Why is it impossible? Because if your balance drops low enough, even a one penny bet will be less than 20%.
"I deposited $1000 and received a bonus of $400," Victor told us. "I was betting 20 dollars a hand through my game play and at one point my balance dropped to pretty low, I think around $100-$200. I didn't change my bet size and kept betting $20 as normal. I hit something and brought my balance back up to $5000-$6000 or so. I keep spinning and lose some and win some. Finally, I went to cashout and I received a email from GoWild casino saying that my withdrawal is declined and will not be processed".
What Victor told us was not 100% correct but was fairly close. GoWild sent us a copy of his play record and it shows that he started at $1450, played the slots at $20 per spin for 135 straight times, saw his balance drop as low as $69, and eventually hit at $2340. He then lowered his bets, varying them between $3 and $10 per spin, hit a few more times and then tried cashing out.
Victor's violations, according to GoWild, was that he "made 3 bets of 20% or more of his total balance - he actually violated the Terms in the technical way". (Those three bets were when his balance was below $100 but he continued to bet $20 per spin.)
This, combined with the fact that he later lowered the size of his bets, constituted "bonus abusive game-play (bet high-win big/bet low-cut loses)", according to GoWild.
Well, yes, Victor did -- technically -- violate the casino's TOS, which says that betting more than 20% of your balance is forbidden "where that balance is made up of bonus balance (entirely or partially)." For this reason, and this reason only, Gambling Grumbles is putting a "Crying Face" symbol on top of this report -- instead of the "Skull & Crossbones" which is our absolute lowest rating.
It is hard for us to accept that someone who deposited $1000, got a bonus, and came within 4 spins of losing both his bonus and his deposit can be called a bonus abuser.
Did Victor lower the size of his bets? Yes. He also raised them from time to time -- varying between $3 and $10 per spin. After seeing his balance drop to $69 at one point, who can blame him for being a bit more conservative when he finally hit?
Apparently, the answer to that is "GoWild Casino". Not only can it blame him, but it took $5382 of his money as punishment. Unfortunately, in the world of on line gaming, the casino is the prosecutor, judge, and jury all wrapped up into one.
A fair-minded casino is willing to listen to objections by the players or mediators such as Gambling Grumbles. GoWild is not.