Captain Cooks Bonus Terms

question

Stanford,
Your last statment there, I just digested that one. That's very interresting to hear. I'd really appreaciate hearing your thoughts on that subject....anybody's for that matter. Maybe this isn't the time or place, but I'm flexible so any means you suggest of facilitating this would be fine by me.
JD
 
Question for Trick

Hi Trick,
Are you happy with my explanation of the way things transpired with Belle's reply to you regarding your Wagering question?
I'm not entirely sure if I should bother, but if you are satisfied that this was a minor misunderstanding, I would like to provide this Danish portal with the same chance to review their thoughts on the matter.
We have a great many European Players who receive the exact same prompt and courteous attention as anybody else. My feelings are mixed on the fact that they didn't see fit to consult with us on the matter prior to penalising us.
I can say now tho', that even (hopefully) a resolution and explanation has been provided, if you had brought this situation to our attention, you would have been treated fairly and generously.Thanks my friend, I'd appreciate the chance to contact them.
JohnD
Integrity Casinos'
 
willy said:
If however,we were to provide this opportunity to every player regardless of their history or motives for accepting Bonus funds from the casino ... would be a disaster.Within days we would be forced to withdraw our offer. The groups and individuals we are protecting ourselves from are organised and ruthless with their endeavours and the fact that every genuine player seeking entertainment with the possability of rewards... is effected by their behaviour is a reality.

Just a few points on this:

1) You did provide this opportunity (not to rewager transferred funds) to every player at the same time as having a much lower wagering requirement - and this lasted for months, not days, so it might be an exaggeration to say it would be a disaster.

2) Having said that, I know the way you organised your bonus before was a liability and it was one of the wonders of the modern world that it lasted so long.

3) The reason that it did last so long was presumbably that if people didn't play it the right way they had a low chance of transferring anything and were likely to make a loss. The bonus account, if played in the way you wanted it to be played, was likely to end up trapping the player's bonus funds (with the limit on funds that could be transferred - and then another high limit on the amount that could be withdrawn). Your current monthly bonus is also little more than a trap. Forgive me in these circumstances for having little sympathy if bonus hunters were able to avoid the trap.

4) I think your comment about "ruthless" and "organised" groups and individuals is true to an extent but fairly hypocritical. Casinos are as ruthless as the sharpest bonus hunters out there in trying to extract as much money as possible from players. If while trying to set up a bonus scheme to maximise your profits you leave it so that it almost guarantees significant profits if played in a certain way then that's your mistake. You should accept it in good grace (and learn lessons for the future) rather than attacking people for taking advantage of it.

5) From my fairly extensive experience "organised" and "ruthless" isn't an accurate description of most bonus hunters. They're just people who've stumbled upon an easy way of making some money. They tend to follow some basic rules, but only a few approach it in a truly business-like manner.

6) It's true that it's a shame for "recreational players" if bonuses end up having ridiculous terms, but then these are players for whom bonuses probably aren't of great significance anyway. Bonus hunters exploiting bonuses are mainly hurting future bonus hunters who'll make a bit less money, but that's just the way it is. They also gives you an excuse to make the terms more ridiculous than necessary ;)
 
Hi again, JohnD!

It is nice that you are taking the time and effort to respond to this. I'll try to make it short:

In defence of Our crew member Belle her reply to Trick was accurate and tho' a mistake was made, it's perfectly understandable. The player makes no mention of playing thru wagering requirments on his deposit(only his Bonus) in his email to her. As I understand something of the process involved here, I would say that she may have assumed this player was indeed referring to a withdrawal from his Competition Account, as the player was indeed still engaged in play in that particular account.

I ask about when I can make a withdrawal. The answer is wrong. I cannot make a withdrawal after fulfilling the terms as is stated in the mail. When I ask "when can I make a withdrawal" I am not asking "when can I make a transfer from my bonus account into my real account". While this seems like a small and understandable error it did infact mean that I had to go through 3 times the WR I expected when depositing. I have taken a second look at your T&Cs and you are always using "transfer" in regard to bonus accounts and "withdrawal" in regard to deposit accounts.

It is a common mistake though, the Danish portal I spoke about wrote your support several times and got different answers as to WRs (and they were not engaged in play at all).

