I have been on a soap box about the bonuses recently elsewhere, and I also totally agree with cutting out rogues.
The definition of rogue needs to be defined though – I make a distinction between no pay and slow pay.
The bonuses cost us and the casinos many, many newbie players.
You are a recreational player.
You find a casino, one way or another. You fill out an eternally long questionaire asking way too personal questions (social security number? Are you nuts?) and go to deposit. You click on credit card and get rejected. Most newbie players quit right there, accounting for the many downloads yielding so few players.
But you are a feisty type. After getting your credit card rejected you go to neteller and fill out all of that stuff, the second time. Again, you are revealing a ton of personal info online. Most people are always told not to do that.
You succeed in depositing, and get a bonus credited to your account and you think to yourself that this is a really nice thing.
You play your favorite game – blackjack.
Next thing you know you have won some money and you want to withdraw.
And now you find out that you can’t, that you have to play slots for such and such an amount of wagers as most table games are not permitted.
You play the slots. Normally you now lose your money, but hey. Lady Luck shines upon you and you win.
Now you have fulfilled your wagering requirements and you want your winnings! They tell you now that you have to send in your drivers licence and a second document showing your identity.
This means that now the casino has everything needed for all types of fraud. Identity theft, credit card theft, you name it.
You think about it, and you don’t send the stuff in and you walk away and leave your money behind. You tell all your friends that internet casinos are fraud.
The solution? Simple. Stop giving the bonuses in this fashion. Give bonuses for every so many hands played etc. Make the bonuses work for retention. All the bonuses do now (other than screw newbies out of their winnings) is encourage players to jump from casino to casino to casino.
How smart is that? 