The problem with casino bonuses
Fortune Palace has always insisted that casino bonuses were a bit of a con – a way to get new players into the casino by offering headline-grabbing figures like ‘£10,000 FREE’ which were always a bit too good to be true.
As we discussed in our article ‘the casino bonus trap‘, the wagering requirements were always set against the player. So unless you were a particularly lucky Slots player, chances are that you’d lose your entire deposit before you had any chance of making any profit, never mind the £10,000 advertised.
Many a player has been caught up in opaque terms and conditions, not really understanding how or why they fell foul of the rules, just knowing that they weren’t able to withdraw what they thought they’d won. Cue lots and lots of disgruntled players, complaints on message boards and widespread media coverage.
As a result, the UK Gambling Commission had to step in, insisting that operators advertised their terms and conditions clearly wherever the bonus figures were mentioned. Easy enough on a 30 second TV advert, not so easy on a website table listing 20+ casinos on a mobile device!
Going bonus-free 2018
As a result of the tighter regulations, Fortune Palace decided to back our original opinion of bonuses by just not pushing them! We’d always felt that casino reward schemes and loyalty bonuses were a better way of promoting casinos, as it was more in line with the ‘comping’ strategy of bricks and mortar casinos (‘comp’ is short for ‘complimentary’ i.e. free, like drinks or chips)
Although a lot of the competition are still pushing the big figure sign up bonuses, we’re happy that rating our casinos on criteria like variety, quality, banking, customer support, reputation and loyalty rewards gives long term, serious players a much better way to assess what’s out there.
Rewarding loyalty
At the same time as going bonus-free, a new casino came to our attention – the very aptly-named No Bonus casino (read our review here)! They had a similar ethos to us, in that they weren’t offering a sign-up bonus, but rewarding players with 10% cashback on losses – every day!
The process couldn’t be simpler:
- When a player deposits real money into his/her account and loses all that balance, he/she is entitled for cash back which will be approved the next day between 10.00 and 12.00 (CET).
- The refund can be used for withdrawal and for play.
- Cash Back will be received once the full deposited amounts of any particular day are lost and a balance of less than €10 is showing on the player’s account.
- Cash Back refunds are calculated upon a 24 hour game session time frame.
- Cash Back has zero wagering requirement. All refunds through the cash back offer are instantly available for withdrawal or for play.
- NB cash back rewards do not apply if player has funds in their account.
Taking the decision to move away from the standard sign-up bonuses – with huge wagering requirements and slippery terms – is a brave move, and one which we think deserves much more exposure.
Get rewarded
Sign up at No Bonus and you won’t receive any sign up bonus or free spins. What you’ll get is a great selection of the best games from the best suppliers like NetEnt and Evolution and the promise of 10% of your deposits back every time you hit a losing streak.
Over the course of your playing lifetime, that will give you back much more than a £xx,xxx bonus with impossible terms and conditions!
Give them a go – and join the trend away from the bonus trap!
