Over the years players have produced clever ways to beat wagering requirements, and once the casino finds out they make an addendum to the rules.
One “trick” from the early days of casino bonuses was to bet on both red and black at the roulette. This meant that players only lost on a zero and could turn over big amounts with almost no risk. Today it is standard that if roulette bets cover more than 70% of the possible outcomes, they will not count towards a wagering requirement. Similar strategies in other games will risk your funds being confiscated, even if not explicitly stated.
There will also be a list of specifically named games for which the bonus does not count at all. These games might even be unavailable when we have an active bonus. This list primarily includes slots that either have an exceptionally high RTP or if there is a way to progress towards a bonus round.
The game Scrooge from Microgaming is a classic example of a progression based bonus hack. In it we count down the days to Christmas (a lucrative free spins round). Here the goal was not to clear the bonus, but rather to use the bonus to increase the value of future free spins (average bet when collecting days). It even required the player to make an additional deposit mid-game.
- The player deposited, got a bonus, and opened the game.
- The player kept spinning at a fairly high bet level, raising it further when getting closer to Christmas Day, to make sure they ran out of funds before getting there.
- Them running out of funds meant that they were no longer bound by any bonus rules or wagering requirements.
- An in-game deposit then allowed them to continue playing, triggering the bonus round with their own money. This way they were able to keep all winnings, wager free.
Sometimes that bonus round would not cover the full cost, but when players got lucky it made up for the times they did not. Rinse and repeat at several casinos a day, combined with separate accounts for family members, and they basically had free money on tap.
Instead of free crypto, us latecomers instead got a huge list of games that we cannot play with an active bonus and only one bonus per household/IP.