Literally! By: Andy MachinNo - you didn't read the headline incorrectly. With a little patience and discipline you can take advantage of an on-line casino's generosity and beat them, quite literally, with their own money.
There are hundreds of casinos plying their trade on-line. It's pretty much a standard feature of every one that they offer new customers a monetary incentive to open an account with them.
These monetary incentives are generally either a:
fixed amount of money - for example $100 match bonus - the casino matches the amount of your initial deposit percentage amount - they'll add a percentage amount on top of your initial deposit
Some of the new account incentive offers are very good indeed. Obviously, the casino is adding the money to new account holders not only to attract new business, but they know that the average player will gamble it all away on the tables and keep coming back for more losing much more that the incentive they've given the new player.
Sound business sense from the casino - right?
Not necessarily - the clever casino player can turn the tables and the odds in his (or her) favour by playing online blackjack.
The bonus incentives come with strings attached - the casinos are not silly enough to allow you to withdraw your bonus money straight away - you have to play it through a few times first so you might lose it!
Each casino has its own terms though a typical example is that they may require you to wager the bonus amount say 20 times. So if they've given you $100 as a new account bonus you would have to place wagers to the cumulative value of $2000.
By playing online or live blackjack you really can walk off with your initial stake intact and a sum on top courtesy of the money the casino have given you.
The house edge (percentage the casino might expect to win) from blackjack variable depending on conditions but generally in the region of 5%. In other words the casino expects to win $5 for every $100 a player bets.
However - by applying basic blackjack strategy you can reduce the house edge to 1% or even less.
Now - back to the $100 new account bonus and $2000 wagering requirement example above. You've deposited $100 and got your free $100 making $200 in your account. Under the terms of the bonus incentive, you have to wager $2000.
By utilising basic strategy you reduce the house edge to 1% - thus on average you expect to lose 1% over the course of meeting the wagering requirements (2000 hands assuming flat betting $1 per hand). Each hand you play counts towards the wagering requirement.
1% of $2000 is just $20 - you can cash out with $180 left in your account. You've still got your initial $100 and you've taken an extra $80 from the casino literally out of their own pocket. Repeat the process at other casinos and you can rack up a tidy amount of money.
Some casinos even give monthly bonus incentives so you have the opportunity to take their money from the every month!
You won't win every time - sometimes you'll bust out and lose, other times you might win more than the above example. But by playing blackjack with the application of basic strategy it is entirely possible to literally beat the casino with their own money.
I personally use this technique and make money doing so. It's possible that you can do the same - but if you give it a try, please never, never gamble with money you cannot afford to lose.
Below you can find the best online casinos for playing online blackjack game or for playing live blackjack with live dealers!
Good luck at the tables!