Most online casino gambling aficionados play hard and they play to win. But there's an alternate strategy (no, not to lose - that would be silly!): a strategy more conservative, more demanding of discipline, as well as of considerable more questionable merit than straightforward online casino gambling, but with significantly higher odds of a player walking away from the (computer) tables with more dough than he or she started with. It's called "bonus hunting" and it's the closest thing in online casino gambling to a sure thing. So why isn't everyone doing it? That question is the subject of this article - why not bonus hunt?

First let's lay out the practice for you. Peruse gaming site reviews on sites like www.casinobrain.com and www.poker-ranking.com and you will see that almost every one offers a Bonus upon sign-up. It may be called a "Sign-Up Bonus", a "Welcome Bonus", an "Initial Deposit Bonus", a "First Deposit Bonus", a "Match Bonus" - but whatever it's name, the concept's the same.

For signing up and making your first deposit (or "purchasing" your first stack of chips), the online casino gambling site will give you some percentage of that amount in bonus chips. As soon as you make the deposit, the full amount of the bonus is added to your player account.

But, of course, there's a catch - you must wager an amount equal to some multiple of the dollar amount of either your bonus or your initial deposit (depending on the online casino gambling site or poker room) before you can withdraw any of it.

As you can probably guess, in the process of meeting your wagering requirement, two things are likely to occur:

1. You lose some or all of the bonus amount and some or all of your initial deposit too

2. You enjoy the online casino gambling experience at that site so much (or have lost so much money you just can't let yourself walk away) that you deposit more and more money and just keep on playing

What Bonus Hunters have discovered, however, is that by only playing at the lowest stake tables (ie. 1 cent video poker), they can severely minimize the percentage of their bonus that's eaten away in the process of fulfilling the wagering requirements. It is unlikely that a bonus hunter will come out ahead. It is even highly unlikely that the bonus hunter will walk away with most of the bonus. But they'll probably walk away with some of it and get their initial deposit back.

So what are the drawbacks? Well, get ready, 'cause there a bunch - more in fact than you may realize. To put it plainly, bonus hunting is fraught with its own inherent challenges and flaws, not the least of which is its yield. What bonus hunters happily lose in risk, they gain in time commitment. Playing not to win but to "not lose" takes a ton of time, and you'll probably find the reward not worth the absence of risk at all (think: 50 cents an hour - might as well get a minimum wage job).

Not all bonuses are built alike - you must hunt (thus the moniker) for the biggest bonuses (percentage-wise) with the lowest wagering requirements and the lowest stakes games (giving you the greatest chance of keeping most of your bankroll safe). That's a mighty tall order. When you consider this, the pool of potential "targets" suddenly dwindles considerably. Likewise, the amount of time you'll spend trying to find an online casino gambling site to hit will increase exponentially the more you do it.

And there's always the fact that if you choose unwisely, you could lose it all.

Online casino gambling sites don't like bonus hunters - is it any wonder - and as such, if you're ever tagged as one, you may be permanently locked out of the casino, forced to give up any winnings, and find yourself blacklisted not only from that casino but from its affiliates and sister sites too. Try it at your own risk.