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My Casino Bonus Journal - A Guide to Casino Bonuses
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I thought I'd give Casino Bonuses a try, many have discussed it here at FTR, and many have had success at it, but I've never tried it myself, so this will be my experience, and hopefully there's something worthwhile that comes out of it. There are so many online casinos with big, fat initial deposit bonuses, it seems like it would be pretty easy to bring home some money with those. I already know how to play Blackjack, so I think there will be very little risk. For those of you who don't know basic strategy, I basically just follow this chart when playing Blackjack:
http://blackjack.flopturnriver.com/B...Chart-Even.php
I started with StarLuck Casino. From everything I had read, this casino has the best bonus - straight-forward, and pretty easy to earn and then withdraw. I deposited $100 into StarLuck, and received a $100 bonus. Now, I had $200 in my player account to wager.
The thing is you can't withdraw any of these dollars. Not even your original $100. At least not yet. Once you receive that bonus, your initial deposit and the bonus money are tied into a wagering requirement. You must wager a certain amount before you can touch any of the $200, including your $100 deposit. At StarLuck, the wagering requirement is quite low when compared to other online casinos. StarLuck also allows you to play Blackjack to work off that wagering requirement, other online casinos do not count Blackjack towards that requirement.
At StarLuck Casino, the wagering requirement is 8 times. So, in my case, I had to wager $1,600 before I could withdraw anything. This sounded like a lot, but it wasn't. I played the multi-player Blackjack table - this allowed me to play 3 hands at a time. I only played $2 on each spot, so I was wagering $6 each round. At this rate, it only took me about 1.5 hours to clear the wagering requirement.
So, at this point, I believe these are the two most important factors when looking at an online casino bonus - the wagering requirement, and the games that are not allowed to count towards that requirement. The best combination is a low wagering requirement (and the ability to actually withdraw those bonus dollars rather than just wager with them!) and the allowance of Blackjack to count towards that wagering requirement! Starluck offers all of these, making it one of the best online casinos to go after that bonus.
At StarLuck, there isn't any place that tells you how much you've wagered so far. However, StarLuck does have customer service available via an online chat, and you can ask them. I asked them twice during my session so I could get an idea of where I was at. Again, it only took me about 1.5 hours to meet the requirement.
My results - started with $100, and ended with $225. I actually made $25 in that hour and a half, plus the $100 bonus, so I profited $125 which I'm quite pleased about. StarLuck requires a 24 hour wait period from the time you meet the wagering requirement to when you can actually make the withdrawal, so I'll attempt my withdrawal tomorrow afternoon.
My next stop will be the PlanetLuck Casino - also owned and operated by PartyGaming and offering the exact same rules and regulations.
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