Many online casinos offer large bonuses, often a “100% match bonus”. For example, common terms and conditions for a bonus might be:

• 100% up to $100
• Must wager 25 times the deposit and bonus before withdrawing
• Wagers on baccarat, craps, roulette, and sic bo do not count towards meeting wagering requirements

For this particular example, this would mean that a player depositing $100 would start with $200 in his account. He must make $5000 ($200 × 25) in wagers before withdrawing. This can be played at a game such as blackjack.

Some simple arithmetic shows that if the player leaves after meeting the requirements, he has a very large edge. For example, the house edge in blackjack is around or less than 0.5% at most online casinos. $5000 × 0.005 = $25. Therefore, the player expects to show a $25 loss — however, he was given a $100 bonus. Therefore, the player’s expected profit is $75, a massive 75% advantage. Usually, taking advantage of such a promotion is the only way to gain an edge over the casino.

This has often led to players playing at casinos to take the bonus, and leaving after the wagering requirements are met. These players are called by (and have adopted with pride) a variety of labels such as “advantage players”, “bonus hunters”, “bonus abusers”, and, perhaps the most vulgar, “bonus whores”. Strictly speaking, this behavior is usually prohibited by the casino, because their terms usually dictate that players may play for recreational purposes only. In practice, players are rarely caught doing this, and usually when they are they simply have their promotion privileges revoked.

A player who wishes to do this at a large number of online casinos must be careful. Some casinos are rogues (see below) and do not pay. Others have terms and conditions that are not favorable to the player, such as most bonuses that are restricted to slots.

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