If I play I do tend to use all the rebuys, this is because slots, especially Thunderstruck, are high variance. It is often a single spin that makes the difference between a good score and an ordinary or bad one.
I hope you don't mind if I say this looks awfully like fruity emptying tactics rather than common sense?
There would be limited circumstances in which multiple rebuys would be warranted - if, for example, you were nowhere near the leaderboard, why in the world would you even waste any more money chasing a prize?
Just because TS is high variance doesn't mean it's going to hit if you use all your rebuys. What you ought to be doing is simply waiting for the next tourney.
This high variance can also favour the very patient player, simply play the first round (free) of every Thunderstruck tournament and hope the big hit during free spins comes along. You could wait ages for a payout, but it will be free, and immediately withdrawable.
As I was saying above... you need to maximize your chances, not just throw good money after bad.
I suspect there would be far fewer players if they thought about the house edge as compared with normal play.
There aren't that many players to begin with - most are waiting on the freebies, cheapskates like me
The other big tourneys, I take one shot - if I'm nowhere near the leaderboard, that's it, no point in counting on high variance to take me through, just a waste of money. If, on the other hand, I'm within striking distance of a decent payout, then I chase. I don't blindly use up all rebuys every tourney.
If MG were forced to reveal that all along this speculation was correct, and they had been pocketing 50% or so of all the tournament revenue, I bet there would be a huge drop in the bond of trust that players get a fair return on the games in general.
Even if they pocketed 100%, it wouldn't be an issue - first of all, they cough up quite a lot of free money. Secondly, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that anywhere near 50% of players in any tourney are using up all their rebuys, 5% would even be debatable.
I have the software booted 16 hours a day, and I play 4-5 freebies, allowing for cancellations, or sky-colored sock toys forgetting to register
My impression is that they are taking a huge LOSS to make these tourneys work.