NJ Online Gaming...

[Pooperman]

Promotions!

I recently moved to the state, and apparently you can gamble online or something. I thought I'd take a look at the promotions being offered at the 5 or 6 online casinos. A couple had $10 free rides (bonus money, gotta wager $100/$250/whatever to get it vested). Nothing usually comes of those since you need $10 at least by the end of it to ACH to yourself. Another (Harrah's) offers 20 free spins which gives you real money. I got $1.55 out of the 20 spins ($1.80 worth of free wager). Not enough to transfer, so I got super lucky at video poker and took out $13.50 (bet it all on one hand, got 2 pair). Another (Tropicana/Virgin) is doing a pay back (real, not bonus) for your losses first deposit, and if you lose 90%, they give you your initial deposit. $10 minimum. Put in $10, lost $9, went to $11 and won the next pull and ended at $12. Figured I'd leave it there for the week before taking it out as per the rules. Wake up the next morning to play the free spins please game, notice I've got $17, not $12. See that it's bonus that I've got to play through by the end of the day or i lose it, so I say 'what the hell, why not'. I win 'cause luck's a thing, and end up at $32. Decide I'll do the 'mystery' promotion where you have to wager every day the first week and end up with bonus money (i.e. stuff you gotta vest) by the end of the week. Stayed around $25, on day 3. Today (day 4), I won a serious amount (for the $0.30 bets I've been doing, $35 is a lot) and ended up at $65. I figure I'll end up with $50 that I can take out next week excluding the bonus money, which I'll play to vest and get something or (probably) nothing.

I will update next week with what the 'mystery' rewards end up being worth (keep in mind I only put in $10).

Total gains as of today: $68 for a total of about 2 hours of time (research, reading the rules, playing, signing up, etc). If you live in the state of NJ, take a look at the offers. At least try your hand and getting some free cash. You can't lose if it's not your money.Personally, I find gambling kinda boring. I think the best way to use the free money is probably as a single bet. If you lose, it wasn't yours. If you win, you take out the winnings (real money) and repeat until loss happens. May take several weeks due to the rules to do that, but it's like picking up change while walking (internet style).

[swissgva]

The house always wins. Even with free promo money!

[Pooperman]

The house always wins. Even with free promo money!

Usually, yes. A free bet on black could net you something or net you nothing. Either way, it costs you nothing!

[MoneyRx]

Awesome. There are some really good deals out there in gambling if you are frugal enough and do a little research to know the rules and odds. Of course with these, they are trying to suck people in to start playing for more money, but if you are strong minded enough to stay away after, it can be fun and make you a little money.

[squatman]

This was huge back in the early days of casino/poker bonus "whoring" (2002-2005?). There was automated blackjack playing software that would let you just sit down, run the script, and get through the hands to cover a wagering requirement. As long as you could actually stop playing once you got the bonus, it was basically printing money. A big part of my online poker beginnings came from these types of promotions. Glad to see they still exist!

[Pooperman]

So I ended up about $30 in free money. The "super secret" bonus turns out to be a total of 7x your initial deposit in bonus money if you bet every day for the first week (2x for first 4 days, 5x for the whole week? not sure). Sadly, my big $70 on black bet didn't win, so oh well. I don't have patience for bonus money. Some of the requirements on bonus money is like wager 25x the bonus + initial deposit and if you take out the deposit, you lose the bonus money. Not worth it IMO. I find gambling very boring, but I do like free money :). There are some other gambling-ish places where you wager on a game you play against other people. Those places have some decent free money ($10 give or take). Awesome if you can write a script to beat people I'm sure (though against the rules). I still have the Borgatta's free cash (stuck in verification hell since I recently moved, but I'll sort it out at the end of this month).

[larmando]

I signed up for a 25€ bonus free trading account (CFDs). Never deposited any of my money with them, and lost my initial free 25. At least it reminded me I can't time markets. Nice free lesson.

[MoneyCat]

Online gambling is really dangerous stuff.  It's really addictive and can easily get out of control.  I would be really careful if I was you.

[Pooperman]

Online gambling is really dangerous stuff.  It's really addictive and can easily get out of control.  I would be really careful if I was you.

Agreed if you have an addictive personality or no self-control. I give 0 shits when playing with house money though. It bores me to gamble in the first place. I take the "Art of War" approach: I bet when I've already won.

[MoneyRx]

Wanted to share one I found today:

For tonight's monday night football game bovada has titans +7 +110, my local site has steelers -7 +100. I put $500 on both and will win $50 if titans cover the spread and break even if steelers cover or win by 7. I could also have made it so I am guaranteed $25 either way by betting different amounts. This seems to happen every once in a while and can easily be taken advantage of. Again, like the online bonuses, the key is to not gamble in spots where you don't have the edge.

[Alabaster]

Online gambling is really dangerous stuff.  It's really addictive and can easily get out of control.  I would be really careful if I was you.

Agreed if you have an addictive personality or no self-control. I give 0 shits when playing with house money though. It bores me to gamble in the first place. I take the "Art of War" approach: I bet when I've already won.

