Introductory to Online Gambling (Part 2)

New Player Promotions

In our first Introduction to Online Gambling article, we discussed the importance of starting out, preferably, with casinos that are, "Wizard of Odds Approved," and then, perhaps, moving to casinos that are highly ranked on our parent site, LatestCasinoBonuses.com (LCB).

We also discussed a few misconceptions associated with online gambling, such as the statement that, "All online casinos cheat and/or will not pay," as well as discussing the importance of abiding by the Terms & Conditions of online casinos.

With very few exceptions, the offerings of the majority of online casinos are negative expectation games. What that means is, for a player who simply deposits money into the casinos and plays the games, that player can be expected to lose. However, there are many situations, with new member promotions, in which a player can not only be expected to win...but also a few situations in which the player, literally, cannot lose.

The next article on Online Gambling will discuss some specific ways to use New Player Promotions to have an advantage over the casino. However, the purpose of this article is simply to discuss what some promotions are, that way a new player to online gambling can decide what promotion he/she may like to try.

1.) No Deposit Bonuses

The first type of Bonus we will discuss is the straightforward No Deposit Bonus, and fortunately, our parent site has a link to many casinos currently offering such bonuses:

www.latestcasinobonuses.com/nodepositcasinobonus.html

No deposit bonuses can be broken down into four different types that we will look at in the order they appear on the page of our parent site:

A.) Straight Up

-At the time of this writing, I am looking at the first listing for Paradise8 Casino that is offering a $725 No-Deposit Bonus using the code LCB725Free. If you click the information Icon, you would be directed to a page on the LCB Forum listing the Terms of this Bonus:

www.latestcasinobonuses.com/onlinecasinobonusforum/exclusive-no-deposit-casino-bonuses/paradise-8-casino-exclusive-no-deposit-bonus/

Players must sign up from the provided Link and use the code to redeem the promotion at the Cashier. The amount of the Bonus is $725 of which a Maximum of $100 in winnings can be cashed out. Only slot machines may be played and the wagering requirement is 99x the amount of the Bonus, which is $71,775.

If we assume the machine has a 95% RTP, then the player would expect to lose $3,588.75 by the time the player plays through the required amount. In other words, the player is very much not expected to finish with any money.

This is kind of a two-way street between the casino and the player, though. The player could, theoretically, win up to $100 in exchange for making a $25 deposit (if he wins) that can also be immediately withdrawn along with the winnings. The other side of the coin, why it benefits the casino, is that it might get a player to come in and try out some of the games when he otherwise may not have.

The best way to play this sort of thing is to bet as high as the T's&C's will allow in order to reach a point that the player IS expected to overcome the House Edge to enough of an extent to finish with some money. At that point, the bet should be reduced, but raised again if the player, "Runs bad," and the House Edge is such that the player should finish with nothing again.

Basically, increased Variance is the player's friend until such time that the player expects to be able to, "Grind out," a profit, and at that point, Variance is the player's enemy. For example, if you turn your Bonus into $1700 and still have $30000 in Wagering Requirements, then, at a 95% RTP, the player is expected to lose $1500 and finish with $200. Losing 5% of all remaining bets is the most desirable outcome and becomes more likely if the remaining bets are small.

These offers are going to differ in terms of amount, Wagering Requirements, and Maximum cash out allowed. However, the general methodology to try to win remains the same.

B.) Free Slot Spins

We will look at the BetVictor offer for this one:

Free Slot Spins are basically like a No Deposit Bonus, it's just you don't know how much your Bonus is going to be. The player gets to take a pre-determined amount of slot machine spins at a pre-determined denomination (in this case, fifteen spins) and whatever the player wins is converted into a No Deposit Bonus that will be accompanied with the usual terms of Wagering Requirements, Max Withdrawal (BetVictor actually does not have a Max the player can win on this) and making a deposit before a withdrawal request can be made.

The initial part of this type of Bonus may also be in the form of Scratch Cards or Keno draws, on some other sites.

After the initial spins are completed, the player would default to the standard way of trying to win a No Deposit Bonus.

C.) Free Casino Play

We will look at DaVinci's Gold Casino to see what this is about.

With this promotion, the player will initially have 60 minutes and a starting bankroll of $10,000 to try to yield a profit within that sixty minutes, or have the option of taking any profit after completing $2500 of wagering. With the second option, the player could either allow time to expire or MIGHT be allowed to move on to the next step by request.

The second stage is that players are allowed to carry over $10-$100 from the first stage and play that with a 50x playthrough requirement after making a $25 deposit.

Personally, I don't like this one because it doesn't seem like a true No Deposit Bonus. At the time that the player must make the deposit, the player still doesn't know if he has won or lost.

For the player interested in playing this promotion, the best strategy is probably to bet big in Round One such that the player reaches a point where he/she can wager the rest of the initial playthrough up to $2500 and still have the Maximum $100 left.

However, having to do all that and THEN make a deposit and then having to play through the, "No Deposit," amount 50x seems excessive, in my opinion. Unless the player survives with the $100 and finds a game with an RTP of 98%, or more, the player is still expected to lose...and must make a deposit for the right to do so.

Actually, the Optimum Strategy for a player deciding to do this might be to treat the second stage of the bonus similarly to a 400% Deposit Match bonus, which we will delve into more deeply in our next article.

It would be best to look for such bonuses that do not require a deposit to do the second part, or where the free spins are the only part.

D.) Tournaments

This is simple, the player registers for the site and gets to play in a free tournament. If the player wins, the price is fixed and the player makes some minimum deposit and gets money.

2.) Match Bonuses

Our next article will be entirely about Match Bonuses, so we're not going to go into much detail here other than a general outline of what they are. Essentially, the player makes a deposit and the casino gives some percentage of extra money (100%-400% is common) for the player to play with.

There are, however, a few different types of Match Bonuses:

A.) "Phantom Bonuses"

This is a Bonus where the real money is played first and the Bonus, itself, is not cashable, but any winnings from the Bonus are. The player might ask, "But, if I should lose after the playthrough requirement is completed, and can't cash the bonus amount, isn't it like they're really not giving me anything?" The answer to that question is an emphatic, "NO!", and I will detail the reasons why in our next article on online gambling.

B.) "Sticky Bonuses"

This is similar to a Phantom Bonus with the main difference being that the Bonus amount remains on the player's balance when the player makes a withdrawal. In other words, if you have not lost the full bonus amount, you will still have that in non-cashable money to play with. Thus, after completing the Wagering Requirements, you can win with the same bonus money multiple times.

C.) Cashable Bonuses

These do what they say on the box. If you do the required playthrough requirements, everything is cashable.

Again, a first time player would be foolish to make a deposit and buck a negative expectation game without taking advantage of one of the many bonuses that are out there, including some on this website. If you're ready to start gambling online, simply find one that looks good, and give it a go! If you want it to be risk-free, then go with one (or more) of the No Deposit Bonuses earlier discussed.