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If, while doing a casino bonus, you lose all of the bonus money but not your stake, and have not yet completed the wagering requirements, can you cash out? (I assume the answer is no).
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Usually, the bonus money would be deducted from your cashout. There are exceptions such as InterCasino, which carries over the wagering requirements, and will cut you off from the monthly bonus if you do this too often. It's a very bad idea to risk ticking InterCasino off.
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I havent put a whole lot of thought into this, but it seems to me that the EV of a bonus is independent of wager size (although increasing one's wager certainly increases the variance). Is this true?
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Not exactly.
EV = Bonus - HA * E(amount wagered)
If you grind a bonus out with very small wagers, the expected amount wagered will be very close to the wagering requirement. If you make larger bets, you risk busting out early, which decreases the expected total amount you wager. The difference between wagering $1/hand and $3/hand is negligible, but the difference can be significant if you wager $100/hand.
www.OnlineBlackjackGuide.com has a program you can download that allows you to simulate the results of different wager sizes. For example, suppose you have a deposit $200, get $100 bonus with a 50x wagering requirement (WR 15k) at a 0.48% HA. This is similar to the reload bonuses offered by Lasseters and AusVegas, though I don't know the house advantage there offhand.
In 10,000 trials of $1/hand, there were 5% busts, but those occured after most of the wagering requirements were met anyway. The average profit was $29.22.
In 500,000 trials of $100/hand, there were 82% busts. The average profit was $77.51.
If the thought of wagering at $100/hand for 150 hands makes you queasy, another method is to treat high WR bonuses like sticky bonuses. Set a target such as doubling up, and make large wagers just until you bust out or hit the target. If you hit the target, you can bet smaller amounts. Trying to double up this way will cut both the amount of time you spend and the house advantage paid by a factor just less than 2.