You wrote to Stanford:
I'd like to challenge your opinions on the matter of winnings being the sum of amounts transferred from Competition to Deposit Accounts.
You might want to challenge your T&Cs also. This is from CCCs T&C:
Prizes/Winnings can be transferred from a Bonus Account to Deposit Account once all wagering requirements on the bonus have been met.
Since there is WR on non-VIPs deposit accounts it is pretty obvious that WRs are applied to winnings. It is not a matter of wording or perspective.
I'm not entirely sure if I should bother, but if you are satisfied that this was a minor misunderstanding, I would like to provide this Danish portal with the same chance to review their thoughts on the matter.
They probably would if "my case" was the reason for the removal but I only made them aware that the terms for CCC on their page was different from what it was in reality. After contacting you a couple of times with different answers, they finally got the correct terms and decided to exclude you from their list. They did this because they found that your terms penalize players who win.

I do not represent them and I will not mention names here, but I will point them to this thread so they can respond if they wish to. They are quite big if that is what you mean with "I'm not entirely sure if I should bother".

I am a danish player and we are generally seen as the root of all evil - your own casino has excluded danish players from different offers, so I didn't bring it to your attention at the time because I didn't think it would make any difference. I don't seek any resolution or anything. I followed the terms, completed my obligations, and decided that "dynamic WR" was not my cup of tee....
 
reply

OK , Thanks everybody for the frank discussion. I don't want to perpetuate this thread. Vesuvio, it certainly would be nice if we only had to deal with Bonus Hunters as you describe them and if The Danish Portal has contacted us, I can find no record of the event. I'm glad I could help out here, I hope that I have provided some assistance.
You can all be sure that we, at least are willing to listen and discuss any reasonable concerns.
Thanks again everybody.
 
back

Since this is a open and frank discussion, I feel that I should add a few points in reply to these last two posts.
For precisely the reasons I mentioned earlier and thanks to a "ruthless and organised" few.... ALL Players now receive reduced Bonus rewards as New Players with us. This is no deception or "exaggeration" it's a fact.
Point three from Vesuvio is a very good description af gambling in general, tho', the statment
" if played in the way you wanted it to be played, was likely to end up trapping the player's bonus funds (with the limit on funds that could be transferred - and then another high limit on the amount that could be withdrawn). "
The way we wanted it to be played? I'm not sure what this means. We certainly do take Play sequences into account when building our systems (what business wouldn't?) we actually have no control or influence over players decisions.
"5) From my fairly extensive experience "organised" and "ruthless" isn't an accurate description of most bonus hunters. They're just people who've stumbled upon an easy way of making some money. They tend to follow some basic rules, but only a few approach it in a truly business-like manner."
Vesuvio, I wasn't actually referring to "Bonus Hunters"with my comment. In fact, you may not be aware, there exist other groups and individuals who defy this innocent handle. I don't really want to go into any further detail, but with "extensive experience" you'd be aware of the existance of these people.
We advertise and Promote our Rewards programs so that our Players, be they "Bonus Hunters" or not are able to take advantage of the most funds we are sensibly able to provide for them. It's actually what we use our Promotions Department for.If you feel that, after reading our Terms and Conditions, our Wagering Conditions are "ridiculous" your next decision should be very easy.

Hi Trick,
I have no desire to challenge our Terms and Conditions.


Note:

Progressive games (such as Major Millions, Cashsplash etc): These types of games cannot be played with a Bonus Account.

The minimum amount you may transfer from your Bonus Account to your Deposit Account is 50 casino chips.

For all Non-VIP players: Any transfers from your Bonus Account to your Deposit Account are also subject to the below wagering requirements.

Deposit Account:
(Unless otherwise stated in the terms of a bonus or promotion)

You must meet the wagering requirements on your bonus through play in your Bonus Account (details above) and you must meet the wagering requirements stated below on your Deposit Account before a withdrawal will be allowed:


I've said earlier that T & C's are posted for every player (and Portal) to read and understand prior to depositing with us.Any experienced player will say this is good advice.
Fair enough, you don't accept that there was room for innocent mistakes with your enquiry to Belle, but our Terms and Conditions certainly didn't differ from reality as you say? Thanks again for your thoughts.
JohnD
Inyegrity Casinos
 
Willy,

Thanks for taking the time to respond on this forum. I think your position on the bonus terms and conditions is reasonable - having to wager transferred funds obviously makes the offer less appealing, but I don't see it as being much different to increasing wagering requirements or banning particular games.

