What are Wagering Requirements?

You’ve probably already noticed that in a lot of the individual casino bonus discussions on this website that I mention play-through requirements and wagering requirements quite often. If you’re wondering what in the heck I’m talking about when I mention these things, you’re at the right place.

Wagering requirements are play-through requirements are two words that describe the same thing. They are conditions that online casinos place upon the deposit bonuses that they hand out to new players.

A wagering requirement simply describes how many dollars you must wager at the casino before you can withdraw your bonus. The reason for them is pretty simple – without them, people would be able to deposit, collect a huge bonus and then withdraw immediately without giving the casino any business. As you can imagine, this wouldn’t be sustainable and every online casino would be broke within a week.

So in order to avoid bonus abuse, online casinos place these wagering requirements on their bonuses. The wagering requirement is usually expressed in a form of multiples. You’ll see something like “this bonus has a 20x play through requirement.”

What that 20x means is that you must wager an amount of money equal to the amount of the bonus plus the deposit. For example, let’s say you make a $100 deposit and get a $100 bonus to go with it. For a 20x wagering requirement, you would add your deposit and bonus ($100 + $100 = $200) and then multiply that number times 20 ($200 x 20 = $4,000). In this example you would have to wager a total of $4,000 before being able to withdraw your bonus and the winnings you’ve earned with that bonus.

Wow! $4,000, you gotta be kidding me! Don’t worry; I thought the same thing at first too. Remember there’s a big difference between wagering money and spending money. You just have to make a total of $4,000 in bets. It doesn’t mean you have to lose or spend that much money at the casino.

When you sign up and deposit, you’ll see that your total sum of wagers adds up a lot faster than you would have expected. Online casinos have payout rates in the upper 90 percentiles so wagering $4,000 isn’t as risky as it would be at a live casino.

If you’re still not convinced, think about it this way: having a bonus with wagering requirements is better than not having a bonus at all. If you’re going to be playing at an online casino anyways, you might as well get a good bonus to go along with it. Those deposit bonuses give you many extra chances to play and win at the casino.