A 150 per cent bonus on your first deposit sounds tempting, doesn’t it? On top of that, there are 50 free spins in your favourite slot and you can increase your chances of massive winnings with only a small stake. Plus, there’s more or less free gaming fun. This is how online casinos and sports betting providers fill the welcome profile of their websites.
In the meantime, there are probably hardly any gambling operators who do without advertising bonuses or other offers. Nice gifts invite you to play relaxed and with pleasure. But thanks to these many bonuses, more and more players are trying their hand at hunting and go on the prowl. Ingenious ways have been devised to earn money with bonus hunting. Not infrequently with profitable results. However, not all players can understand the system of hunting, whereby a lot of money is often gambled away. In the Richard Casino review, you can find out about the best current bonuses.
What is a bonus hunt?
Bonus hunting” is a term that is mainly associated with so-called “advantage players”. This is because the advantage player is a person who is essentially after casino promotions, such as bonuses or rewards, and wants to exploit them to his advantage. Of course, in order to make a profit in the end. If the advantages and promotions of different providers are used simultaneously and/or during a session, the player goes on a bonus hunt.
Nowadays, there are almost no gambling providers that do not offer bonuses. After all, not only the best online casinos offer bonuses for new customers to invite them to play. It is good for the individual casino, but for the player, is it a legitimate chance to win or a fraudulent tactic?
What are the arguments in favour of bonuses, bonuses, etc.?
There are different variations on how reward promotions are structured. You will not always be able to find all options on a single gaming portal. But if you are lucky, it means that the website takes great care to ensure that users have the widest possible choice of reward programmes. The methods that are most common among providers are:
- Free spins without deposit
- Bonus credit without deposit
- Bonus credit with deposit
- Cashback
You are “given” extra credit to play with. The cash reward is a very popular welcome gift offered by gambling providers. This is usually given out as part of a welcome gift after initial registration. This may be some cash as a reward amount that can only be used for playing or some free spins for popular games, depending on the case.
If you want to make a deposit yourself after initial registration, you will mostly receive a reward of 50 to 200 percent on your first deposit. With a 100 per cent deposit bonus, 50 euros becomes 100 euros. Here, too, every gambling provider has its own procedure. Basically, however, they all follow the same concept, which is why the hunt for bonuses has become so lucrative among players.
What are the arguments against bonuses, bonuses, etc.?
As nice as the generosity of the providers is, it is again not so easy to be able to hold the winnings in your hands in the end. The casinos combine their reward campaigns with wagering requirements. So after the first deposit of 10 euros, the player gets a welcome gift of 100 percent and now plays with 20 euros. These 20 euros must now be wagered several times before a payout is possible.
The cash reward and all winnings from bonus free spins, for example, must be wagered up to 50 times. Only after the initial amount has been wagered 50 times is it possible to withdraw the money. The player will thus have to stay in the game longer or shorter after receiving the bonuses, depending on the winnings or losses. Therefore, you should always check the conditions carefully before claiming the reward.
What does the hunt for bonuses mean for a gambling provider?
Bonus chasing or bonus abuse stands for the strategic use of online casino bonuses to maximise profits. However, bonus hunting is becoming increasingly difficult for players. Since 2020, casinos have upgraded their technologies and further tightened reward conditions. Nevertheless, many users still manage to conduct a successful hunt.
Bonus abuse is not illegal. However, it is in a “legal grey area”, so that the hands of the gambling providers are tied in this respect in order to be able to take action against bonus hunting.
The competition in the online casino market is also very high and constantly increasing. Therefore, new promotions are always being published to attract attention, lure new players or retain existing customers. The awarding of bonuses, premiums or other promotions are a particularly popular marketing instrument. Bonuses make it possible for you to test the gaming offer free of charge (or at a very low price) and without obligation. Playing is thus associated with only a low financial risk, as the bonus credit and not your own money can be used as a stake.
In addition to the already mentioned turnover restriction when paying out the reward amount, you often only have one month to fulfil the conditions. Nevertheless, using these bonuses is almost always worthwhile in financial terms.
Has the bonus hunt changed over time?
In the past, “bonus hunting” was far easier for players than it is today. The bonuses of online casinos were usually higher and the turnover requirements easier to fulfil. In addition, the bonuses could be used for all games in the casino without restrictions. In this way, bonus hunters were able to earn high profits in the long run and make a tidy profit from the casinos’ bonuses.
For bonus hunters, it has become much more difficult in recent years to profitably use casino bonuses to their advantage. Although most online casinos still offer bonuses, it is no longer so easy to achieve high winnings with them. Successful bonus hunting today is based on high volatility and requires a high budget to be used. If you have the nerves and the time for a bonus hunt, you can proceed as follows:
- Create a customer account at an online casino that awards bonuses.
- Make your first deposit and receive a welcome bonus for it.
- Start playing directly and as aggressively as possible: Play a slot with a high variance and play until you have either won a lot or lost everything.
- If you have spent the reward amount, you still have to keep playing. In doing so, you must speculate on receiving another bonus from the casino. Once you have received the new reward, you must allow for a buffer if you win so that you can meet the turnover requirements and thus withdraw the bonus.
For the above strate gy to be successful and as profitable as possible, it must be repeated several times. Of course, as a player you can theoretically win a lot of money the first time you use a bonus, but this does not usually happen. For a slot with a payout rate of 96 percent, the probability of being in the red after 100 bonuses used is still only a little over 30 percent.
What are gambling providers doing about bonus hunting?
Truly worthwhile bonuses or rewards that are not tied to difficult-to-fulfil turnover requirements have become rare today. In the past, players deliberately exploited loopholes and were able to rake in very high winnings in casinos, etc. For the gambling providers, however, this was very annoying. For they have to make profits and economic decisions first and foremost. Thus, many regulations have been introduced in recent years so that the gambling operators have a better chance of winning. For example, many casinos prescribe a “max-bet rule” according to which players may not bet more than 5 euros per stake.
Games with high payouts such as roulette or blackjack were mostly excluded from the bonus turnover by many casinos. Sometimes only a small percentage of this type of game is credited to the bonus, so playing these games in combination with a bonus is not financially worthwhile. Recently, the turnover requirements have been increased. Most reward have to be wagered countless times before a withdrawal. As already mentioned in the upper part of the article.
What is the current state of bonus hunting?
In general, bonus hunting is still possible despite some countermeasures by the gambling providers. Since bonus hunting has become time-consuming and tedious, this strategy for maximising profits is certainly not recommended for every player. Only those who understand all the turnover conditions and calculations and also have a sufficiently large financial cushion to compensate for failures can pursue successful bonus hunting.
However, the situation is made more difficult by the fact that more and more countries are establishing their own regulatory authorities and the granting of licences is becoming more and more restricted. The Czech Republic, for example, even has foreign casinos and bookmakers blocked. Thus, players have only limited access and can only keep a limited lookout for casinos where bonus hunting still works.
In this respect, it’s not exactly fraud, as the topic of bonus hunting is, strictly speaking, in a legal grey area. However, as I said, the effort is hardly worth it. Those who really want to invest a lot of time in their online casino hobby are guaranteed to find good bonus hunting opportunities from time to time. All other players are better off focusing on other opportunities, such as using bonus offers strategically and taking part in special promotions to maximise their winnings. Here, at least, the fun of the game is not lost and you can still earn real money with your bonus if you’re lucky.