We ran the original "The Downside of Bonus Abuse" back in '01 and, surprise surprise, a few things have changed in the bonus scene since then. Let's bring things up to date.

The original article opened by saying "lots of people think they can make a quick $50 or $100 bucks when they play a new casino. Just sign up, get the bonus, make a few bets and cash out with most of your bonus money in hand, right? Well, yes, it can be done, but it's not as brilliant a plan as it initially appears to be."

No kidding! That's doubly true now and the whole landscape of bonuses has changed to make it much more "not as brilliant". So what exactly is different now?

First of all bonuses are generally bigger now but tougher to qualify for. Back in the day you could get a bonus, albeit a small one, for simply downloading a casino's software. No deposit, no play-through requirements, no nothing! Boom, cash in your account and thank you very much. Needless to say that's pretty much history.

Virtually every real bonus from a decent casino now requires a significant amount of play-through. That's the combined amount you have to wager before you can withdraw your bonus. It's usually "10x", meaning 10 times your combined deposit and the bonus you receive, but it can be a lot more. As ever, you must read those T&Cs (Terms and Conditions) to know what you're dealing with.

There are now also "sticky" bonus requirements to contend with, meaning that the playthrough demands will carry over to your subsequent deposits until you finish the full playthrough requirement of the original deposit and bonus.

Play-through requirements are getting stiffer too. First it was 2x or 5x, then 10x and 20x and now we're seeing it go as high as 40x. With that kind of requirement in place you had better seriously ask yourself whether it's worth it because it directly effects your money management options. If you got into it for easy money a 20x or 40x play-through is a very effective way to make it a whole lot less "easy".

What else has changed? Well, there's been a lot of consolidation within the industry so getting yourself kicked from one casino for "abuse" now usually means that you get black-listed from the whole group which can be several, if not many, casinos.

Another "consolidation" issue lies in the fact that casino owners are often quite willing to share information on players that they tag as "abusers". Though it's doubtful whether the infamous "black list database" really exists as an open resource we know for a fact that information on individual players is sometimes shared between managers. It doesn't take long for the word to get around that such-and-such a player is "an abuser" and as such that player may find themselves barred from casinos they've never even heard of. It happens!

And finally, it should come as no surprise that the casinos are a lot quicker now to lower the boom on anyone that tries to muck about with the rules. The honeymoon with bonuses is pretty much over and it's been "down to business" for a while now. The casinos know the players are out there so they'll offer as much of a carrot as they need to to get some attention. But you can bet your bottom dollar that they've learned that many players will take advantage of the bonus offers if they can so they're not shy, nor should they be, about using the stick when they feel they need to.