When casinos first went online, anything could happen. Players were not protected from frauds, operators were not protected from fraudsters. No major security measures were implemented on the sites, so no player was safe and secure at all times while playing across specific online casinos.
But things changed as soon as regulatory bodies were introduced by governments all across the world to oversee the gambling activities across the internet. These watchdogs implemented rules, frameworks, restrictions to make online gambling safer for both operators and players. Thanks to all that, players from New Zealand today can enjoy a fair and square online gambling time.
This brief overview of online gambling history is important because it is tied to the regulation of bonus offers. When operators first started offering bonuses to players, the rules were loose and there were many loopholes that facilitated the way of fraudsters. It most certainly did facilitate for bonus hunters at least. Stay with us to learn what bonus hunting is and how it changed the online gambling industry for good.
What Is Bonus Hunting?
When online casinos first started offering bonuses to new players, they had one goal in mind: to attract as many players as they can to join their sites. And while that seemed like a generosity, a sincere way of rewarding players for their loyalty, it came with a trick. Players who claimed the bonus needed to give the casino something in return for it, a promise that they would stay on the site and make a deposit at it before they could turn their bonus money into real money.
Players soon realized that the bonus is not really free, so they came up with this idea of going around the casinos’ rules. They started creating accounts with many online casinos. Sometimes even more than one account at the same casino, under a different name, to claim the bonus twice or more. The idea was to claim a bonus at one casino, use it, cash out any winnings, and continue doing the same thing in other casinos, with the aim to profit from bonuses. And that’s how the term bonus hunting was coined.
In short, bonus hunting is an activity that involves taking advantage of bonuses, in order to make a profit across many online casino sites. As such, it has been a popular strategy among online gamblers for years. At the time when it was popular, the wagering requirements were pretty low, almost insignificant. The rules for claiming bonuses were close to nonexistent. Therefore, players would simply sign up at various online casinos specifically to claim the sign-up bonus, make a profit out of it, withdraw the winnings, and then move on to the next victim, the next batch of online casino sites.
Due to the lack of tough regulation, this was relatively easy to do. It was very easy to meet the wagering requirements and terms, and this actually worked. Players were hopping from one site to another, and operators were left empty-handed.
Is Bonus Hunting Still Possible?
In recent years, when governments started digging deeper into online gambling, regulators tightened the rules. In order to prevent problem gambling, to protect players, and to make online gambling fairer, regulators introduced many new rules. They went through bonuses and promotions, as well, and saw the irregularities and loopholes, and set a rulebook on how these offers can be delivered.
Operators saw this as an opportunity to make the wagering requirements much difficult to be met, especially for bonus hunters. While in the past, the wagering requirements were, say 5x the bonus amount, today, they go anywhere from 15x to 50x the bonus amount!
If you’re new to online gambling, a wagering requirement is a condition that asks the player to wager the bonus amount a number of times before they can withdraw the money they made with it. For instance, if in the past, you claimed a NZ$15 bonus with 5x wagering requirements, it would mean you would need to deposit and play through only NZ$75 to withdraw your winnings. This was super easy to achieve by playing a low house edge game, such as blackjack.
But, if you claim a NZ$15 bonus nowadays, with 20x wagering requirements (which are considered reasonable wagering requirements today), it means you need to deposit and play through NZ$300 before you can actually cash out the money you won! Plus, wagering on games with low a house edge like blackjack that used to be great for meeting the wagering requirements in the past, only count a small percentage of the wagering requirement today. And with all of that, today, it is rather difficult to play the bonus hunting game. You cannot just move from one site to another, scoop their bonuses, and cash out your winnings the way bonus hunters did in the past.
Is Bonus Hunting Still Effective?
As explained above, with the new strict rules and higher wagering requirements, you are probably tempted to think that bonus hunting is absolutely impossible nowadays. But, you’d be wrong. Sure, it may be a lot more difficult to do, but it is achievable. The opportunities where you could go around the wagering requirements are extremely rare, but they do exist. Whether bonus hunting is still effective, though, you’ll conclude by yourself.
There are various online casinos that give away No Deposit, No Wagering Requirement offers which you can use. Beware though, because no bonus is absolutely free, so it must come with some strings attached, like withdrawal limits or something of the kind. Although tempting, these offers will, eventually keep you on the site, for some reason.
And the truth is if you’re looking for no strings attached, absolutely free bonuses that you can profit from without staying at the casino for long, don’t hold your breath. You may find a No Wagering Requirements offer, but that offer would certainly come with some limits, some other condition, something that would ask of you to at least make one deposit and play at the casino before you can withdraw your winnings. Casinos today are well aware of bonus hunting and do anything in their power to protect themselves from it.
But, as long as you’re not greedy and going after real cash profits with bonus hunting, you can actually enjoy some sweet bonuses across New Zealand online casinos. For instance, you could claim No Deposit Free Spins. With this offer, you could try out the casino’s slots and actually win something if you’re lucky enough. Just remember to always look for bonuses that offer the best value. Sometimes, bonuses that promise most are not the best and are actually not worth claiming if you weigh in the conditions they come with.
Look for bonuses with the most reasonable conditions, and which you can actually meet in a short time. Consider this the new, the modern bonus hunting. As long as you’re claiming offers that offer reasonable requirements that you can meet in a matter of days, you can always move to the next site to claim the offer there. Whether you find this modern way of hunting for bonuses effective and whether you’d like to try it, depends on you. Many players are still doing it, trying to make a profit out of it, and with a bunch of luck, some even succeed. But the fact remains that it is much more difficult and complicated than it used to be, so keep that in mind.
