When it comes to gambling I absolutely do, which is why I've not had an issue with them in 15 years.
Can you provide the reference to the study that concluded that "virtually no one reads terms on the internet"?
Newsflash - You might want to read my post again. I said that Mgs DO limit bets in some circumstances, but ONLY at a certain bet level. Rival cannot AFAIK enforce max bets that change depending on the player's deposit, but you're saying they can. I call BS on that, and I'm almost certain ms sloto would confirm it.
So, your statement about "if Rival can anyone can" is totally erroneous.
Sorry, but you'll have to find a different "players are victims" excuse.
I think people forget that bonus money is the casinos money....not the players. Nobody gives anything for nothing. If casinos just said "here's $50 with your $50 deposit now do whatever you like...cash it out whatever" they'd be out of business in a week. The casinos need to protect themselves from advantage players who spend all their time trawling for loopholes to clean them out, and they are within their rights to set whatever restrictions they see fit.....players can then decide if they want the bonus. If a player just accepts the money without any due diligence, then its tough biscuits.
Now the OP is saying he "didn't know" about the bonus and that there would be any terms. Oh please....he's been lurking for years, and knows full well what the go is with bonuses. Its a desperate ploy to get back the winnings HE caused to be confiscated. Why should he not be held to the same terms as others just because he didn't read them? Its ridiculous, and allowing it would be an insult to those who do actually read bonus terms and comply with them.
They wouldn't, but any reasonable person would at least expect them to "say" in some way, "here is a 100% bonus for this deposit, please check the terms if you want it, or ask us to remove it if you don't". This did not happen here, and it does not matter how far into play a bonus is credited, it still sneaks in unannounced and not asked for. They can DEFINITELY do something about this by having an opt-in stage where players are asked whether they would like to opt in to receive the welcome bonus.
The reason casinos do this is pretty obvious, not that they will ever admit it, the bonus IS intended as a snare, designed to keep players playing in the same way that land casinos cleverly hide the exit from plain view and never have clocks on the gaming floor to remind players just how long they have spent there. The bonus is -EV, so is designed to give a long term advantage to casinos at the expense of naïve "recreational players". It takes a mathematically inclined "advantage player" to turn the tables on the house and shift the EV into positive territory, and this is something that makes the casinos squeal with indignation.
I am also concerned that in this case the website may have been engineered to steer new registrants away from the nasty smallprint by pushing them down a registration and deposit pathway that bypasses the terms and conditions pages.
YOU don't get fooled by such marketing trickery as like me, you are an experienced player. New players, however, are lambs to the slaughter, and often get stung a few times before they learn the ropes. Oddly enough, casinos don't seem to like players who have "learned the ropes", deeming them "advantage players" or "professional".
Good news though for some, here in the UK the ASA have been rapping some UK facing casinos over the knuckles for this "industry standard" practice of overly highlighting the positive, and tucking the negative, such as nasty terms, away in places that require some effort to find, let alone read.
I have come upon casinos where it has taken me a fair while to find the terms and conditions, and have had to bypass some of their web trickery in some cases merely to access them.
I have seen many sites where you see an offer such as "register and claim 100% etc", and when I click on it, I am presented with the download, and NOT some further and more detailed information about the offer, which would include limitations, and of course the terms and conditions. A naïve players would believe that this meant any terms and conditions would be presented further along the path they have been lead down, and they are, but they are the terms of use for the casino client software, not those the player REALLY needs to read. There is also no information about HOW the bonus is claimed and awarded, nor how to play without one.
In fact, it takes some considerable effort to NOT get the welcome bonus when you sign up, even though we are told by many operators that they don't really like giving out such good welcome bonuses, but have been forced to by the way the market has developed.
Surely they should be pleased when they get a player who just does not care much for bonuses and having to play slots, but instead it seems these are the players that tend to have the hardest time, either in getting a bonus removed, or in getting to just deposit and play without having to worry about a bonus being slipped in without notification.
Now, this being the Palace Group, rather than some mediocre non accredited casino, players expect something better than "what everybody else does", else what is the point of having accreditation.
Before names were revealed, I was expecting this to involve one of the white label Playtech casinos, many of whom habitually slip small bonuses into accounts during play as "manager chips", and some then use as a means to confiscate winnings from players who didn't claim anything on that deposit, and had no idea that they had "won" any kind of free chip, nor that it had been awarded during play.
