Monday, November 15, 2004

Casino Bonus Bankroll Management

In some ways, managing your casino bankroll is no different than managing a checking account. You’re going to start with a certain amount that you’ll use to deposit funds into online casinos. Once you deposit, you need to budget that money wisely and make sure you stretch it as far as possible. You also need to be careful to make the most of your money by only depositing funds where you get the maximum amount of return on your dollar.

But enough broad generalities; useful specifics, here we come.

One key consideration in regards to casino bankroll management is how much you start with. If you only have $100 to start with, there’s a certain order in which you’ll want to do bonuses in, and a certain minimum bet you should make. That’s what we recommend in the bulk of this beginning strategy guide and you’ll find the sites listed in the order they should be played. You’ll slowly build that bankroll to the point where you can safely pursue later bonuses that require larger initial deposits (but also pay out larger bonuses). You’ll also gain valuable experience into how casino bonuses work and will be playing on online casino sites that process cashouts fairly quickly, so you don’t have dead downtime waiting for a site to process your withdrawal.

If you have $500 to start with, though, you can basically do the bonuses in just about any order. You can also wager slightly more than the minimum (as long as you acknowledge the risk), thus speeding up the process of claiming the bonus. You also can deposit into sites that have very slow cashout times as you won’t be tying up your entire bankroll on one site.

If all other factors are equal (you understand how bonuses work, you understand basic blackjack strategy, you have the bankroll to do any bonus) you want to start with the “best” bonuses. By “best” we mean those that pay the largest dollar amount with the least amount of wagering required (WR).

Using a real world example, Casino-On-Net is currently the best bonus available, offering a 100% bonus match up to $200, on a $200 deposit. The WR is only 10x bonus, or $2,000. That’s about as good a bonus as there is in online casino land. If you have $200 to deposit and know what you’re doing, you’ll want to do this bonus as quickly as possible.

Why is that, you say? Because casino bonuses are a bit of a game of cat and mouse, and always subject to change. Many good casino bonuses have disappeared as casinos became wiser and realized that too many players were simply depositing, cashing in on the bonus, and never returning. More commonly, casinos continue to offer bonuses but up the WR or disallow certain games such as blackjack to count towards the wagering requirement for the bonus. Long story short, these bonuses have a shelf life and could disappear tomorrow, so if you have the bankroll for it you want to do the best ones as quickly as possible, when they’re still available.

But if you have a limited bankroll, don’t fear. You can easily work through the best casino bonuses in a month starting with just $100 and very likely be able to hit up all of the best available bonuses.

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