The Ashes

A new kind of sport has developed amongst skilful online gamblers. It’s been already given several names, from bonus bagging to simple bonus hunting and it consists in taking advantage, or rather abusing, bonuses online casinos offer to newcomers to let the try out the games for free before they start betting their own money. A bonus hunter creates a new account in the casino, bags the bonus and absconds. Then he creates another account, again pockets the free money and disappears. Casinos now prevent the adverse effects of this behaviour by conditioning withdrawals of bonuses by a so called playthrough meaning that before you actually cash the free money out, you have to wager a certain amount from your own pocket first. Another preventative measure includes verifying the player’s identity to make sure no gambler can register two different accounts with one casino.