All online casinos offer bonuses and promotions to new and old players. That way a casino encourages new players to gamble and keeps the old ones coming back for more. The bonuses are usually offered once a player registers with a casino or when he makes a first deposit. The most common online casino bonus is the match bonus where the casino matches a player’s deposit to a certain amount and by a specific percentage, as well as the no deposit bonus that is given to new players without the need to deposit funds.
In the early days of the online casino industry, many players had tried to take advantage of the bonuses and promotions offered by the pioneer casinos. Some players opened multiple casino accounts simply to get their hands on the sign up bonuses and cashed them out as soon as possible. Therefore, to protect themselves, online casinos introduced the term “wagering or playthrough requirements”. These requirements are not very popular among casino players, but this is how a casino can protect itself from fraud activities.
How it Works
Wagering or playthrough requirements mean that if a player claims a bonus he has to wager it or play it through multiple times, sometimes both the deposit and the bonus, before he can cash it out. How many times it has to be wagered differs from one online casino to another. That is why players must carefully read the terms and conditions of a bonus, especially if they are comparing bonuses. The wagering requirements are usually found in the terms and conditions section.
Example of Wagering Requirements
To closely explain how wagering requirements work, let’s consider an example. An online casino offers 200% up to £300 first deposit bonus. In other words, if a player makes a first deposit of £100 he will get £200 free and he will start playing with a total of £300. However, he has to wager the bonus plus the deposit at least 22 times before he can withdraw any winnings made by it. This may sound a bit harsh, but it isn’t. The wagering requirements protect online casinos from greedy players who haven’t signed on in order to enjoy themselves.
Playthrough Requirements and Variations
To make things a bit complicated, online casinos not only set wagering requirements to bonuses, but they also assign percentages to specific games that count toward meeting the wagering requirements. Not all games contribute to a player’s playthrough requirements. For example, slots usually worth 100% and every bet a player places gets him closer to meeting the wagering requirements. Other games like video poker or roulette may have zero wager percent contribution.
That is why it is important for a player to carefully read and understand the terms and conditions of a bonus, most importantly its wagering requirements. Lower requirements are better, but some online casinos set up a pretty high limit and to cash out a bonus players may need to wager it between 40 and 50 times.