What is a wagering requirement and how is it calculated?

Whenever you receive a bonus cash sum on top of your deposit and also in the case of you receiving free or bonus spins as part of an offer, there is a wagering requirement attached.

The wagering requirement is a murky old world at times! It can be confusing to understand what it actually means, what the wagering requirement is, how you can actually meet the wagering requirement or indeed, if it will ever apply to you.

So, in this article, we are going go take a look at everything you should know about wagering requirements, how they work and are applied and why casinos have to have them in place to bring you the raft of fantastic bonuses that are available today.

What is a wagering requirement?

The first thing we need to clarify here is that a wagering requirement can also be called by a different name, a playthrough requirement. The terms are used interchangeably across sites but essentially both refer to the exact same thing and for the purposes of simplicity, we will use the term wagering requirement in this article.

In simple terms, a wagering requirement is an amount of money that you need to spend that is as a direct result of having received some kind of bonus from a casino. The amount of money you need to spend is expressed as a multiple of the size of the bonus you received.

For example, a wagering requirement of 30x, means that if you received a bonus of say £/€/$100 from a casino, then in order to complete the wagering requirement, you would need to make £100 x 30 (£3,000) worth of qualifying bets from the cash.

Now at first that sounds crazy. How can you make £3,000 worth of bets from a £100 bonus. However, the wagering requirement applies to the initial bonus and any winnings you then generate from it.

For example, if I receive the bonus mentioned above of £100 with a 30x wagering requirement and in playing through that bonus in full, I win £200. I can then spend that £200 in winnings on further bets and spins and that would also contribute to any wagering requirement I need to meet. The same would be true from any winnings I win with that £200 and so on.

Generally, do I need to be concerned about a wagering requirement?

Truthfully, most people when they take up an offer with a casino, as a new or an existing player, while it is good to know what the wagering requirement is on the offer, the likelihood of it being relevant for them is only very small.

In the majority of cases, a player will spend their bonus money in full before they reach their wagering requirement for the bonus. All that happens here is that the bonus then ends. That's not a bad thing generally as it often means a player can then activate another similar bonus, should one be available on site (most casinos only let you have one bonus running on your account at any given time).

There are only a small number of cases when the wagering requirement does become pertinent for players as we will explain below.

When does a wagering requirement become important for a player?

For a small number of players, a wagering requirement can become important and generally it is only those players that have won an amount of money that could see them cover the wagering requirement, that the issue becomes relevant.

In the example we outlined above, let's now say that instead of winning £200 with our £100 initial bonus with a 30x wagering requirement, we instead win £3,000.

It is at this point that we know the wagering requirement is now important. We have already spent the £100 bonus and have met £100 of the £3,000 wagering requirement, but with £3,000 in our account, we now know we have enough funds to meet the wagering requirement in full and potentially cash out some money.

In this example, if I were to wager a further £2,900 of my winnings, then I would meet the wagering requirements and the £100 I have left in my account, plus any other cash I may win when playing through the £2,900, should, in theory, be available for me to withdraw as I will have met the wagering requirement.

However, there is one important thing to look out for regarding cash out and that is if an offer has a maximum cash out value attached to it.

What is the importance of the maximum cash out value?

Some casino offers and promotions will state in addition to a wagering requirement, a maximum cash out value for the offer. This is simply the largest amount of money you are allowed to cash out from a bonus, once the wagering requirements of the bonus are met.

So, if we continue using the example above, if I have met the £3,000 in wagering requirements for my initial offer and I have £100 left in my account. If there is no maximum cash out value for the offer stated, then I can withdraw all that money to my account.

However, let's now say that the maximum cash out value for this bonus is set at £150 and at the end of meeting the wagering requirement, I have £500 in my account. In this situation, I can only withdraw £150 from that final amount into my standard cash account. The other funds would then be forfeited, which is a little annoying.

The good news for punters is that on most matched deposit bonuses, casinos tend not to have a maximum cash out limit set, however for offers that involved free or bonus spins, then a maximum cash out limit does tend to be used.

What are the best value wagering requirements?

Generally speaking, the lower the multiple of a wagering requirement, then the more likely it is for a player to be able to meet that requirement and earn some money from a bonus. As a result of this casinos do tend to set these levels generally high with wagering requirements of between 30x and 60x usually the norm.

You can find some casinos that offer lower wagering requirements on their bonuses, but these are few and far between and there can be other factors at play which negate the benefits of having a lower wagering requirement (such as having a low maximum cash out value attached to the bonus).

The higher the wagering requirement, the more difficult it is for a player to meet it, but usually it also means you are playing a game which can offer a sizeable win which, for a lucky few, means that they may be able to meet the wagering requirement and still make some money.

How do I meet the wagering requirement?

You meet a wagering requirement by spending your money playing games on the site. However, the important thing to note here is that not all games on site will contribute the same amount to meeting a wagering requirement as others.

The rules for this differ from casino to casino, so we only offer the guidance below as a general rule of thumb. It is always sensible to check with each individual casino what their rules are regarding how a wagering requirement can be fulfilled.

In general terms, most casinos will allow you to use 100% of any bet made on a high house edge game (such as a slot game or keno) to contribute towards a wagering requirement on a bonus. So for example, if you spend £10 playing a slot game, then all £10 of your spend will go towards your wagering requirement.

However, if you elect to play games with a lower house edge, such as some table games like blackjack or certain roulette bets, then only a fraction of your bet will count towards your wagering requirement. For some games, this can be a very small amount, between 1% and 10%, which means you would actually need to wager a lot more, in order to meet the wagering requirement this way.

For example, if I had a wagering requirement set at £3,000 and I wanted to redeem it playing on Blackjack that only offered me 10% of each bet as meeting the wagering requirement, then I would need to make £30,000 worth of bets on blackjack to meet the requirement.

As such, it is generally easier, much quicker and more effective to play through games that offer 100% of your bet as counting towards your wagering requirement than playing other games that offer significantly less.

What else do I need to know about wagering requirements?

We have covered most of the common aspects of wagering requirements but the information above is not exhaustive. There does exist differences between casinos which can catch players out at times.

One thing to check, for example, is whether the wagering requirement applies to just the bonus you earned, or the bonus and deposit. Some promotions stipulate that the wagering requirement applies to both the bonus and deposit amount, others stipulate just the bonus and that of course makes a big difference.

For example, if you deposit £100 and receive a £100 bonus with a 20x wagering requirement, if that is calculated from the bonus alone, then this is a £2,000 wagering requirement. Include the deposit too and that becomes a £4,000 wagering requirement.

Why do casinos have wagering requirements?

Although they may seem somewhat punitive to players, there is a very good reason why casinos have to have wagering requirements in place on promotions and bonuses and that is to protect themselves from too many people winning and thus bankrupting the casino.

If players were able to withdraw any winnings from a bonus without any wagering requirement, then the casinos would leave themselves open to huge losses from any promotion. That makes them instantly non-viable as a profitable business as the risk is far too great.

Like it or not, it is precisely because of wagering requirements that casinos are able to bring us these great value bonuses and promotions that attract so many punters. And in truth, they only become relevant to players if they have already won a decent amount of money, in which case the player cannot lose.

Wagering requirements may seem problematic but in truth, they are the reason why casinos can offer players so many great value bonuses. Without them, online casino gaming would be a lot more expensive for players and a lot less interesting.