The fact that hundreds of Internet casinos are all competing with each other for customers and offering cash bonuses to get them and keep them offers gamblers a unique opportunity to turn the tables and gain the advantage. Because of this intense cornpetition, many online casinos offer a 20 percent signing bonus when you open an account. Some casinos will credit you with a 20 percent signing bonus on subsequent deposits. Sometimes, during holidays and other special dates, they will raise this bonus to as much as 50 percent of your deposit. Their usual policy on this money is that you must generate betting action equal to or greater than your entire deposit plus signing bonus before you can withdraw the money. These signing bonus are the equivalent of comps in the realworld casinos, but there is one huge difference - you get them up front, before you make that first bet. Can you imagine walking into a real-world casino, sitting down at a blackjack table, buying in for $100 and being given $120 worth of chips? "What's this for?" you ask. "It's yours," says the dealer. "All we ask is that you give us at least $120 worth of action before leaving the table". Would you accept the extra $20 under these conditions? Of course you would! The tactic, then, when playing blackjack at the Internet casinos is to use a conservative betting strategy to generate betting action equal to or greater than your deposit plus signing bonus and then withdraw the money. Assuming that you break even or even lose a little, the signing bonus gives you the edge. After the withdrawal, repeat the tactic at another casino. You could use the betting tactic from Method 1 to generate your action and then play as long as your game is predictable; i.e., as long as you are getting a choppy back-and-forth game in which You are able to grind out a few units per session, stay with this casino. When your game turns sour, or is no longer predictable, close your account, withdraw your money, and play at another casino. Your objective is to close your account with a win and the upfront bonus gives you the cushion to do just that. This assumes that your betting action is equal to or greater than your original deposit plus signing bonus which is the casinos' requirement before they will refund the signing bonus along with your deposit. If Method 1 is working and you have ground out units in a choppy game, which are equal to or greater than your deposit plus your signing bonus, set a trailing stop-loss that, if triggered, would signal the withdrawal and account closing. We recommend fourteen units for the stop-loss amount. This is the loss of two of the onetwo-four progressions. If you lose both right up front, before winning any money or giving the casino the required action, try the flat betting method described below. When you are winning by grinding out units, your trailing stoploss moves up with your win. For example, assume that you are up a total of twenty-two units (not counting your signing bonus). Your trailing stop-loss of fourteen units would signal stop and withdraw if your winnings drop to eight units, plus your signing bonus. If you can't detect a choppy game in the casinos' RNG, another approach to exploit the upfront bonus money is to flat bet. Using this approach, you would usually get the money. For example, assmile that you deposit $100 and are credited with a $20 signing bonus. You bet $5 a hand playing basic strategy. The casino advantage is less than I percent. It would take twenty-four bets to generate the action required to withdraw your money. In a choppy game, you may win twelve and lose twelve. Even if you win eleven and lose thirteen, you've still rnade 10 percent on your money (not assuming any blackjacks, splits or double downs). What is the worst that you can do on these twenty-four hands flat betting in the choppy game we have assumed? The worst assumes that the choppy game turns unfavorable and you begin to lose before you decide to get out. Using simple statistics, we can compute the standard deviation on these twenty-four hands as about 2.5 hands. This means that about 68 percent of the time, the worst we could expect is to only win 12 minus 2.5 hands or 9.5 hands and lose 14.5 hands for a net loss of 5 hands or $25. So, overall, you are only down $5. Not a bad risk. For the above example, if we want to assume two standard deviations, which encompass 95 percent of the probable occurrences, your record for the twenty-four hands could be seven wins and seventeen losses. This losing trend should be respected and the game departed early on using a simple trailing stop-loss technique of three betting units; i.e., anytime you back off three units from a high point, leave the game. This tactic of hustling signing bonuses is not new. There is an example where a gambler hit thirty casinos in one day with max deposits. He played roulette, betting an equal amount oil red and black, with a small bet on each zero for insurance. For our $100 deposit example above, betting $12 on red and $12 on black with $1 on each zero, it would take him just five spins to generate the required action. Well, for this particular betting pattern, it didn't take the casinos long to catch on and reprogram their software to detect it and close his account. So it is recommended you stick with blackjack and avoiding this kind of hedging at roulette or craps; i.e., betting oil both red and black or oil the Pass and Don't Pass at craps. The above example, so easy for the online casinos to detect, poses the question: Is this strategy still valid? The answer is very definitely. Why? Because of the intense competition for players. If a casino dropped the upfront cash bonuses, it would quickly lose players to competing casinos. With eight hundred casinos to choose from and new casinos opening every week, you can find all the action you can handle. Theoretically, operating at just two casinos a week, it would take you over eight years to cycle through every casino in cyberspace (in reality you would only be playing at those casinos that are favorably rated). Can you imagine a real-world casino offering you a 20 percent signing bonus to play blackjack? And then letting you walk out the door with their money after giving them only enough action to equal your buy-in plus their bonus? It seems incredible when you compare the real world with the virtual world. Online casinos can make this offer because they hold your money, have lower overhead expenses, and because they have the odds working their way with the RNG games. So let's take what they give us and turn it into an edge. Online casinos will continue to make money on this very liberal marketing strategy because most gamblers will stay, play, and lose. There is one catch to this strategy that you need to be aware of and that is getting your money out of the casino. Two recommendations: (1) only play at casinos whose reputations are favorable for releasing players' money; (2) do not stop play and proceed to withdraw on or near the amount of betting action the casino requires before you can take their signing bonus with you; give them enough action so they will think you're a gambler, not a hustler. Summary And Recommendations Choose a casino for play, one which offers a 20 to 30 percent signing bonus.
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