Wagering Requirements at Online Casinos

Every single online casino worth its salt tends to offer welcome bonuses, or "match bonuses". While seasoned online casino goers may know exactly what these terms mean, for every casino aficionado there are at least 5 new players confused by what exactly a "wagering requirement" is and how it affects your time at the casino. However, to start with, let's cover all of our bases and define what exactly "match bonuses" are.

Matched Bonuses

100% matched bonuses

All of our featured casinos offer match bonuses of some kind, but for now, let's focus on the classic "Deposit £100 and get £100" bonus model. In simple terms, what this means is that players can deposit up to £100 and the casino will fund their account with 100% of their original deposit. So if a player deposits £100, the casino would literally give them £100 as well. This, in a nut shell, is what's known as a match bonus.

Now, at this point, players who don't understand the ins and outs of online casinos and match bonuses will no doubt be thinking that the £100 the casino deposits into their account is quite simply free money. Well, in one respect it is, but don't expect to be able to withdraw it quite as easily. For a start, if players could deposit £100, get a £100 match bonus and then withdraw £200 from their balance, then nearly every online casino would go bust. Players worldwide would end up using online casinos as a sort of high-interest bank; depositing large amounts and then withdrawing double their original amount.

Higher percentage bonuses

Certain online casinos will offer even better bonuses, such as if you deposit £100, they will match this by 120%. This means that if you deposit £100, they will put £120 in your account, as it matches your original deposit by 120%. If you deposited £50 and then received a match bonus of 120%, then the online casino would deposit £60 into your account, as this is 120% of your original £50 bonus.

Where the Wagering Requirements come in to play

As you can imagine, when it comes to miraculous and big casino bonuses then there is always a catch. Instead, they have worked out a way of giving players the cash, but stopping them from withdrawing it and running away. The types of folk who do this are known as "bonus hunters" and while we're trying not to sound dramatic, these people really are enemies of online casinos.

So, in order to stop the bonus hunters, online casinos implement rules that all players must follow if they wish to cash out their deposit bonus. These rules are known as "wagering requirements" and are often buried away in terms and conditions.

Play through

All casinos have wagering stipulations and this usually boils down to the fact that players have to stake a certain amount before they can withdraw their free deposit from their balance. For example, if we take a look at Intercasino's match bonus stipulations, they say that:

"You are required to wager your bonus credits 25 times before you may withdraw your winnings or initial deposit"

So, what does this actually mean? Well, players must wager their match bonus 25 times before they can withdraw anything. If the match bonus is £100, they must wager £100 25 times before they are able to withdraw. In plain terms, this means players must stake £2500 in the casino before they can even consider withdrawing their £100 match bonus. Most online casinos set their wagering requirements between 20-30x and the lowest we have ever come across is 10x at Ladbrokes.

Stipulations

When you begin researching match bonuses, you'll soon find that most are focused around slots. Rarely will you find a match bonus that's wagering requirements include games of skill like poker, blackjack and baccarat. Simply put, this is because slots are almost entirely down to luck, so it's likely players will place stakes on slots, lose and not cost the casino any money.

However, if you're a strategic blackjack player, you have more chance of placing 30x stakes and losing only 5-10 of those stakes to the casino. Skilled "bonus hunters" tend to exploit match bonuses that include games of skill, so online casinos now rarely include these games in the wagering requirements. This means that you can play skill games with your bonus, but they will rarely count towards your wagering requirements, so if you staked 30x your bonus on blackjack, it wouldn't count towards reducing your 30x wagering requirement.