Wagering Requirements
Wagering requirements refer to an amount of money that must be staked in order for a player to be able to withdraw any winnings earned from bonuses at an online casino.
Most casinos will offer tempting welcome bonuses to entice you to sign up at their site. The amount is often dependent on your first deposit so, for example, if you deposited £10 at a casino with a 200 percent match bonus you will receive £20 in bonus cash added to your account, giving you £30 to play with.
However, casinos are not in the business of handing out free cash, so you won’t be able to simply transfer that money to your bank account. The terms and conditions should tell you how many times you have to stake the bonus amount before you can withdraw the bonus and your winnings from it, which is usually referred to as the wagering requirement or, as it is sometimes known, the playthrough requirement.
If a site has a 20x wagering requirement on the £20 bonus used in the example, you will have to play through £400 before your winnings are released into your cash balance. Some casinos demand you play your initial deposit through as well as the bonus, meaning that a 20x requirement would lead to you spending £600 before you can withdraw any prizes won.
In addition, many casinos will pitch it so that only a percentage of money played on certain games with a lower house edge counts towards your wagering requirement. For example, a casino might offer a 100 percent matched first deposit bonus of up to £150, which must be turned over (in addition to the deposit) 20 times. Every penny you spend on slots and scratchcards will usually go towards that requirement, but sometimes only 25 percent of cash staked on roulette and 20 percent of blackjack wagers might count.
If you deposited £10 at that casino today, you would receive a £10 bonus, meaning you had £20 with which to play. If you just only took part in slots games, you would end up playing through £400 before you could bank your bonus and winnings, with those who stick to blackjack having to spend £2,000 to clear the wagering requirement.
It is important to check the game contribution towards a wagering requirement before you accept a bonus. Similarly, it is worth noting that some sites have a rule whereby, if you play a game with a lower contribution than 100 percent, the rest of your wagering, no matter what game it is on, will only contribute the lower amount to your turnover. You will also need to make sure that the bonus offer is available to players in your jurisdiction, as some casinos may prohibit players in certain countries from receiving bonus money or even signing up to the site.
Wagering requirements also apply to casino bonuses other than welcome bonuses and the term sometimes refers to the amount of money spent in advance of receiving a bonus.
Casinos with the Lowest Wagering Requirements
888Casino
888Casino requires you to play through the welcome bonus, but not the deposit, 30 times. Wagers on slots, scratch cards and arcade games all contribute 100 percent towards your playthrough, with 20 percent of roulette bets and 10 percent of anything staked on blackjack aiding your cause.
Grosvenor Casino
Grosvenor has a neat welcome bonus that requires you to deposit £20, play it through five times and receive a £20 bonus. It is not huge money, but it is a solid, not to mention achievable, deal.
The only restrictions on contributions are that even money bets, for example choosing red or black in roulette, don’t count and neither do stakes on poker, at the download casino or in the live casino. Other than that, 100 percent of any stake will count towards earning that bonus.
Ladbrokes Casino
The wagering requirement of the welcome bonus at Ladbrokes Casino is just 20x, although it does require you to play through both the bonus and deposit that many times before you can secure your winnings. Slots and scratchcard bets count 100 percent, with 20 percent of roulette and blackjack stakes contributing to your total.
Virgin Games
Although Virgin Games’ wagering requirement of twice the welcome bonus alone seems extraordinarily good, it is worth noting that, although 100 percent of stakes on bingo games contribute to playing through, only five percent of stakes on slots contribute. This essentially makes it the equivalent of a 40x wagering requirement at other casinos where slots wagers usually count 100 percent.
Considering you only have to play through the bonus, and not the deposit as well, this is still a decent deal, just not as eye-catching as it initially seems.