BEWARE "VEGAS RED" CASINO

BEWARE WHEN PLAYING WITH VEGAS RED ONLINE CASINO.

The ad is that they match 100% of your first deposit, 25% of your second, 50% of your third, and 100% of your fourth. You have to wager 8 X the deposit plus the bonus amount to meet the wagering requirement.

This sounds pretty good. Until you go to cash out. Then they tell you that the bonus is deducted from the total. Even after meeting the wagering requirement, the bonus is always "play money." You can never touch it. Even if you wager 100X the buy-in.

You can't cash out any winnings period until you have met the wagering requirement, which includes the bonus.

What is one's recourse to an online casino with deceptive (at best) advertising? Is there any precedent of class-action lawsuits against these guys? How about the fair gaming commission?

Please let me know if there is any recourse to these guys for the deceptive, and I believe fraudulent (I am no lawyer) advertising on their part. At the very least, be forewarned about them.

Jarhead

All PLAY BONUS credits are for wagering purposes only. (No withdrawal will be honored for an amount less than the PLAY BONUS. Upon your FIRST withdrawal (regardless of the number of deposits), any amount up to the equivalent value of the PLAY BONUS will be deducted from your play balance or winnings prior to settlement. The first credits wagered will be deducted from your deposit(s) rather than from the PLAY BONUS).

That is a fairly clear explanation of a sticky bonus. True, its buried in the T&C but almost all online casinos do the same thing. As a general rule, if a bonus looks too good to be true, then you need to read the T&C again.
Regarding recourse, there is no effective place to complain to, that is the nature of internet gambling.

That said, I can't see why you would want to. The use of sticky bonuses is fairly well established on the web. They are quite valuable when measured against traditional forms of advantage play. There are many sportsbooks and casinos who just don't pay, I can't really see that the few reputable consumer associations online would be all that interested in a minor issue like this.

You have to watch for these stickies. A while back people avoided them like the plague and went for cash bonuses. The true value in a sticky is the minimum play requirements which can be x4 (maybe not in this case of 8) and the % which can be 200% +. By going all in on the first hand (check the table max) you have around a 47% chance of winning your bet and converting the sticky into green. Your original sticky is still there, but now you can just ignore it, and give them 7x more action at $2 per hand then split after your cover period is over. If you could make that bet all day long you could buy BJ21 in about a month.

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