Man I hate the bonus idea all together.
It just invites trouble from all sides. Players that make you the majority of your money over the long haul … which is the desired situation (IMHO) … aren’t going to need bonus offers.
Why the casinos don’t forward all this stuff towards bigger rewards for their quality players ….. I will never know.
Look at what a mess this is … and it happens again and again. The damn requirements for cashouts are confusing … and YES .. you make offers like that and you’re going to get droves of people looking to beat the system. Look at CM’s site. It is (IMO) heavily saturated with nothing but bonus chasers …… and when you add all the hassles of the bonus idea into the mix …. I just fail to see the advantage.
Yes it brings in new players. But has any casino every really truly tried the longer route of putting all that incentive towards rewards for quality players ….. excellent customer service …. and very fast and painless payouts …… and then stood back and let their repuation as it grows for such admirable approach …. see where it takes them? One of the closest to that is Casino Rewards but even they have the bonuses in place.
I think that the above qualities would speak for themselves …. and draw in the kind of players a casino wants …… while by not offering the bonus BS ….. you’d avoid all that trouble … and I guarantee you the man hours sorting this stuff out has to be staggering.
But then again … nobody in this industry ever sees the bigger picture.
I live near the riverboats … even though I play at them on rare occasions … the most I ever get in incentive is some kind of deal like … get $10, $20 etc free in chips to play in the casino. I don’t recall ever seeing a playthru requirement. In many cases their incentives are based on rewards for play … double reward points etc.
Who wants these bonus chasers? while its true you may beat them out of their deposit …. I can’t imagine that a lot of that money gets wiped out on the few who do hit it big ….. and this big win was all due to inviting this trouble in the first place.
its obvious this system makes money or they’d have given up on the bonus thing a long time ago. But I just cannot help but wonder if any of them have ever tried the other route. Seen how many man hours are saved …. sorting the bonus stuff out … and how much better their retention is for quality players by putting all that money and effort towards providing better service …. higher rewards for money already brought into the casino …. and perhaps a few gifts in the mail every once in a while to keep the casino’s name in the mind of that quality player?
I know its done on a smaller basis .. but I’m talking putting all that upfront effort, time and money towards the retention side of quality players. I seldom get any letters from big players complaining about bonuses. I get plenty of them about customer service and delayed cashins.
case in point: I just read about a quality player (also an aff) over at gpwa that was complaining about Vegas Partner having locked her account …. in the end it was for no reason but mistake on their end. this is a player that plays $1000s a month …. and their incompetence all but guaranteed she’d not be back.
But you can bet they have plently of time to make sure their new players don’t abuse the bonus they received.
reputation takes time to build. I will give you that. but word WILL spread amongst those that you’d want at your casino and likewise to those you don’t. Heck its basically what I have based my websites on and though I get little traffic .. I do all right and seldom have reason to complain about the end of the month (taking into consideration that current status of our industry of course).