What are the “Wagering Requirements”?

If you want to be a successful player, having luck is not enough. You must also know how online casinos work and how to make the most of the bonuses that are offered to you. The wagering requirements are a “must-to-know” concept to master.

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To evaluate the goodness or otherwise of a bonus, it is not enough to consider the amount of money that is given to you, in correspondence or otherwise with a deposit you have made. It is also necessary that you understand exactly how you can use that bonus and, above all, how you can cash it out.

A wagering requirement is a multiplier that represents the number of times you have to play though a bonus before you are able to withdraw any winnings.

Game contribution percentages

This is where the Wagering Requirements or Wagering Volume Requirements come into play. Whenever a bonus is credited to you by your casino, it will be subjected to a series of clauses that you will have to respect diligently if you want to turn that money into cashable cash.

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First of all you must know that there are games in which the bonus cannot be used or can only be used in part, such as in Craps, Roulette and Blackjack. Also before you can claim the bonus you will need to wager it a certain number of times in the casino games.

The wagering requirements may differ from casino to casino. Some may require you to play the bonus value plus the deposit value, for a certain number of times, while others will be content to force you to play the bonus only. The wagering requirements can range usually from 8 to 40 times the value of the bonus or bonus + deposit.

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Wagering requirements: let’s take a practical example to clarify the concept.

Let’s assume you made a $ 50 deposit for which you get a 50% bonus. You will then have a total of $ 75 in your account. If the wagering requirement is x20 (20 times) the bonus value, you will need to wager $ 25 x20 = € 500 before you can cash out.

If, on the other hand, the wagering requirement is x10 (10 times) the value of the bonus plus the deposit, then you will have to wager $75 x10 = $750 total before being able to collect the gift you have received. As you can see, considering only the wagering requirements as an absolute value may not be enough to understand which offer is the most convenient.

Any winnings that you made whilst working towards your wagering requirements will be stored in a safe called “pending balance” until you meet the wagering requirements. That is typical while betting and playing with online casino: you cannot withdraw cash from your pending balance. You will be able to spend those pending funds to work down the wager requirements.

Wagering requirements for bonuses will apply to a player account from the time a bonus is accepted and/or applied to an account.

To release any pending funds into your main wallet, you need to complete the wagering requirement for the applicable bonus. Once you have done that, all funds stored in the pending balance for that bonus will be released to your main wallet account.

Important Tips to Remember

Here below a list of important tips that usually online casinos have with bonus and wagering requirements. Always check the Terms and conditions of each promotion as these might vary. Keep in mind that certain promotions or offers do come with an expiry date.

  • Any withdrawal performed while having an active bonus will automatically forfeit the Bonus.
  • If you forfeit the Bonus, all Bonus Funds (i.e winnings relation to that Bonus) will also be removed
  • When participating in a Promotion, any available Cash Balance on your Player Account will be used to wager first (played first). Bonus Funds are only used once your Cash Balance is exhausted or insufficient to meet the stake.
  • Only wagers or bets made using Bonus Funds will count towards the Wagering Requirement.
  • You can only have one Bonus active at a time and all bonuses must be opted in for unless stated otherwise.
  • It does not matter if you win or lose with the stake placed! For example: You have placed a €2 stake on Starburst, win or lose on that spin, you will have contributed €2 towards your total wagering requirement of €1750; leaving you with €1748 left to wager to meet the wagering requirement.

We hope these pointers will be useful to you the next time you need to choose a bonus at an online casino!