This last week has seen two complete meltdowns of New  Casino's or Their Software.
 I am of course referring to the recent Betus Casino's introduction of their new Rival software with the $50 free chip and yesterdays complete management failure at the Cleopatra Casino.

In the Betus situation Management did manage to honor the intial chip offer for the first 4-5 hours before shifting to the tact of making the $50 "Exclusive". To be fair they also loaded a free $25 dollar chip as consolation... Even that was not enough to slow the crowds and by mid-afternoon they voided both offers leaving hundreds (thousands?) of potential new customers grumbling and griping about "poor service", "Welching" and other less savory comments In the Very same forums they had originally found the casino.

Cleopatra Casino was even harder hit. In a search I came across them being freshly licensed on May the 14th and Yes... they already are on "The BlackList" do to their parent company. Big odds against their start up from the beginning. In their case the meltdown was complete, from Online support not having up to date or even knowledge of the Promotion itself, to the floor managers ever shifting solutions as he tried to first ride the flow, then Staunch it untill even the server's screamed "Enough".
The uproar in the forums (not LCB of course, we are civil here... sic) is still panning them harshly... And even as late as this afternoon their server is having difficulty keeping up with the traffic, exceeding bandwidth repeatedly throughout the day.

This all segues to the point of this Post. Do the Casino's understand the influence sites such as ours and a few of the other "bonus" blogs out there can have on their buisness... for good or ill? i know we have a few casino reps that are part of our community, and we have quite a few regular depositing members as well as those who look at the free chip as nothing more than "play" money, having learned from the Rogue casino's that the odds of ever seeing any even legitimate wins were... well slim to none.

In My experience with sales, out of 100 Cold leads a return of 10% sales is a godd repeatable "norm". Even targeted marketing rarely gleans more than about 20%. I cannot say for a fact what part 0f the 1800 folks who visited this site yesterday went to Cleopatras but can say that probably only the first 25% who went were able to enjoy the chip leaving 75% disgruntled.

These two casinos are the only Two I will label by name, but only so they can be seen as what can Go wrong... In the last month or so there have been a couple of other new start up casinos... some we are all still raving about...

So toss out some insight...

Do free chips work?

Does a 750% match with an impossible playthrough entice you more than a simple 100% match with low payout/no max  open your wallet?

If you read of a casinos great service here, are you more inclined to deposit there?

If you hear the loud rants and disgruntled players... do you avoid that casino, or write them off as "play money only ie grab the chips and play but no expectation of cashing out or depositing?

Does anyone out there even Read the Terms and conditions before hitting the download link and spinning away?

This perhaps is what I am referring to. If I am looking at it from their point of view, that of getting paying customers to deposit instead of freaking out I would be rubbing My hands in anticipation. Simple statistics are going to show me 1 in ten of these "visitors" will be depositing with me... IF their experience is satisfactory. Maybe not today but My place will be on the tip of their tongues... and wallets when they are getting ready to deposit.

Face it, with the playthrough requirements on free chips barely 1 in 500 will hit that playthrough... and that one will Rave about how good that casino was. Yes, the 1 guy who cashes in for 50$ will probably redeposit that 50 right back... plus some of his own... but it is that other 499 I would be wanting to market towards in the hopes of getting them to reach into their wallets as well.

A hypothetical scenario ~ Jimbeaux cashes in a free $25 dollar chip and sits loads his first machine. A pop up from live chat opens and says "Hello Jimbeaux, we hope you enjoy the free chip but are sorry to inform you that unfortunatly you have inadvertantly (sic) used a second free chip in a row which unfortunatly will not allow you to claim any winnings should you get lucky tonight. Please feel free to continue playing that chip just for fun tonight... or if you wish to make a minimum deposit of 30 dollars we will void this chip and give you a brand new one for the same amount... to use at your leisure...~


What are odd's that I can talk just 2 out of ten into that? Do you have any idea how many people it took to "exceed the bandwidth"? If 2 out of ten of those visitors became depositors The take would have been through the roof.


Sportsbookers are a strange breed, odds run through their heads at all times. But you are right. If you stick to your own money then you have no limits on how much you can win or when you can withdraw. Both attractive reasons to avoid playthroughs entirely. On the other hand, as the house, the longer you stay at the table the more the odds sit with me, so those 'bonuses"  work to my benefit... as long as I don't make the playthrough impossible. I want Winners, some at least because Winners cause Excitement and Envy as others try to become winners as well.

Now me, I have thirty bucks as a stake. We have all played enough thirty dollar chips to realize that building that thirty to anything of value is going to be darn tough, just because a single bad run of the reels can wipe it out before you ever get a chance to recover. On the other hand having 60 added to my stake, at the cost of playing through 900 dollars worth of spins... you know... that is within the realms, tough but not impossible... and the added cushion does increase my odds of being able to ride over the bad runs.

I can't compare these online places to landbased... the analogy does not come close. what you proposed for the landbased blackjack table would not ever work... But free drinks, meals, rooms and other landbased perks would not be effective in the online market either. It's their house... you play by their rules... that is universal.
On the same note you would never whine in a landbased casino that "it was not fair, you did not know the rules" and expect any sympathy.

Lipstick,
How is that different with what most free chip promotions already offer ( we will not get into multiple chipping or T&C violations) where a Max cashout is set upon the use of the free chip? It does allow the player to "win" a small amount, if playthrough is met.

My personal choice would be to allow just that, except in the case of Jackpots. Jackpots are the golden ring, the once in a lifetime Hit and the furor and advertising hooplah surrounding that hit draws huge numbers of people to playing that game. So announcing that Jackpot's hit while using the free Chip will be honored, to me, would be a sound buisness approach. The positive feedback and publicity it garnered, offsetting the payout.