I have an addictive personality, and very little self control - I'll stay nice and far away. Have fun with this. But I still worry for the general population because they wouldn't have the promos if they didn't generally work.

Daily bonus you have to gamble or lose? o.O I could see that getting a lot of people into trouble.

[Spoom]

As a web developer, I would never do online gambling for one reason (OK, many reasons, but one primary reason): You have no idea what is going on in the server which calculates whether you win or lose.

I guarantee that the programs that drive these servers ensure that the house always, always has the edge.  At least at a casino, the rules of the game are fairly straightforward, and you can watch the dealer draw the cards.  How do you know that the server isn't examining the deck and reshuffling to give the house an advantage?

I guess if you're not actually gambling, I guess it becomes similar to credit card churning... do the minimum to get the bonus and cash out.  Not worth it for me IMHO, but good luck to others.

[Alabaster]

As a web developer, I would never do online gambling for one reason (OK, many reasons, but one primary reason): You have no idea what is going on in the server which calculates whether you win or lose.

I guarantee that the programs that drive these servers ensure that the house always, always has the edge.  At least at a casino, the rules of the game are fairly straightforward, and you can watch the dealer draw the cards.  How do you know that the server isn't examining the deck and reshuffling to give the house an advantage?

I guess if you're not actually gambling, I guess it becomes similar to credit card churning... do the minimum to get the bonus and cash out.  Not worth it for me IMHO, but good luck to others.

For that matter, you don't really know where the server doing your gambling is located. And... we're still figuring out how exactly laws are going to apply to the internet. If the gambler is in NJ but the server ('house') is in Phoenix, Arizona or Singapore or where-ever who's laws apply?

[MoneyCat]

As a web developer, I would never do online gambling for one reason (OK, many reasons, but one primary reason): You have no idea what is going on in the server which calculates whether you win or lose.

I guarantee that the programs that drive these servers ensure that the house always, always has the edge.  At least at a casino, the rules of the game are fairly straightforward, and you can watch the dealer draw the cards.  How do you know that the server isn't examining the deck and reshuffling to give the house an advantage?

I guess if you're not actually gambling, I guess it becomes similar to credit card churning... do the minimum to get the bonus and cash out.  Not worth it for me IMHO, but good luck to others.

For that matter, you don't really know where the server doing your gambling is located. And... we're still figuring out how exactly laws are going to apply to the internet. If the gambler is in NJ but the server ('house') is in Phoenix, Arizona or Singapore or where-ever who's laws apply?

Legal online gambling in NJ can only be played on servers operated out of the casinos in Atlantic City by state law.  However, who knows what is going on in those servers, especially since Atlantic City hasn't been doing so well lately.  Four casinos out of twelve have gone out of business this year.

[KittyFooFoo]

Until I got completely sidetracked by a job search in October, I studied and played NJ online poker this year, starting with just the $10 signup bonus.  I played .01/.02, .02/.05, then .05/.10 with strict bankroll management and ran my backroll up to a peak of $550ish (it's in the low $400s now after a large downswing).  I put in a solid couple hundred hours of work into this, and that's only counting play, not all the books/2plus2 forums/videos I went through.  Basically I am a weak intermediate, still with a LOT to learn about the game.

Unfortunately, now I am moving to NYC for a ridiculously high paying job :)

[MoneyRx]

Until I got completely sidetracked by a job search in October, I studied and played NJ online poker this year, starting with just the $10 signup bonus.  I played .01/.02, .02/.05, then .05/.10 with strict bankroll management and ran my backroll up to a peak of $550ish (it's in the low $400s now after a large downswing).  I put in a solid couple hundred hours of work into this, and that's only counting play, not all the books/2plus2 forums/videos I went through.  Basically I am a weak intermediate, still with a LOT to learn about the game.

Unfortunately, now I am moving to NYC for a ridiculously high paying job :)

You mean you found a job that pays more than the $1/hr you made playing poker?? jkjk =). I played a ton of poker online and in casinos in highschool/college 2003-2008 or so, but I don't think the money is there any more. There are quite a few issues at this point that I have noticed:
1. Most people who wanted to play have tried poker at this point, and those who were always going to be really bad have lost money and quit by now.
2. Most people still playing have read a book or 2 at minimum and are much better than what the average used to be. The last few times I have played, everyone is playing soo tight (this is generally how you should play) compared to in the past. The higher the stakes, the exponentially tougher it gets.
3. Online poker is a shell of what it used to be.
4. Casino rake (at least in my area where there is no competition) is insanely high. Most tables I see with 10 people sitting will have only 2-3 people winning at any point. 
5. Completely personal reason, but it does seem like a low paying job at this point. After playing for so long, a lot of the fun I had initially is gone. And it takes too long to play: when I had infinite time off in highschool and college it wasn't a big deal to spend the day playing tournaments or cash games, but now that I am a grown up and have a job that pays, I don't want to spend my days off grinding it out at the poker tables.