Philosophy of Bonuses

[petro]

I have a story similar to Casinomeister’s; “…remember when I bought a steak at Ralph's…”

What I am presenting is an example to explain how casinos should behave with bonuses.
My first job was at a ‘mini-supermarket’ when I was a teenager.
The manager told me that in the past when he offered bargains he found that a certain number of people would come in just for the bargains.
‘They would buy nothing else,’ he said. ‘I would rather burn it than give them a discount.’
He didn’t like the idea of anyone getting a ‘discounted lunch.’
So what he decided to do was very simple, he just stopped giving ‘true’ discounts.
Instead, he reduced the price of his goods, but not below the price at which he bought them for.
So this way, he is never losing out.

It seems to my mind that majority of online casinos have the same mindset as the owner of the supermarket. If a player wins a bonus, they would rather burn the money than give it to the player.
I think the manager in my story had the right answer to the problem.
You don’t want people buying bargains? Then don’t offer them.
The same should apply to casino bonuses.
Seems like common sense doesn’t it?
But the online casino’s lust for money interferes with their thinking.
They seem to believe that they can have the best of both worlds.
They want to attract the customer with big bonuses and at the same time not to payout when the bonus is won.

 

[threescatters]

I think the solution is simple enough...

Offer sign up bonuses which cost the casino a little but not anything near anything that would hurt the bottom line to attract players, and maybe monthly or occasionall reloads for every one that are similar. There is a fine line to be struck here, dont be so tight that noone signs up or deposits, but dont give away your bottom line as the casino either......

But ontop of that offer your proper customers, the ones that deposit without a bonus and play the games regularly, good bonuses - ones that the casino genuinely gives them something back on. This way everyone is happy. The customers who only deposit for a bonus - they only get the very tight/small occasional reload, but the real players get the good stuff. And everyone has some incentive to sign up and try.

 

[threescatters]

this thread doesnt seem to be a complaint from the OP either, maybe its better moved just to the normal casino forum mods?

 

[rockycatt]

my mentor told me this (never give up a profit and you will never go broke ]
and never never count some one else's money its there for a reason :notworthy

 

[Bencuri]

I have a story similar to Casinomeister’s; “…remember when I bought a steak at Ralph's…”

What I am presenting is an example to explain how casinos should behave with bonuses.
My first job was at a ‘mini-supermarket’ when I was a teenager.
The manager told me that in the past when he offered bargains he found that a certain number of people would come in just for the bargains.
‘They would buy nothing else,’ he said. ‘I would rather burn it than give them a discount.’
He didn’t like the idea of anyone getting a ‘discounted lunch.’
So what he decided to do was very simple, he just stopped giving ‘true’ discounts.
Instead, he reduced the price of his goods, but not below the price at which he bought them for.
So this way, he is never losing out.

It seems to my mind that majority of online casinos have the same mindset as the owner of the supermarket. If a player wins a bonus, they would rather burn the money than give it to the player.
I think the manager in my story had the right answer to the problem.
You don’t want people buying bargains? Then don’t offer them.
The same should apply to casino bonuses.
Seems like common sense doesn’t it?
But the online casino’s lust for money interferes with their thinking.
They seem to believe that they can have the best of both worlds.
They want to attract the customer with big bonuses and at the same time not to payout when the bonus is won.

Actually they are doing just the same what your manager when they give the bonuses. Usually (though there are several exceptions, too) bonuses come with such wagering requirements (that are not written right on the banners) that reduces the risk significantly on that a player can cash out. I didn't make detailed calculations, but I may even dare to say that by adding bonuses with particular wagering requirements, they have a higher chance to gain profit than in case the player would play without bonuses. Because if there is a cash out restriction included in the bonus terms, that makes it impossible for the player to cash out before the bonus is cleared, no matter what small amount he wins, an no matter how fast, it must remain on his balance, and the wagering rules guarantee that in many cases that balance will reach 0. Not every casino has such startegy, but many does. Some are more generous, some are less.

 

[takethemoney]

The problem with the bonuses is that the casinos are set so tight these days that those casinos that offer large % bonuses stand to lose nothing, overall. The playthough combined with the way the slots play tighter these days makes any hope of winning quite remote. I believe people are making smaller deposits these days and the casinos are offering large bonuses to attract people to deposit, at least more often. BetPhoenix has recently been offering bonuses as high as 750% with 35x playthrough and a 12x max cashout. What do you think the odds are of making playthough on that? Slim to none.

