Everything You Need to Know About Casino Wagering Requirements - Full Guide for 2022
Published December 10, 2021 by Elana K
Understanding the wagering requirements of online casinos is crucial in making the most of casino bonuses, promotions, and sign-up offers. In this article, we’ll review everything you need to know about online casino wagering requirements.
Understanding the wagering requirements of online casinos is crucial in making the most of casino bonuses, promotions, and sign-up offers. In many cases, casinos advertise special offers for players, but the only way you can really get the most out of them is if you understand the wagering requirements.
In this article, we’ll review everything you need to know about online casino wagering requirements: what they are exactly, how they work, and what you should look out for before signing up for various offers.
What Are Casino Wagering Requirements?
When a casino offers a bonus, the “fine print” includes wagering requirements, which are the rules that players need to follow in order to qualify for the bonus. The most basic rule is how much money you need to bet in order to qualify for the bonus and collect any winnings from it. The requirement is usually written as a multiplier, such as 10x or 50x. Usually, the higher the bonus the casino is offering, the more money it will require players to spend.
Why Do Casinos Have Wagering Requirements?
Wagering requirements can be annoying for players, but casinos have a good reason for implementing them. First of all, wagering requirements prevent money laundering, since they “force” players to deposit money and not immediately withdraw it.
Additionally, wagering requirements prevent players from abusing casino bonuses and collecting money without actually betting anything. In essence, they require players to respect the casino and spend a certain amount of money before hopping to other casinos in search of bonuses.
While it may seem unfair for a casino to try and force a player to spend money or not go to other casinos, wagering requirements are the only way casinos can offer special bonuses to players while still protecting themselves.
How Do Wagering Requirements Work?
One of the best ways to understand how wagering requirements work is to take a look at an example. Let’s say there’s an online casino that’s offering a welcome bonus of 100% up to $1500 on your first deposit—and the wagering requirement is 10x. Practically, this means that—before you request a withdrawal from the casino—you need to spend 10x the total amount of your first deposit, plus the bonus money the casino gives you as a welcome gift.
Let's put this into numbers: if you deposit $10, the casino will give you another $10 for a total of $20. You then need to wager 10x $20 ($200) before you can make a withdrawal. If you deposit $1500, you’ll get another $1500 from the casino, which you can use to play games. However, before you make a withdrawal, you’ll need to deposit 10x $3000 ($30,000). This is how casinos protect themselves and promote player loyalty.
As you can see, if there were no wagering requirements, you could make a deposit of $1500, get $1500 for free from the casino, and then withdraw a total of $3000 without placing a single bet. The casino would lose a lot of money.
Free Spins Playthrough
In some cases, playthrough requirements apply to free spins. Since these don’t have a fixed monetary value, the multiplier applies to the winnings from the free spins. So to calculate the playthrough requirements, you would multiply the winnings from the free spins by the requirement number.
Again, let's use real numbers to understand: if a casino offers 200 free spins for a specific game and a 10x wagering requirement, you would calculate your winnings from the free spins and multiply them by 10x. If you win $500 from the free spins, multiply it by 10x, which makes your wagering requirement $5000 (i.e. you can’t make a withdrawal before wagering $5000).
Why You Should Calculate the Playthrough on Casinos Bonuses
Calculating the playthrough for casino bonuses ensures that you won’t receive any disappointing surprises. In the example described above, if you don’t read the wagering requirements (i.e. the fine print), you won’t know that you have to spend a certain amount of money in order to make a withdrawal. And if you don’t understand what the wagering requirements mean, you can get frustrated if you think you should be able to withdraw and the casino doesn't allow it.
Important Terms to Know
Since wagering requirements are inherent to any bonus, it’s important to read them before deciding to go ahead and claim the bonus. Here are some terms that you may come across when reading the fine print.
- Minimum deposit: This is the minimum amount of cash you need to deposit in order to qualify for a bonus (usually $10 or $20).
- Stake limit: The maximum you can bet when playing with bonus cash.
- Time limit: Many promotions require you to meet the wagering requirements within a certain period of time.
Be a Smart and Careful Player
Now that you understand wagering requirements, you know that just because a casino offers a large welcome bonus or promotion doesn’t mean that it’s always the best for you. Usually, the bigger the offer, the higher the wagering requirements. So if you plan on depositing $1000 for a match deposit bonus with a wagering requirement of 50x, you’ll actually need to bet many thousands of dollars before being able to withdraw anything. Is that the best choice for you? Only you know your financial situation.
We recommend that instead of choosing a casino based on its welcome bonus and promotions, you look closely at the wagering requirements and see if they are realistic for your situation. If they are, wonderful. If not, there are so many online casinos out there, you can keep on searching until you find one that has bonuses and wagering requirements that work for you.