I understand you don't want to go into too much detail about "bonus abuse" and for different reasons I'd rather not either. The point about "the way you wanted the bonus to be played" was that there was a small change you could have made in the way you administered the bonus (without changing the terms and conditions) which would have significantly reduced the appeal to bonus hunters.

I do of course realise there are people who approach bonus hunting professionally, or ruthlessly, if you prefer, though there's a fine line. If I tell 20 people how to profit from a casino bonus I'm doing nothing wrong, but it may cost you more money in the end (as they tell their friends etc.) than one clear "bonus abuser" who does the offer 20 times on the same computer. The key from a casino's point of view must be to make an offer such that while being attractive it isn't too attractive, in which case whether there's fraud or not you're likely to get into trouble. But of course I realise you know much more about this than me & must be aware of forms of abuse which I don't have an inkling about!
 
Hi All,

Since this has gone from a complaint to a discussion adn debate about bonus terms, I've moved it here. Thanks "willy" for your highly-valued participation.
 
Willy:

I've said earlier that T & C's are posted for every player (and Portal) to read and understand prior to depositing with us.Any experienced player will say this is good advice.
Fair enough, you don't accept that there was room for innocent mistakes with your enquiry to Belle, but our Terms and Conditions certainly didn't differ from reality as you say? Thanks again for your thoughts.
Yes, there is room for mistakes - thats why I wrote your support later to be sure and got a different answer which I then passed on to the portal because the terms posted on their website differed from what I was told by your support. The portal then wrote your support about how to enterpret the terms at CCC and got this answer with a pretty clear example:
Thanks for your email.

It is true that you must wager any bonus, and the deposit used to claim the bonus at least 10 times (35 times on Blackjack and Video Poker).

So, if you deposited $100 and received a $200 bonus, you must wager the $200 bonus 10-35 times before you can transfer it or withdraw it, and you must wager the $100 10-35 times before you may withdraw.

I hope this was helpful; let me know if you have any other questions.
Kindest regards,
Forby Riou
The Endeavours Second Lieutenant
"Great Luck From Stern To Bow, Me Hearty!"
(I have this mail because it was posted in the thread where I asked the portal to check the terms). This is actually quite similar to the answer I myself got in the first place. But it is not how the terms work in reality....

As an experienced player I always read the terms carefully. When in doubt I contact the support, because I know it is important to fully understand under what terms you are playing. I always follow the terms to the letter.

That is also why I do not like that there is no way I can possibly predict what amount I will need to wager to be able to make a withdrawal if I win. I know progressives are excluded from this but hitting a RSF or any significant win is a much less enjoyable experience when you know the WR is going through the roof at the same time.
 
casinomeister said:
Hi All,

Since this has gone from a complaint to a discussion adn debate about bonus terms, I've moved it here. Thanks "willy" for your highly-valued participation.

Hi Meister,

When I first did the review, I gave these bonus terms a thumbs down. With all the give and take, there is really very little different than what I described and the bonus progam still deserves a thumbs down.

Does it just drop off by itself? I think it is helpful for new players that are smart enough to do a search on a casino as it indicates a warning.

Stanford
 
Stanford said:
Hi Meister,

When I first did the review, I gave these bonus terms a thumbs down. With all the give and take, there is really very little different than what I described and the bonus progam still deserves a thumbs down.

Does it just drop off by itself? I think it is helpful for new players that are smart enough to do a search on a casino as it indicates a warning.

Stanford
I removed the "thumbs down" since I took it as a complaint; after reviewing the thread I felt that it was more or less a debate between a number of people both pro and con. (that's why I moved it back here). But since it was your initial thread, and your initial opinion - I'll let you have your thumb back.
 
Trick

Hi Again Matey,
If there was something in particular that wasn't clear in our T & C's in your initial reading of them that prompted you to email our CSC staff for clarification, please let me know? I'd be glad to take this up with The Captain and have changes made if necessary.
We prefer them to be clear and concise for to avoid precisely what has happened here.If whatever staff member replied to you or the Portal by just re posting our T & C's cut/pasted from our website it would appear a little rude.
JohnD
Integrity Casinos
 
willy said:
Clayman, I'm unsure of protocols to follow here, but I'll certainly check into your mysteriously acquired VIP status for you.