I've made several deposits there, but only taken the 110% bonus recently, because the playthough has only been 25x and there is no max cashout. Still, however, I have not been able to make playthrough on any bonus I have ever taken there. I used to play their 300% bonus. In all I believe I've made around 15 deposits there, with no gains ever. It's been that way everywhere for me this year. Surely the best way to go would be to not claim a bonus but as fast as my deposits have gone, even with bonuses, I'd never get any play time.

The bottom line is, there is just no value anymore. It hasn't always been that way. I used to make playthough and be able to cash out about once in 5 deposits, prior to a couple years ago. Now I have over 110 deposits at RTG casinos, 16 at MicroGaming, 30+ at rival and have never won anything in all of that. I keep stopping for a couple months, then go back and test the waters again. Bonuses have become a bad habit, both for the player, as well as the casino.

 

[petro]

I think the solution is simple enough...
Offer sign up bonuses which cost the casino a little but not anything near anything that would hurt the bottom line to attract players...

You know what happens then? The smart players go elsewhere.

The problem that I am facing is that even while taking all the offers the casinos I play at have. I am only getting +0.25%ER.
In other words accepting everything they give me only yeilds an extra quater of a percent onto the ER of the game.
Better put; the bonus is worthless.

I have seen other bonuses as well that add .00001% to the ER of a game.
It is debatable whether or not it is worth the cost in electricity to click on the accept bonus button.

This is the main issue I have encountered and many of the more reputable casinos have these worthless bonuses. But I guess thats why they are reputable because they give the player a 0% chance of winning anything. They always profit no matter what.

 

[vinylweatherman]

I think the solution is simple enough...

Offer sign up bonuses which cost the casino a little but not anything near anything that would hurt the bottom line to attract players, and maybe monthly or occasionall reloads for every one that are similar. There is a fine line to be struck here, dont be so tight that noone signs up or deposits, but dont give away your bottom line as the casino either......

But ontop of that offer your proper customers, the ones that deposit without a bonus and play the games regularly, good bonuses - ones that the casino genuinely gives them something back on. This way everyone is happy. The customers who only deposit for a bonus - they only get the very tight/small occasional reload, but the real players get the good stuff. And everyone has some incentive to sign up and try.

The impression is that many casinos offer silly bonuses to new players, and almost nothing to existing players. THEN they wonder why so many players take the welcome bonus and move on. Players have LEARNED that loyalty is punished, and what is rewarded is DISloyalty. Now this behavour has become "hard wired", and players don't EXPECT their loyalty to count for much, so they don't give it.

The casinos that DO reward loyalty have a problem showing to their new players that they WILL be rewarded for sticking around.

Even where loyal players get regular offers, there is no connection between what they get, and how much they have played. You can deposit 100 one week, and get 150% up to 100 as your regular offer, and the next week deposit 1000, only to get a WORSE 25% up to 100 offer next time around. This teaches the player that more play leads to LESS reward, so why deposit 1000 next time when 100 got a better offer. This then makes them look around for better offers for the other 900 the following week.

It is only when players have had every welcome bonus there is, that casinos have a chance to compete with regular offers.

One good tactic is NOT to deposit when your loyalty offer "takes the piss", but to ignore them for a while. This often leads to a BETTER offer a few weeks later, once they realise you have NOT "fallen for their little games", but are probably spending that money elsewhere.

If this tactic does NOT work, it is an easy way to identify which casinos simply do NOT value your custom, and have NO interest in getting it back when it appears that you have moved on.

Red Flush demonstrated this silliness last month. The "mystery day" was preceeded by 7 qualifying days, and it was "the more you play, the more you get".

BOLLOCKS

I barely played La Vida, but played over a GRAND at Red Flush during the qualifying period.

On the day, free spins at La Vida. Not much, and yielded less than £10. Expected given that I had barely played.

So, what did my much more significant play at Red Flush earn me on mystery day.......


NOTHING


Same again THIS week. They are AGAIN saying "more you play, more you get" with the "ludicrous lucky draw" promo.

Well, "once bitten......................"

They won't be seeing ANOTHER grand off me to "qualify" this time around. Probably no more than the 200 on Wednesday and Saturday for the regular offers. I get £100 worth of free spins as a DEFINED benefit for the 200 deposits on each day, so I am not drawn to deposit an extra grand or two for what might be another 30 spins yielding less than £10, or maybe even NOTHING again.

Who knows, I might win MORE for depositing LESS this time around, we shall see

 

[felicie]

You might at that VWM. I was just looking at my purchasing history at JC re RJP I had won 2 years ago and found it interesting because during the week of my 2 wins I had indeed used a couple of bonus' or freechips, one was from CM and then another one leading up to my RJP. And still more interesting was between every transaction I redeemed my comp points. I never do that. I wish I kept a record of these plays LOL. Especially that week since I won around 9 grand.