Dear all,
I was sent a link to this forum post by our customer service manager. I regret the negative experience some of you had with our brand, and obviously I’d like to take the opportunity to explain ourselves here.
First of all, I’d like to say that we are definitely not a dodgy operator, nor do we try to mislead our players. We’d like to think of ourselves as anything but misleading. We pride ourselves for being clear and honest. Any negative feedback will be thoroughly reviewed, and used to provide our players with an even better experience.
Bonus explanation
Besides an extended explanation of our bonus terms, which we invested a lot of time and effort in writing precisely to ensure they’re as clear as possible, we also provide a brief summary of our deposit bonus terms during the deposit process. We've actually added this extra step to the deposit process to ensure our players understand any bonus terms which apply to them. We did this because we know it’s tempting not to read the terms and conditions. By having players select the bonus manually, and giving them this overview, our aim is to ensure they understand how the bonus works. If this still isn't clear enough, we definitely have to review the process again.
The following example comes from
. We reviewed the content on this page many times with our content team. We have always believed it explains our terms simply and clearly:
• You deposit $10.
• We give you a $10 bonus.
• Your total balance is now $20.
• To clear the $10 bonus money (and any possible bonus winnings) for withdrawal, you’ll need to wager $350 in total ($10 x 35). Only wagers made using your cash balance count towards the wagering requirements.
So if a player wins $400 with his/her bonus money, he/she can release the $410 ($400 + $10) by meeting the wagering requirement for the bonus amount received: $10x35 = $350. Contrary to what’s been stated earlier in this thread, there’s absolutely no need to wager 35x the bonus winnings as well.
Why we chose this bonus structure
Like every casino, we like to offer a player a nice incentive to join Royal Panda. After you join us, and deposit and receive your welcome bonus, you will start by betting with your cash balance first. The advantage of this is that you will be able to withdraw any winnings resulting from these cash balance bets immediately, as opposed to a scenario where you would start playing using your bonus balance first and therefore would need to meet the wagering requirements before you can withdraw any of your winnings. The latter situation will not occur at Royal Panda.
Only once your cash balance runs out, do you start using your bonus balance to play. It is true that your bonus balance – and any winnings resulting from betting with your bonus balance – can only be released with cash balance bets (as explained above). This is to protect us against fraud. And what we often see is that players with relatively high bonus winnings deposit a cash amount that is much lower than the amount of those bonus winnings, but are still able to meet the wagering requirements with cash bets to able to withdraw their bonus winnings along with the cash balance.
Of course, any bonus system always needs to find the right balance between protecting the casino from fraud and allowing the players a chance to win money with their bonus and still be able to realistically release and withdraw it. And we do honestly believe that our system provides players with this opportunity.
I hope the above explains our terms and philosophy. In case there are any further questions or remarks on this we will be happy to answer them.
Best regards,
Mark - Royal Panda