For every high-roller that jumps on their private plane to Monte Carlo, Macau or Las Vegas to enjoy a week of thrilling gambling action, five-star dining and luxury hotel suites, there are thousands more who aren’t able to visit a local casino, either due to distance or jurisdictional restrictions. However, the creation of internet casino sites has allowed the action – and the complimentary gifts – to come into the player’s home.
Although online casinos can’t offer great food, show tickets or bottle service to their clients, they make up for this shortcoming with something more useful: cash money! Every major online casino and poker web site offers first-time visitors free bonus cash after they make their first deposit into their site account. Some sites even give players free money just for creating an account, before they deposit a cent of their own money!
For those players that enjoy online poker, they can often receive up to 200% of their initial deposit placed into a special “bonus account”. Players can convert their “bonus account” money into cold hard cash by playing at cash-game tables or in major online tournaments. The site factors in how long a player plays and the table betting limits and translates that data into “frequent player points”.
Players can accumulate these points and cash them in for T-shirts, baseball caps, and other merchandise emblazoned with the site’s logo. Some sites even offer jewelry, electronics and other luxury items. A particular poker site allows players to redeem their player points for a big-screen HDTV, a motorcycle or a Mini Cooper automobile!
In fact, many major poker sites allow players to enter online tournaments that offer the ultimate poker prize: a trip to a major televised tournament event. Every top-flight poker site offers players the chance to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event, as well as World Poker Tour events and other major tournament. The sites allow players to become the next Chris Moneymaker, who won US$2.5 million at the 2003 WSOP Main Event after qualifying through an online site.
