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In the beginning generous online casinos were plentiful and good. There were so many and the competition for the happy gamblers was so fierce, that the casinos started to give the happy gamblers some money just to join their merry casino. And everybody was happy. The casinos had customers, and the customers got free money with which to wager.
But it didn't take long before a new and disturbing breed of gambler emerged. True gamblers they were not. This new breed of gamblers was called bonus hunters by polite folk. (I won't mention what the not-so-polite folk call them) They would run and frolic from casino to casino, gathering up all the money the hapless casinos were giving away and not stay to play. The casinos grew fearsome. "What can we do to stop the merry band of bonus hunters from taking our money?", they anguished. They didn't want to alienate their loyal gambling customers, but they couldn't give away money for nothing and stay in business. The free money was intended to entice loyal and good gamblers to play and stay at their casinos.
Eventually "Wagering Requirements" were introduced. For the good and honest gambler, it really didn't make a difference, however, as the requirements grew more and more difficult for them to understand.
Which brings us to the year 2004. Online Casinos still offer generous bonuses to entice players to play. This money is genuine, it is a gift to you, but it does have some strings attached. The reason is obvious: to prevent people from signing up, taking the bonus money and cashing out. These strings are to protect the casino and are necessary because far more players try to scam Casinos than the other way around!
Lets look at this from another angle: If you go into a computer store and see a rebate offer of $100.00 for a certain computer, you have to actually buy the computer in order to qualify for the rebate. The computer manufacturer would go out of business in no time flat without this requirement. The same thing applies for online casinos - they would be out of business in no time if they didn't require that players actually spend some time playing at their casinos before giving them a cash-out which includes their free bonus money.
The moral of the story is this: