Some people can’t seem to ever tell the truth.
There’s just no getting away from it, and the very best liars (or rather, the very worst ones) really come out of the woodwork any time people are interested in some new industry or service.
Unfortunately, with the advent of domestic online gambling in the United States, we’ve been seeing a lot of these con artists popping up in our search results.
Just today, we wanted to report on the state of online casino action in Michigan, which launched just two weeks ago on January 22, 2021.
The TL;DR is that it’s doing quite well, thank you very much, and there’s a lot of demand for the product.
That’s good.
What’s not so good is the fact that one of the very first search results we got wasn’t anything germane to the industry in MI.
Instead, it was some guy with the some gambling site (we don’t cite or link to liars) beclowning himself with abject untruths about the bonuses offered by BetMGM, one of the most prominent online casino imprints in the state and other US states with legitimate online casino gambling.
We’d give this individual the benefit of the doubt and say he just doesn’t have a clue about the subject, but that doesn’t hold water. Bonuses are a huge part of the industry, and he’s working in the industry.
No, he is straight-up lying to potential Michigan gamblers.
Here’s what the guy’s peddling about BetMGM and the service’s new gambling promotion:
“BetMGM [offers] new users a $1,000 deposit match bonus… The sign-up bonuses do have playthrough requirements… You will need to wager the bonus funds if you want to withdraw them. Any leftover winnings are yours to keep.”
Holy crap, a 1X rollover on a deposit bonus?!
We read this and were flabbergasted, to say the least.
After all, we’ve been covering legal online casino gambling sites for years, and bonuses have always been one of the top selling points for the main competing services.
We regularly see rollover requirements of between 5X and 40X at these sites (depending on the market and the time of year), but we’ve never seen a 1X rollover on a deposit match bonus.
Not even once.
So we did some digging.
Of course, it didn’t take long to spot the con, because the real terms and conditions of the BetMGM bonus are right there on the BetMGM page advertising the BetMGM bonus!
This hack saw it, understood it, and then lied to everyone, anyway.
For that, he was rewarded with a top search result and an audience of tens of thousands of unwitting Michiganders.
What a shame.
Here’s the real story, for those of you living in the Wolverine State and who don’t want to end up clawing your eyes out over a crummy deal:
BetMGM does offer new MI members a 100% deposit match bonus of up to $1000. That much is true.
This means that if you deposit $1000, you’ll get an extra $1000, for a total of $2000 in money with which to wager. (You can deposit less, and that will be matched by 100%, as well.)
However, this bonus carries a 15X rollover, not a 1X rollover.
So, if you’ve claimed $1000 in online casino bonus free plays, you’ll need to wager $15,000 in total funds before you can withdraw any associated winnings.
Now, to be sure, a 15X rollover isn’t bad by online casino standards.
It’s actually pretty good – All the best international gambling sites legal for US members have bonuses between 10X and 20X on most first-time deposits.
However, there’s an added requirement that makes this bonus pretty weak: It comes with a 14-day time limit.
That is, you have only two weeks from the time you make your initial deposit to turn that $15,000 handle. If you don’t manage to turn it, you don’t get your entire bonus.
(BetMGM is actually ambiguous as to whether you’ll even get a prorated bonus. You may well get nothing at all!)
The best online casinos operating internationally have no such requirements, because – frankly – it’d be bad for business.
A domestic operator thinks it’s the only game in town, so it can get away with this kind of fluff. But legitimate offshore casinos have to fight hard for your business, and they know they’ll lose it immediately if they nickel and dime you on the promotions.
At any rate, the BetMGM bonus isn’t the big offender here.
We’ve actually gambled with the BetMGM app, and it’s fairly well-made. It’s doesn’t boast the assortment of online slots, online blackjack, and other casino games we’re used to with the overseas sites we’ve played at for years, but it’s a solid enough experience.
However, if new members are misled into thinking BetMGM’s bonuses are something they’re not by an unscrupulous hack who #fakenews’d his way to the top of the search rankings, there are going to be a whole bunch of unhappy gamers.
And we don’t want that.
Folks, please please please take a moment to always read over the terms and conditions for any online gambling bonus you come across, whether you’re playing online domestically or internationally.
They can prove quite valuable and help boost your bankroll legitimately, but they aren’t always right for every single player.
And anyone selling the notion that a casino site – any casino site – offers match bonuses with 1X rollovers should be ignored.
Those don’t exist, and they never will.
This concludes our Monday afternoon PSA.