Bonus clearing strategies

This is a short guide on how to best approach playing at the casino if your objective is to clear the bonus offer (aka "bonus whoring"). The objective is not "to win" per se, but to minimize the amount you lose and thus end up with a nice profit due to the free cash offered by the casino when you sign up.

First up, there are no "betting systems" that have ever been proven to work. Clearing a bonus is all about turning the mathematical odds in your favour by playing a low risk, low variance game such as blackjack using small wagers. On average you will lose less money than the amount of the bonus, allowing you to pocket whatever is left over.

Casino bonus clearing guide

Blackjack - the casino whore's choice

Generally speaking, the best game to play when attempting to whore a bonus is blackjack. Played using correct blackjack basic strategy, the house edge can be as little as 0.4%, and even lower depending on rule variations. For example, an old software that can no longer be found these days, Boss Media, used to have a single deck blackjack game where the odds were actually in the player's favour by 0.11% (i.e. a house edge of -0.11%).

Other good game choices

Other games which make good choices include Baccarat, Craps, Texas Hold'em Bonus, and Video Poker such as Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild. Poor choices include American Roulette, Slots, and Caribbean Stud Poker. Basically you are looking for a game with a low house edge, and preferably a low variance. Details of each can be found in our linked game guides.

Bonus whoring strategy basics

Choose a low stake size

As a general guide, the lower the stakes you wager on each hand, the less you will vary from the average expected result because you will play a larger number of hands which tends to smooth out short term variance. Imagine flipping a coin. Do it 10 times and you might get 7 heads and 3 tails, but flip it 1000 times and you expect to end up close to 500 of each.

Going against this is the time factor - the lower the stakes you play, the longer you will take to meet the wagering requirements, and frankly I'm not interested in playing 8000 $1 hands of blackjack to make a $26 profit (of course your mileage may vary!). So your stake size will be influenced by your tolerance for risk and the amount of spare time on your hands, and of course how much you value your own productive time.

For beginners, I recommend betting no larger than 1% of your total bankroll on any one hand until you are confident and know the game's strategy inside out.

Bonus Clearing Do's and Don'ts

DO:

• Choose the game with the lowest house edge and variance available, such as Blackjack, Craps, Baccarat, Texas Hold'em Bonus, or Jacks or Better Video Poker.
• Follow the strategy for the game that minimizes the house edge.
• Wager small amounts starting at 1% of your bankroll, until you establish your confidence with the game and your risk tolerance. This will minimise the chance of you busting after a bad streak.
• Always read the casino and bonus terms and conditions before playing! Among other things, these will often set out which games are acceptable when playing with a bonus.
• Have fun and enjoy yourself.

DO NOT:

• Never play with money you cannot afford to lose.
• Never raise your bets in an attempt to recover losses. This can be a quick way to bust. You will have bad streaks from time to time, just as you will have winning streaks. Learn to accept this.
• Never try a gambling system with your own money. There has never been a single system invented that has been proven to work. Yes, we have all the heard the one about betting on red or black and doubling your bet every time you lose at roulette. You did not invent it. It is called a Martingale progression system and it does not work.
• Never try to cheat or deceive the casino by doing things such as trying to claim multiple bonuses under multiple accounts at the same casino, or trying to play in a higher valued currency other than your own. You can and will get caught. Again, read the terms and conditions before playing.

Predicting our expected winnings

If we know the house edge on a casino game, we can even predict our expected end result after completing the wagering requirements. This is simply the amount wagered less the house edge, subtracted from our starting balance. Remember, the house edge is calculated on the value of every hand wagered, not just your bankroll.

One of the first casinos I ever played at, Golden Palace, used to offer an extremely generous $300 bonus on a $100 deposit, and you were required to wager at least $8000 before cashing out. So in this case we can work out our expected winnings playing blackjack (with a 0.4% house edge) like so:

Expected loss due to blackjack house edge = $8000 x 0.004 = $32
Expected ending balance = $100 deposit + $300 bonus - $32 = $368
Expected net gain = $368 - $100 deposit = $268

Advanced bonus whoring strategies

Non-cashable bonuses

Non-cashable (a.k.a. "phantom") bonuses may appear useless to the bonus whore at first glance, because at the end of your session you cannot withdraw the bonus money. However mathematically speaking, the bonus is still valuable because you are wagering both your deposit and the bonus, but you can only lose your deposit.

A good strategy for the advanced player to pursue is to start off wagering larger amounts than normal in order to increase the variance of your returns. Set yourself a target such as doubling your deposit, or adding $100, and when you achieve it, reduce your bet size down to a normal level and "grind out" the rest of the bonus. Clearing bonuses will actually be quicker this way, but of course you increase the risk of busting. Note that casinos are now wise to this, and many include a clause in their terms about "significantly reducing bets" after a big win. Take note and be careful.

Keeping track of the amount wagered

Some casinos have a useful feature where they show the amount you have wagered towards completing the requirements when clearing a bonus. However, this is an exception rather than the rule, so sometimes you need to either keep asking the live chat support what your status is, or keep track of the wagering manually yourself.

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