When players do meet the wagering a lot of the time they are not at the min/max cashout value. If they have $40 balance then they can’t cashout so they have to keep wagering and either win or lose even if they have finished the wagering terms. If they exceed the wagering and are above $150 it’s up to the player to decide if they want to keep playing or not. No matter what it’s free money and I see no deception to the player either.
Regarding the popup to tell them they have met the wagering and can cashin, first they would have to be at $150 or higher and to have met the wagering plus not have played banned games. I wouldn’t be surprised if this has been done before but I can’t see any operator starting now. I’d like to hear other AMs comment on this so I’m not alone. Sure the player might appreciate that we have let them know they have finished the wagering but I think this is a can of worms discussion. If we do this for the no deposit bonus, then players are going to complain when we don’t do this for future promotions, and if we do this for future promotions then we’ll have more players cashing out the minimum wagering which will hurt profits. Players abuse bonuses to make money, they don’t abuse bonuses because the casino didn’t tell them how much wagering they had to do and want to get even, they already have an agenda in place. Most abusers don’t have to ask when they have met the minimum wagering, they already know exactly when to stop and some of them might wager 25% more thinking the casino manager won’t notice.
Secondly I strongly believe that in having this popup I’m going to encourage players to cashin once they have met the wagering requirements and the cost of this bonus is going to increase and the casino will have more cashins and the affiliate will feel a little as well. For the no deposit bonus I don’t know how much this would amount to. For future deposit bonuses if players only meet the minimum wagering they are allowed to do so but the value of this player is worth less than the player that wagers over the wagering amount. Most leisure players don’t cashin when they meet the terms, it’s usually the bonus hunters. The same applies for players who only claim no deposit bonuses or 100% or higher bonuses, their EV is going to be higher and if they cashin the minimum they will on average be a + EV player and even on slots.
In the end I think the $15 ND has more benefits than cons. The conversion rates of them are not great but they are better than none. These free samples are available at all software for casinos, poker, sports, bingo and If the player wants to see how much of the wagering they have completed it’s available for them in the cashier at all times and this was something Rival does that other software providers don’t, same for the payout percentages of the slots. If we wanted to be deceptive we would hide this but we don’t. If a player abuses any bonuses at Rivals they are paid but just denied future promotions and I can’t say the same happens with a few other casinos even on depositing match bonuses!
Now if we want to talk about deceiving bonuses let’s discuss freeplay at MG casinos. Anybody ever play these? Get $1000 free and keep your winnings **
Just some closing stats on the ND. About 1-2 % of players will cashin which varies from 1 in 50 to 1 in 100. Most of these players don’t have intentions to deposit and will only stick around to accept ND bonuses (example day 30 after they signup I might give them $5 free). My lifetime signup to 1st time depositing player ration is 17:1. In the past 30 days that ratio is 12:1 (keep in mind I only introduced the the first signup ND for $11 around Nov 2007 while the casino started in April 2006 without any ND signup). Of the ones that do cashin, and have met the terms and not played bonus banned games, most of the ones who wager the minimum or close to it usually end up on the bonus ban list. Anything 200% or higher over the wagering usually end up as being good players who stick around and make the VIP list. There are exceptions but these are the stats. The ones who don’t know you can get the wagering totals in the cashier, if they ask on livechat most of the time it’s to see if they have met the wagering and it’s usually for 100% to 150% of the wagering and of course usually end up on the bonus ban list. These actions alone won’t determine where they up on for their account status but it is usually reflective.