you would spend a lot of money before you will reach the VIP status. if you have plans of achieving such status, make sure you are playing on a very reputable casino and maybe focus most of your funds to play with them. because if you will hop from one casino to another, your funds are like scattered everywhere. hard to reach your targets.
I agree with you that to achieve a VIP level need to play on a reputable gambling site. But that doesn't mean we have to spend/lose a lot of money. Status update based on the wager amount not the base on the amount we lose. So, without spending too much money anyone can reach on VIP level and take a VIP level bonus.