Hi Willy
Sorry for the delay in replying but I was away for the weekend.

Once again I think you may mis-understand. I don't really care how I became a VIP. My only issue is how you expect a player to think he might be one given your website's definition of a VIP. Especially a player like me who had only done 2 cashouts in over 2 years, always playing with a bonus and always profiting.

Medusa quoted your website to you but then you replied:

willy said:
Hi Medusa,
This statment is a guide to our players.The way it reads back a few posts with "nothing less will suffice"attached is in no way it's intended drift. I'm not sure where this came from but I'm certain that it's not on our website.

How you can interpret, or expect a normal person to interpret

"How Do I Become A VIP? Players are required to deposit a minimum of $600 and wager at least 50,000 casino credits in their deposit account. Its that easy!
Once you have met these requirements be sure to drop Barney the Rewards Bosun a line at: barney@cccecom.com so that you can be added to the VIP list and start taking advantage of all the fantastic promotions we have to offer!
* Players can be removed from the Vip list at Captain Cooks discretion.
** Players seen to be taking advantage of promotions for more than an enjoyable gaming experience may be removed from the Vip list."

as a guideline is beyond me. But so be it. To me, it leaves little "wriggle" room. If you actually think this is not on your website, look again. It is a little hard to find though - I'll give you that.

When you said

willy said:
Hi Medusa,
Regardless, , we needed numbers, we couldn't just say....prove to us that you are genuinly treating our sites as entertainment and not involved in outright profiteering from every single generous Bonus you receive.

I don't know why you couldn't just say that. Especially since that is exactly what you do. Heaven forbid you actually say what you actually do.

I hope you seriously consider making a language change to your current definition of a VIP to more closely reflect the reality of what you actually do.
 
Thanks

"If I e-mailed you guys would you be able to tell me when that status was bestowed upon me? Just curious. The CSR seemed to think if one made any purchase at all, as opposed to only using the free chip, he was a VIP because it shows a willingness to risk your own money."

I'm sure the above was in your post earlier matey, but since it doesn't seem to be an issue with you any longer I'll leave it be. Thanks again all, it's been great to have some interraction. Please feel free to contact us with any problems you may have.
JohnD
Integrity Casinos
 
I just checked and much to my surprise, I am indeed a VIP at CCC. No idea how long I have been this and I'm sure the "wager 50.000" rule don't apply to me... Would have liked to be informed since it might have saved me a few hundred bucks, but I think that the lack of information regarding player status has been covered in this thread already, so no need to adress it again.

As to why I wrote support: I have not seen such T&Cs before and do not have a bouns account any other place. I was in doubt whether the "same" bonus wagering (10x) had to be done in both accounts or not... When I read the terms now after having been involved in this quite indepth and extensive thread I am in no doubt as to how to understand the terms. But as I said: at the time the concept of bonus accounts was new to me and I wanted to make sure I had understood it correctly... I read the terms under the assumption that I was not a VIP player...

Edit: I informed the portal in question about this thread some days ago and it is up to them to respond if they wish to. I'll remind them once more...
 
Last edited:
willy said:
"If I e-mailed you guys would you be able to tell me when that status was bestowed upon me? Just curious. The CSR seemed to think if one made any purchase at all, as opposed to only using the free chip, he was a VIP because it shows a willingness to risk your own money."

I'm sure the above was in your post earlier matey, but since it doesn't seem to be an issue with you any longer I'll leave it be. Thanks again all, it's been great to have some interraction. Please feel free to contact us with any problems you may have.
JohnD
Integrity Casinos

Thanks Willy - you're right :)

Anyway since I had only made 2 cashouts in 2 + years, I guess I can guess. But it's nice to know you would tell me if I asked. Which is really all I wanted to know - that is if you have the capability or not of knowing when you bestowed the status.

