Blackjack was the first casino card game I had ever played for real money. And, I had tens of thousands of hands under my belt before ever getting within 100 miles of a land-based casino.

I started by playing blackjack at the online casinos, taking advantage of the bonuses they were offering new players. The common offers of the time were things like "Get $50 free when you deposit $50", and so I would. The terms of the bonus would say that I could withdraw anything I'd like after I put the money into play a certain amount of times.

And so, I would wager more than enough to meet the terms of the bonus, and then I could freely withdraw whatever I'd like. This was a very player-friendly environment, even if the casinos were reshuffling after every single hand.

Now, casinos still make the same kinds of offers, but they've changed the terms to make sure that blackjack players have to wager a significant amount of money before they can withdraw any of the bonus money. So the days of using basic strategy at an online casino to take home traditional bonus money may have faded except for the odd opportunity here and there.

Besides the standard "Here's some bonus money, now play forever and you can cash it out", there is another way casinos offer money. Some bonuses are never able to be cashed out. They are called "sticky bonuses" because they never leave your player account for your wallet. They stick to your player account until they are lost in wagers.

You may wonder what good that is, but I know I've personally had multiple winning sessions that would not have occurred if it weren't for the bankroll padding provided by bonus money. Even the sticky stuff helps. And, in dealing with sticky bonuses, I think that this article by Arnold Snyder is pretty interesting.

Here are some interesting bonus offers from online casinos . . .

This page last updated January 7th, 2007.