lose, well that's it for the night. At least at that casino, depending on budget. But if I deposit cash and lose quickly, there's often another deposit to follow.

For example, MG bonuses with 30x rollover usually provide me with enough entertainment for the evening. I used to think I was about the same taking one, some recent threads seem to indicate otherwise. But it's not a huge disadvantage, and life is a balance.

To my thinking, the best bonuses to balance the casino's bottom line and my preferences, are bonuses that leave me the same long time RTP. I'm not more like to win by taking a bonus, but neither am I at a major disadvantage. I get either extended playtime or the chance to gamble at higher stakes in return for a slightly smaller RTP.

I've been bonus restricted at two casinos now. Once, a Rival where the mere cashout on a NDB got me offers so ridiculous to might as well be a bonus ban. My first cashout on a NDB, and I'd played at other Rivals back then.

More recently by an RTG casino, where I am thousands of dollars down, but my ratio of bonuses to straight deposits is not satisfactory to them. I am sure some forum members can guess where. But in all fairness, it's not a total bonus ban, I have received manager's bonus and a birthday gift since I have continued to play a bit. Just can't claim any coupons.

Now I'm off to play my deposit and bonus over at 32Red. Maybe it will go better than the series of deposits I made yesterday without one.
 
Well I just finished a little experiment , I deposited 22.00 at CWG and took a free 25 spins on some game I never really played that much at , it sucked me down like a dirty Martini and spat me out, never hit a frigging thing. I did the same thing at JPC earlier with a 100% match and as you can guess , not one feature, it soooooooooo sucked.

I then went to InetBet with a 10.00 straight deposit and have had the best time playing in a very long time , just finished up and had it up to 280.00 at one point, I was just so excited to be hitting something , cashing out was not an option, just loved the playtime.


Laurie
So , I have made up my mind from now on it's straight deposits for me and no bonuses:thumbsup:
 
Lover, need to make sure it's achievable, always read the terms & con, boosts your game time and 90% of the time if your smart you can meet wagering req. used to not take them but they seem to be more available in the last year, competition in the market I guess, would never take max cashout bonus
 
Depends on the casino, I reguarely take bonuses on MG casinos. Rarely take them on other platforms.

I dont mind bonuses as long as they dont have convuluted terms and are only 30x B. I generally wont withdraw unless I'm a good amount in profit, so when I win early on Ill up my bets allot. Which isnt to bad because then should i loose ive only deposited a relatively small amount. Up until about a month ago (when I stopped playing all together) I'd made about fifty deposits at various casinos and not won anything but at least I got a good amount of playtime :)
 
bonus hater

i play roulette mostly and normally it has way lower stake worth than slots etc so the WR is just a nightmare plus i like to cash out when i want whether iv doubled my money or gone big so i like the freedom, the only bonuses i take are ones like cashback or money back from losses infact iv completly opted out on betfred of any bonuses with WR attached and just claim ones without these days
 
I'd never take a signup bonus but I do occassionally take a loyalty bonus if a) the terms are reasonable (20x bonus max) and I know I have some time to waste. Or again if I fancy betting big. But it's rare...I'd rather play on my own terms and cashout when I want.

I think bonuses are one of the reasons a lot of players always feel like they lose. I often find - about 70% of the time I'd guess - that at some point during my session I am "up". I could choose to - and often do - cashout there if there's no WR outstanding.
 
I don't hunt these bonuses in any way. I have taken few bonuses but the total count is still under 10 I believe. I grab occasionally 50€ weekend bonus @ Redbet but that's pretty much it. I usually take bonus when I play purely for entertainment, for example with my girl who isn't that much into gambling but who can still find few slots fun and likes to take part into my hobby :)

Last bonus I took 'seriously' was welcome bonus @ Redbet, the whole 200€. Played many slots for quite some time and once met the wagering, I had about 1000€ left :)

All in all, I understand why people take bonuses but personally I'm not into them.
 
Generally speaking, I'm a bonus lover... as long as the terms are not insane as so many seem to be these days :(
They increase my play-time and I love the challenge of trying to "beat" the bonus and cash-out a profit. They also give me a distinct stopping and withdrawing point, reducing the temptation to carry on playing if I have a good balance.

I very rarely, if ever, take any bonus under 100%, or where the WR is more than Bx40 (Bx30 is what I think the max SHOULD be at ALL casinos).
I have been known to occasionally take a high % Phantom bonus just for the fun of it and extra play-time, but I normally avoid these like the plague as you have to get over 100% RTP from your play to be able to cash-out any profit at all, which just seems ridiculous.

I do sometimes play without bonuses too, and I can see the appeal, but generally I would rather play with one.

KK
 
I used to love them... way back when... anyone else remember 2x, 4x, 5x bonus WR? hmmm? Such a shame it's come to what it is. And the MG Clearplay... ahhh... even with a 30x WR, if you were up $200 and wanted to chuck the bonus and cashout (without being banned and labeled a bonuses abuser)-- you could!

Now... when I do take a bonus, it's gotta be at least 100%. But most WR suck big time and I never make it.... For me, we're talking RTG, as there's only a couple places where my cards still work.

So... the majority of the time, I just forego the bonus and lose my own money in 5 minutes. Guess I've gone from being a lover to a hater. LOL
 

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