Plus, since I'm everything you appear to not want in a player, a serial promotion "abuser" who plays by the rules and has won all 3 times I've played, who hasn't even now deposited $600 and is still over $40,000 short in real account wagers, I'm afraid you may actually decide that your computer made a mistake in awarding me this status and revoke my VIP status which, as you clearly state, is your right. What"** Players seen to be taking advantage of promotions for more than an enjoyable gaming experience may be removed from the Vip list." means is anyone's guess. Most players, I think, would interpret this to mean "If you play only with promos and win, we will screw you because we can." And that's OK too.

It is the computer that awards the status rather than a subjective decision by management on a case-by-case basis, is it not?

Thanks again for offering, though. And, to your credit, you could probably figure out who I am anyway from the info I have given thruout the thread, if you really wanted to. So my guess is that it is not that big a deal to you.

Trick - I'm sure there are many hundreds, just like you and me, who are not alone in reading the T&C under the assumption you are not a VIP and of being quite surprised to discover your status and yet have never been informed of it. Unfortunately, the majority of these people will never know what their status actually is.

I just don't see why CCC can't extract all VIP's from their database and send them an e-mail tomorrow saying "We are pleased to inform you that you have VIP status with us". What can possibly be so difficult about that, I wonder?

And thanks again for participating in the dialogue, willy.
 
reply

Thanks guys, I'm really happy that this discussion has taken place. It's cumbersome and tricky to accuratly portray ideas etc. via this medium, but all of you have been very forthrite and patient and I thank you for that.
This is a great site for airing views and we try to reasonably respond to as many posts that benefit from our response as possible.
I've taken up your point Clayman about emailing our VIP players, tho , I think that our automated system will take care of this situation before we get to the database. Of coarse there's a lot to be said for the email idea, but there's a few negatives as well.I don't think you all need to hear them... I do think it's a good idea tho' and will be looking into the possibality of doing something along those lines.To be honest until you guys brought this to my attention, I personally, had never really thought of VIP notification as a urgent issue. As stated, it's something we are currently building systems for, but quite possibly we'll need to do something in the interim. Thanks again, yer a great crew and welcome at Captains and the Kingdom anytime(regardless of winning on our Bonuses). Take the Best of Care All.
JohnD
Integrity Casinos
 
willy said:
To be honest until you guys brought this to my attention, I personally, had never really thought of VIP notification as a urgent issue.

It's only of some importance because of the possible very substantial effect it has on wagering requirements. Not to beat a dead horse.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you for your open-minded consideration of the issues here and taking the time, as you did, to jump in these sometimes potentially unfriendly waters.

Next suggestion - how about some plain old 100/100 wager $7000 deals? :D :D
 
hey, i'm relatively new here but i saw this thread and want to offer my 2 cents based on my own personal experience with cook

i deposited 100$ real money and received 200$ bonus, while playing with the bonus account, i made a surprising profit by playing blackjack 10$ a hand. I had 800$ in my bonus account when i fullfilled my bonus wr and transferred. i then played the 4000$ wr i THOUGHT would be enough to cover all bases and attempted to cash out.

after repeated communication with captain cook (faxing over my id docs), where they assured me everything was fine. about a week later they informed me they reversed the cashout because of these NEW terms and b/c i'm not a VIP member.

very surprised, i asked them why. they said i had to basically 800 * 35 more!! 28,000 more wr before i can cash out. imagine my surprise!! not to mention the fact that i should only wager 35 * my winnings which was 600 (200 was bonus money that i had already fullfilled wr on) and i have to do that within 7 days!!!!!

c'mon get real, these terms effectively negates any profit you can make from your bonus account, its a sad thing when the best alternative is to hope you break EVEN from your bonus account play so you dont have to fulfill any outstanding ridiculously high wr in such a short time frame

i have to agree with the thread starter and give cook a :THUMBS DOWN:
 
Actually I went back and deposited just to try it out once more. Got the monthly bonus and lost it.. Played my own deposit and went up and down through the WR untill I finished with a huge 15$ overall win :)

I don't like the seperate accounts. I won't be playing the monthly bonus again. It feels like putting a WR on a normal deposit to be able to play with "play money" in a different account. To me, it just don't feel like a real bonus.

Maybe you could put somewhere in the T&C if WR carry over... I lost my bonus long before reaching the WR and I can't see anywhere if WR carry over to the next bonus... If you do write something be sure to make it clear how WR carry over BOTH for bonus accounts and real accounts.

