[parappa]

I have blatently whored at least 15 poker rooms and at least 30 casinos. While it has been previously believed that certain amounts of cover play would prevent you being labelled a whore or a bonus abuser, my opinion based on experience is that no one really knows which sites are going to take up bannings, suspend accounts, etc. and that most of the sites don't know themselves until the week before they do it. It tends to be an overreaction, and the pattern is usually that some bannings occur and that it is a one-off.

I would not spend a minute worrying about this topic. Yes, it might happen to you. If you do this for long enough it will; it's a cost of doing it. Perhaps some sites are a bit worse about asking for ID or something. But if you don't attempt to cheat the sites, but rather simply honestly take advantage of the promotions they offer and play there or not depending on whether you feel like it or not, you are relatively unlikely to have problems.

Never believe info that you see here or on the net. Read the site's T&Cs for yourself. If you are not violating them, you are unlikely to be banned. Also, if you don't know what you're doing, never be the first one into a new site. Figure out who on the sites you read are experienced and/or trustworthy and trust their research only as an anecdote of a good experience and as a pointer to a possible site.

In short, my opinion is that cover play is somewhat overrated. There is nothing naughty about taking advantage of promotions that sites offer, there is no guarantee they will continue to offer them, and other than becoming a steady (and therefore in the case of casinos, losing) customer there isn't that much you can do to prevent yourself from being possibly banned as a bonus chaser.