Welcome bonuses and ongoing promotions are one of the best things about playing online. However, it’s important players understand the wagering requirements associated in order to reap the full benefits.
While these promotions are generally quite generous, the wagering rules can stipulate certain conditions are met before, for example, winnings can be withdrawn from the casino account. This has caused many to miss out on matched deposits and cash back bonuses.
Therefore, we explain what wagering requirements are, where to locate them, and why it is important to know that they are when accessing a promotion at a web casino. Additionally, we offer our own tips to fulfil general wagering requirements.
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What are wagering requirements?
While promotions and bonuses appear quite generous, unfortunately the saying ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ does apply here.
In order for players to be eligible for a promotion or bonus, they must fulfil the wagering requirements. These rules basically set out the amount of money you need to bet with in order to release the bonus into your account or turn the bonus into real cash.
As you will notice when claiming the bonus, your online casino account will have two parts to it -‘Cash’, which is your own deposits; and ‘Bonuses’, which is any promotional cash you are in the midst of claiming. To turn this bonus cash into real cash you must meet the wagering requirements.
Online casinos don’t have a universal set of rules when it comes to wagering rules and can state that they require how ever much they want that needs to be wagered by the player, but reputable Internet casinos generally are quite fair, though they can vary from one Internet casino to another, as well as between promotions, which is another reason to read the T&Cs.
How to find wagering requirements
Locating the wagering criteria is quite simple provided you are playing at a reputable and trustworthy Internet casino, such as the many we suggest. Each of our recommended online casinos have easy to find terms and conditions (many rogue and blacklisted web casinos and conceal their T&Cs), which is where you will find the wagering requirements.
Here, you can either do a quick search through the document to find ‘wagering requirements’ or you can go through all the T&C’s which may be a good idea if you are new to online gaming.
The number that is required to be multiplied by the bonus and/or deposit will be detailed here, along with the games eligible to meet the requirements.
We have used the most common promotion, the new player welcome bonus, as an example of what it means when it comes to wagering requirements.
Welcome bonus wagering requirements
For welcome packages, the minimum requirements ultimately depends on the online casino but are generally conditions associated with tiered deposits. While it may seem like all you have to do is deposit over the specified number of deposits, there are actually certain conditions that must be met.
We are using G’Day online casino as our example, as it is one of our favourite, trustworthy Internet casinos.
G’Day online casino has a tiered new player bonus which sees players making three deposits to get up to $AUD1250 matched. However, the terms and conditions outline that players must fulfil certain playthrough (wagering) requirements on eligible games in order to turn the bonus into real cash.
So for players who deposit $100 and receive the $100 bonus, when it comes to the pokies for example (which is an eligible game) G’Day online casino requires players to wager 35 times (the requirement for pokies, other games may have a different number as explained below) the combined total of your deposit and the bonus.
For this example specifically, it ends up being $200 x 35 = $7000. Therefore, $7000 is required to be wagered before players can withdraw that bonus $100 as cash.
While this seems like a lot, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to make $7000 in deposits, you just need to wager this much which we will provide some advice to do so below.
As mentioned prior, Internet casinos vary in terms of wagering requirements and some don’t count the deposit amount, rather just the bonus amount. In the above example, players would only need to wager $3500 if it was just the bonus counted. It ultimately comes down to what the Web casino specifies in the terms and conditions.
Game eligibility and wagering requirements
In the same place as the wagering policies, found in the online casinos T&Cs, players will find the listed games that are eligible to contribute to the minimum wagering requirements.
Every Internet casino has their own specified number of wagers required in association to eligible games. Some games can contribute to the wagering requirements better than others, while a few games aren’t counted at all.
Many Internet casinos state different numbers to be multiplied by the bonus and/or the deposit for different games, such as our example above with G’Day online casino, which requires the total deposit and bonus to be multiplied by 35 for the slots, scratch cards and ball games, and by six for bingo.
However, others can state a fixed number with each game contributing a certain percentage to the wagering requirements. For example, Guts, another Web casino which we recommend, states all bonuses must be wagered 35 times before funds can be withdrawn, but each game contributes to this total amount differently with their video pokies contributing 100% of the wager to the wagering requirements, their classic slots contributing 75%, and their table games and video poker titles contributing 0% of the wager to the wagering requirements – this means table games and video poker aren’t eligible games at Guts.
As mentioned above, online casinos differ in terms of wagering requirements and this includes what games may be eligible. Read the terms and conditions at every web casino you play at when it comes to accessing their bonuses.
Monthly, weekly, and daily casino bonuses
While we have only covered welcome bonuses here, other promotions online casinos offer also have wagering rules attached. If they aren’t on-going promotions, the criteria is generally stipulated in fine print on the same page as the temporary promotion for you to read.
How to fulfil the minimum requirements
While the main aim when playing online is to win, when it comes to fulfilling wagering requirements to clear a bonus, the aim should be to minimise losses. Basically, you just want to recycle your money in your account around and around so you don’t have to make a deposit, rather you just keep betting with winnings in order to meet the requirements and ultimately convert your bonus to real cash.
While big wins are exciting, we recommend aiming to do so after you have cleared the bonus and instead focus on meeting the total amount required to be wagered, which can be done with the following tips.
Play low house edge games
Pick a game with a low house edge, provided it is an eligible game as per the T&Cs. We recommend Classic Blackjack by Net Entertainment as it has a house edge of just 0.40%, or any low house edge blackjack title. However, it is important to note some Internet casinos don’t allow blackjack or other table games as an option to fulfil the wagering requirements.
The lower the house edge the more likely you are to win, and the more times you win the more you can wager without having to make a deposit to meet the requirements.
Pokies can have a high house edge, which is why they are always accepted as an eligible game. If possible always pick blackjack, video poker, and other table games which have a low house edge over the slots. While these games may require more wagers to be placed, since you are more likely to win it is easier to meet the requirements without using your own money.
If video poker and table games aren’t possible, then follow this next tip.
Wager low stakes
If you can only play high house edge games such as the pokies, scratch cards, etc. then wager the minimum amount possible, which will be stated in the T&C’s next to the pokies information, each time. While you may not win big, you are less likely to take a large hit to your bankroll when losses occur, so you wont have to deposit more to make up for it.
Why do wagering requirements exist?
Without wagering rules, players are basically being handed free money which ultimately sees the house edge lowered in the player’s favour.
Since the house edge for the majority of Internet casino games is quite low, especially compared to their land-based counterparts, the online casino needs to protect itself in order to remain a viable business, because at the end of the day web casinos are in fact businesses.
If the Internet casino handed out free money, because that is essentially what bonuses are on the surface, to all their players (which would be an incredible amount if there were no wagering requirements attached) the online casino would not make a profit and survive.
So while it may seem nothing is as good as it seems when playing online, Internet casino bonuses are still quite generous, they just have a set criteria to balance everything out so they can continue to operate.
What happens if I don’t meet the wagering requirements?
If you don’t meet the requirements then you just won’t be paid out the bonus. Unfortunately, due to many not reading the terms and conditions, players ineligibility is a common occurrence. This is why we cannot recommend enough that regardless if you are a novice or experience player, you read the terms and conditions for every promotion and bonus.
Another common mistake includes players withdrawing before completing the wagering requirements. if you are unsure if you have met the criteria, we recommend to email the online casino with your account name and they will be able to tell you if you have fulfilled the requirements.