Oh and one last thing... You should think about removing this rule:
All wagering requirements must be met within 7 days of the bonus being credited to the player account or the promotional bonus will be subject to deduction from the player's account.
Other than that, thanks again for a nice discussion. I wont be playing your bonuses the way it is designed, but maybe I'm not the kind of player you wish to attract anyways... :)
 
It is a nightmare for beginners - but don't underestimate the autoplay. If you've got $800 extra you're more or less guaranteed a large profit. At fastest settings you can get up to 2000 hands an hour & you can take off 10% (or more) of the number of hands to take account of doubling and splitting. With a good connection and leaving your computer running for a day you can do it playing $1 hands. Your expected loss is only about $100, leaving you with an expected $700 profit.

Having said that I do agree it's not an ideal bonus system for the player.
 
Vesuvio said:
It is a nightmare for beginners - but don't underestimate the autoplay. If you've got $800 extra you're more or less guaranteed a large profit. At fastest settings you can get up to 2000 hands an hour & you can take off 10% (or more) of the number of hands to take account of doubling and splitting. With a good connection and leaving your computer running for a day you can do it playing $1 hands. Your expected loss is only about $100, leaving you with an expected $700 profit.

Having said that I do agree it's not an ideal bonus system for the player.


hi, my personal results aside (i'll tell the story later on if there's time, basically i did as you suggested by w/ very surprising results) i just want everbody to know what these t&c feels like from a player's perspective:

most players play at a casino for FUN, win or lose, the main objective for a recreational player is FUN. the OBVIOUS pre-requisite of having "fun" is to be able to stop when you're "NOT HAVING FUN". and you can stop having fun for a variety of reasons, it doesn't have to be when you lose, it could also be when you're tired, bothered, bored, or have other committments (like a job)

now here comes this online casino that says 'here, try our site, we'll give you some free money if you play with some of your own money'

the player say 'great! what's the catch?'

casino 'well, you have to play a certain number of hands, regardless of you win or not, and regardless if you're having fun or not'

player 'well, i really don't want to keep playing longer if i'm not having fun, but i guess i can tough it out a little longer since i do get something extra'

now consider the following 2 scenarios:

scenario 1: player plays and lose, player is not having fun anymore, but he is still required to keep playing before he can cash out any remaining money that he has left

scenario 2: player plays and win (w/ bonus account), but now he has to play EVEN MORE (significantly more) hands before he can cash out ANYTHING, well player is also not having fun anymore; player thinks 'well, i hope i stop winning b/c i have to goto work in the next week and don't have time to play all those EXTRA hands' (it's a sad day when you hope you STOP winning for the sake of future)

so regardless of if you win or lose, you will stop having fun playing there: you lose you have to play more hands, you win you have to play EVEN MORE hands. why would you play there? I think i will stick with the casinos from now on that tell you beforehand when you can quit....
 
trick said:
Oh and one last thing... You should think about removing this rule:All wagering requirements must be met within 7 days of the bonus being credited to the player account or the promotional bonus will be subject to deduction from the player's account.

I have never cashed out within 7 days of purchase, or even close. They have never enforced this "rule". Different CSR's have told me they rarely, if ever, enforce it. At least here, unlike the VIP status rule, they use the word "subject to" rather than "required". So the way I read it, they are merely maintaining their right to do this without saying whether they will or not.

Essentially it contributes to the over-all impression that CCC is not real bonus-player friendly. Because, yes, it sure is easy to think this is what they will do.

I don't like the 2 separate accounts either as a $50 bankroll*35 is essentially unplayable for me. Now if I had the whole $150 in the same account, it would be a different story.

I would gladly play the 100/216 wager 11,060 every day.

Matters aren't helped by where the definition of VIP is. You really have to look long and hard to find it.
 
Clayman said:
I don't like the 2 separate accounts either as a $50 bankroll*35 is essentially unplayable for me. Now if I had the whole $150 in the same account, it would be a different story.

I would gladly play the 100/216 wager 11,060 every day.

I got confirmation from CCC's CRS that players can request to close the bonus account, keeping only the REAL account but the bonus money will be smaller.

For their monthly bonus:

"Deposit $100 and the Captain will sail a $50 bonus into your bonus account.

If you do not have a bonus account you will receive a $25 bonus into your deposit account. "
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top