Posted on October 11, 2010 - by Admin

Blackjack Bonus information

About 5 years ago, blackjack bonuses were infinitely better than they are now. When they still accepted US players, Cherry Casino offered a monthly bonus that was cashable and only had a 20x wagering requirement.

Sadly, those days are done for now. You are going to find that a lot of online casinos only offer bonuses for the slots players. Most blackjack bonuses will now have a wagering requirement of 50 times the bonus and deposit amount.

Most often, the blackjack bonuses that are available are what is referred to as “sticky”. This means that the bonus is for wagering purposes only and can not be cashed out once you have reached your wagering requirements.

How do these sticky bonuses work?

I’ve seen two ways in general and I prefer to get one over the other if possible. The first type of sticky bonus will allow you to make wagers from your bonus money account, which is separate from the money you actually deposited. If you win, the money used to make the wager is put back into the bonus account and the money won is deposited into the money account. If you lose, the money is subtracted from the bonus money account.

The other way I’ve seen is more common and is a true sticky bonus. The casino will have you wager your real money first. You will never use your bonus money unless you lose all of your real money first. I don’t personally care for this kind of bonus but it still is more worthwhile to not having a bonus to play with.

If the casino is really cool, they will let you keep your bonus money after you make your first withdrawal. Most sticky bonuses do not allow this and your bonus money will be gone after you cash out.

Here is how I view these bonuses: As a blackjack player (which I definitely am) I am going to go through some ups and downs no matter what. If I only have $200, I’m probably going to run into a cold streak long enough to get frustrated and waste my last $50 on one bet. Having $400 to play with when I only deposited $200 is going to give me an advantage because I can go on some hot streaks and make the money back before I get desperate.

Cashable bonus – Another way I’ve seen before is to not have separate accounts and you are given the bonus money with the money you deposited. This is typically a cashable casino bonus, meaning once you complete the wagering requirements you can withdraw the bonus money out of the account.

Which online casinos offer good blackjack bonuses?

My favorite place to play for a blackjack bonus is Bodog Casino. You can get a 100% sign up bonus worth up to $200 (cashable bonus) to play any casino game besides craps, roulette, baccarat and pai gow poker.

I had no problem with BetUS Casino with this bonus and was able to make a withdrawal without hassle. They do have a wagering requirement of 40 times before you can make a withdrawal. Make sure you go a bit over that requirement before you try to cash out all your money. They may raise your wagering requirement if they think you are only playing for the bonus.

In addition to that, they also offer a weekly bonus called Extra Point Monday where you can either get a 10% or 15% bonus for making a deposit on Monday between 4:00 and 6:00 PM EST. It will be credited to you after you bet the money you deposited 1 time. $100-$499 deposit gets a 10% bonus, $500+ gets a 15% bonus.

Another place I like to play is Cherry Red Casino. They offer a 200% sticky bonus that is worth up to $1200 for a deposit of $600. Have you ever wanted to feel comfortable gambling $25 hands. With $1800, you should be able to play for quite a while.

This is a sticky bonus, so you will be using your real money first; but having that much money to bet with can give you an edge and help you build a bankroll. The other thing that makes this a great bonus is that it only has a 20 times rollover before you are allowed to cash out. I’m serious, most online casinos have 50 times rollover minimum for blackjack, even for sticky bonuses.

Things to watch out for with blackjack bonuses

I don’t like it when an online casino tries to take advantage of a player by trying to pull something shady in order to not have to pay the player. I’ve had this happen before. Mainly, this is the case with smaller online casinos that aren’t well known.

Here is what happened to me: I got a 100% blackjack bonus for $500 from a casino that they claimed to be cashable. Once I was finished with the requirements, I wanted to cash out but was told that I couldn’t because I hadn’t yet risked any of my own money. This wasn’t listed anywhere in their rules for the bonus, they just made it up. So I would have to lose all of the bonus money in order to cash out or they weren’t going to let me cash out.

What do you do if this happens to you?

1) Talk with the casino and tell a casino representative your problem. Make sure that you haven’t broken any of their written rules.

2) If that doesn’t work, try to get a third party to help you settle things. If you were referred to the online casino by a website, try to get someone from that website to talk with the casino. They are most likely an affiliate of the casino and won’t like having their players getting screwed with. I have done this before for other players and have resolved problems this way.

3) If that doesn’t work either, time to cut your losses, blast that casino on the online casino forums and don’t associate with them again.

How can you avoid something like this from happening?

Online casinos can void your bonus for any number of reasons. But in general they won’t because that isn’t good business. They want legitimate casino players that are going to stick around for a while.

The number one mistake that players make that irks online casinos is trying to cash out right after they complete the wagering requirements. This makes it look like you just wanted to make money off of their bonus (online casinos call it bonus abuse). I would recommend that you go another 5 to 10 percent over the wagering requirement before cashing out. The worst that usually happens is that the casino won’t offer you another bonus if you cash out right away or they will make your wagering requirements higher.