Why do gambling sites and poker rooms offer sign-up bonuses?
It’s basically a bribe! Each site wants you to play with them rather than a competitor, and so they offer you something to come and play at their site rather than a different one. For casino games, they bank on you losing more in the long term than you win, and so they encourage you to stay with them by offering a cash incentive. The poker rooms make their money by taking a small percentage of each pot of money won by poker players (called “the rake”) the more players they can attract, the more money they can make. Poker players need other players to play against, and so they gravitate to the sites that have the most players. The poker rooms know this, and so they do their best to attract as many players as possible, even if this means running a “loss leader” i.e. giving you free cash to gamble with. Often they do not advertise their sign-up bonus on their site, as of course they would prefer if you signed up without getting anything back. And some gambling sites advertise deposit bonu
