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Look at any online casino promotion wagering requirements attached to them, which are an important rule that dictates how many times a player must play through a bonus amount (or bonus + deposit) before they can withdraw any winnings. While they don’t make for the most engaging reading material, it is important to take note of them, otherwise your bonus may be forfeited and you will end up empty-handed, even if you managed to bag a win.
Wagering requirements set the terms of playthrough requirements, and sit alongside other important factors like the maximum bonus amount that can be claimed and how long it will be active on an account. Those stipulations on what can and can’t be done with a bonus are a regular part of the online gambling experience. Here is a detailed breakdown of what wagering requirements are and how they work.
Most people will feel like skipping over the details on wagering requirements. While this is understandable, not bothering to look at the terms can lead to missing a vital step in claiming or fulfilling the bonus. So the purpose of reading the terms of wagering requirements is simply to be well-informed and make the most of the bonus deal you’re claiming¹.
Online casinos are required to state the full terms and conditions of any kind of promotional bonus they offer. In most cases, you will find a brief note highlighting the key terms and conditions including the wagering requirements under a promotional banner.
The banner and the T&Cs usually link to a bonus page which details everything about the particular offer. This page will cover all the terms and conditions of the deal, including the wagering requirements.
Wagering requirements are the specific requirements of how many times a player has to play through a bonus amount. It can be referred to as the “playthrough”, and sometimes the “rollover” amount as well. Some bonuses require a player to play through both the bonus amount and the initial deposit amount on a welcome bonus.
Essentially, a wagering requirement stops a player from getting the bonus amount credited and then immediately withdrawing that bonus balance in cash. Casinos are businesses, and if every visitor to the site did this, they wouldn’t be in business for very long. Wagering requirements are part of the complicated maths of casinos2.
Casinos use welcome bonuses to attract new players, with the hope that they will stick around and become regular players. Part of the hidden factor about wagering requirements is they are designed to encourage players to get a feel for a platform while striving to fulfil those bonus terms.
If a player has to spend $500 dollars on a wagering requirement, for example, they are going to have to play casino games, likely over several sessions. The more that a player does that, the greater the likelihood of them finding slot machines that they will want to revisit time and time again, or they could be falling in love with blackjack. So from a business perspective, the wagering requirements on a bonus are valuable to the casino.
Wagering requirements for online casino bonuses are listed as options like 25x, 30x, 40x and 50x which are some of the most common denominations. Whatever the amount is, it refers to the number of times that the full bonus value has to be wagered with real cash.
Promotions are a big part of the gambling industry in New Zealand, which continues to grow3. As an example, consider the following welcome bonus offer at an online casino: Deposit NZ$20 Get NZ$50 Bonus with 30x Wagering Requirements.
Here’s how it works.
To claim the bonus in the first place, the player has to make a qualifying deposit meeting the specified minimum amount of NZ$20. The bonus amount is then released to the account. That bonus can’t be converted to real cash and it can’t be withdrawn.
To meet wagering requirements, real money stakes are placed on casino games. In this case, the bonus amount is NZ$50 and the playthrough requirements are 30x. That means NZ$50 x 30, so a total of NZ$1,500 in real money has to be staked at the casino before the bonus is released as withdrawable cash.
It’s easy to assume that the NZ$50 bonus in the offer is just free to play, but it’s not that simple. A lot of real money stake is required to fulfil and release the actual bonus, and that can catch people off guard.
Having to stake real money to fulfil the wagering requirements raises the question of whether welcome bonuses are worth it or not. The answer to that is very subjective. For someone with a big enough budget to complete the playthrough requirements, it’s a valid offer that they won’t think twice about fulfilling.
For an average casual player, the full playthrough amount may put the bonus out of reach. Gambling beyond your means just to try and fulfil the bonus requirements is a bad practice, and in that scenario, the bonus most certainly is not worth the financial stress. Never overstretch your budget just to claim a bonus.
When searching for a suitable welcome bonus, it’s best to look for those which have the lowest wagering requirements, because that means it requires less effort to fulfil it. Here is a guide to the range of common wagering requirements:
But still, even at the lower end of the scale if you find a bonus with 25x wagering requirements that would leave you with having to fund 25x the initial bonus amount. Plus, the eventual bonus is only going to be 1/25th of that total outlay.
There are further considerations to make about wagering requirements- it’s not just about the multiplier that they come with. Here is a look at other factors that need to be assessed:
The time given to fulfil wagering requirements is typically limited. It can be a week, two weeks or a month in rare cases. Most commonly, players only have 7 or 14 days to get through the entire play. Failure to do that simply means that the bonus is forfeited, and then everything you have put towards trying to fulfil the offer has been in vain.
Be aware of specific games that do not count towards meeting the wagering requirements of a casino bonus. In most instances, stakes on any slot machine will qualify, but there may be a few exceptions, such as on a networked progressive jackpot for example, or crash games.
Different types of games have differing values of game weighting, something that is often overlooked by players. Game weighing is what percentage of the stake qualifies for the bonus’s fulfilment. All stake on slots, for example, is likely to count 100% towards wagering requirements.
But switch over to a live dealer game and the stake probably won’t count at all. So players have to be specific with their gaming options when trying to complete the wagering requirements. Typically, stake on non-live table games will range between 5% and 50% in weighting.
Bet limits refer to the maximum amount a player is allowed to wager per spin, hand, or game round while using bonus funds. These limits exist so that players don’t throw one huge lump sum at say a hand of blackjack to try and fulfil the wagering requirements all in one go.
The casino wants players to keep playing for a reasonable amount of time and capping bet sizes can achieve that, and is part of the psychology of gambling4.
Bonuses with wagering requirements are a valid part of online casino offers. A player is under no obligation to claim one if they don’t want to. However, if you want to receive a bonus and can see the amount responsibly and within the set amount of time, then be prepared, beginning with sound financial budgeting.5
Look at the wagering requirements and calculate how much you need to stake and what the best route to fulfilling the task is going to be. Start the ball rolling by getting an offer with the lowest possible wagering requirement amount.
Then focus only on playing games that are 100% weighted to requirements because that’s the easiest way to make your money work for you in terms of meeting the bonus rules.
As you are staking real money on the journey to bonus completion, don’t be rash with gaming decisions, either. Look for games that suit your playing style and try to find a nice balance between games with a High Return To Player percentage (RTP) and low volatility, which means they will pay out more frequently but the amounts will be lower than with high volatility machines.
3 Online Gambling New Zealand, written by Statista, published by Statista.com
5 How to budget money in 5 steps, published by Lauren Schwahn, published by Nerdwallet.com
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