Beating the Sneaky Bonus II

Some casinos offer a bonus that is not strictly a bonus but a loss rebate. They agree to refund your losses up to a certain level in exchange for a certain amount of action.

For example, a casino may offer to refund your losses up to $30 if you purchase $100 and play it through five times (bet $500 in action). If you are a good basic strategy blackjack player and the rules are not great, you will have a 0.5% disadvantage and will lose on average $2.50 of your $500.

Some people think "bonuses" like this are worthless because you only "win" the bonus if you lose. This is not correct. The bonus has real value, albeit not so much as genuine "straight-up" bonuses where you are simply given a sum of money for so much action.

To maximize the value of the bonus you would need to bet as much as possible. The more conservative you are, the more you reduce not only the risk, but also your advantage.

A strategy I use is to bet the table minimum until I have met the bonus qualification requirements and then, if I have lost less than the value of the loss rebate, I bet whatever amount that would take me down to the total value of the loss rebate if I lost.

For example, buy in for $100 and bet $500, lose $5. I then bet $25. I can't lose but still get the full value of a win. (This strategy is not strictly optimal, but it is practical, especially for online players who tend to be more conservative than real-world gamblers).

This type of bonus is not worth seeking out by itself as it is only generally worth about 5% of your deposit or less, on average. Yet if a casino you know and trust offers you this type of deal, it is worth taking.