What does playthrough or wager requirements mean at an online casino? Before we get into the different types of bonuses, let me try and explain the playthrough or wagering requirements. This is the one point where most of the disagreements or confusion pops its head. Example: You need to play your deposit plus bonus 20x before cashing out. Online casino no playthrough bonuses are quite an interesting bonus. As a player, you are sure of getting some cash home from your bonus winnings with several restrictions. It is important that you always go through the casino’s terms and condition. This fact cannot be overstated because of its importance.

What are Online Casino Bonuses?

At CasinoManual.co.uk, you will see the online casinos offer various bonuses to entice you to deposit – in this article, we explain the various casino bonuses on offer including how they work and what they mean for you.

You may ask yourself why online casinos are giving away bonuses. The answer is quite simple – overheads are not as high as at land-based casinos in Las Vegas and there is a lot more competition online. Bonuses are a great way to get you to deposit at the particular casino and you can play your favourite casino games using more than just your bankroll.

Wagering Requirements and Game Restrictions

Online casinos use wagering requirements and restrictions in order to protect the bonuses they give away. Wagering requirements are also referred to as play through requirements (or playthrough). A wagering requirement will be displayed with a number and an ‘x’. This means the number of times you have to stake or bet your deposit amount, bonus amount or deposit plus bonus amount in order for the bonus to be cashable.

For example, the wagering requirement for a welcome bonus can be 40 times the bonus. This means that you need to play the bonus amount 40 times in order to withdraw the bonus amount. Let’s say the bonus offer is a 100% match bonus up to £200 – this means you will have to wager (or bet) £200 x 40 which is £8,000. In terms of game restrictions, the bonus is normally allowed fully on video slots – this means that stakes/bets made on other games such as blackjack or roulette will not contribute fully to the wagering requirements.

Some online casinos allow wagering on blackjack but the contribution is only 10% meaning that if you wager £100 playing blackjack (except Blackjack Surrender, Blackjack Switch and Lucky Blackjack) your contribution to the bonus wagering requirements will only be £10. This is because blackjack games have a low house edge (which means that the margin for the casino on blackjack games is very low.

Online casinos, on average, don’t lose when giving away this free money. Let’s stake a 100% match bonus up to £250 with 30 x deposit plus bonus wagering requirements:

• If you take the maximum bonus, £250, and calculate the total wagering you would come up £15,000 (£250 + £250 = £500 x 30 = £15,000).
• If you multiply £15,000 by 100% minus the overall payout percentage, 2.5% (100% – 97.50%), the amount left is £375.
• This is obviously higher than the £250 bonus offered so technically the online casino is not losing out – this is of course based on averages.

If you want to see all the wagering requirements as well as game restrictions for each recommended online casino, visit their individual review which has all the details you’ll ever need. These details can also be found on the bonus Terms & Conditions section of any bonus – each offer on CasinoManual.co.uk has the Terms & Conditions clearly visible (a requirement from the UK Gambling Commission). If a deposit bonus doesn’t show Terms & Conditions, ask their customer support or run a mile!

Bonus Categories

In terms of bonuses, there are many different ones available. The second part explains that but CasinoManual.co.uk will highlight whether a bonus is cashable, sticky type I or sticky type II. There are fundamental differences which mean different for you as a casino player. We now explain.

Cashable Bonuses

Cashable bonuses are exactly what they say they are – cashable for you. In order to cashout the bonus, you must complete the wagering requirements on the games allowed. Both the requirements and games allowed/restricted vary from casino to casino. It’s important to read the Terms & Conditions to fully understand what you need to do in order to cashout the bonus.

One thing to note – many online casinos will void the bonus if you request a withdrawal. The good news is that your actual bonus/funds won’t be voided – this is your money and always will be! If you are to withdraw, make sure you have completed the wagering requirements before initiating the process. If you unsure as to how much wagering you need to do, contact the customer support team who will/should be happy to help.

Sticky Type I Bonuses

A sticky type I bonus is one that can be used to wager but you are unable to withdraw it. All winnings from the bonus can be cashed out once you make a withdrawal from the casino. If the bonus is £100 and you win £50, you will technically have £150 in your account to play with. With this bonus, only the £50 you won will be available to withdraw. Then the sticky type I bonus is removed from your account permanently. The good thing about sticky I bonuses is that you have the opportunity to use it to wager, thus increasing your chances of completing the wagering requirements successfully.

Sticky Type II Bonuses

A sticky type II bonus is the same as a sticky type I bonus but the difference between them is that the type II bonus won’t be removed if you do withdraw. You can still use for wagering and can continue to use the bonus amount going forward to increase your chances of winning. Therefore, sticky type II bonuses are more appealing than sticky I bonuses.

Summary

In general, bonuses are good to use when trying to complete the wagering requirements. You should always look for cashable bonuses and if you are unsure what the bonus is, please feel free to contact us and ask. All advertised bonuses should have clear Terms & Conditions so you know what you have to do in order to cashout the bonus or any of the winnings. If it’s not clear, ask the customer support team or steer clear.

What now?

Want to find about the various bonuses/incentives that online casinos can offer you? Read our Different Types of Online Casino Bonuses article for more details.

One of the real attractions of playing roulette online is the great welcome bonus that many offer. Most casinos will offer you some sort of bonus of your first deposit which you can spend on casino games and the slot games on their site. However it’s important to remember that this isn’t just free money which you can withdraw immediately. There are numerous wagering restriction which stop you simply cashing out and one of the most important is playthrough.

Playthrough is one of the most important wagering requirements and will almost always be part of any offer or deposit bonus you’ll find online. It refers to the how many times you have to stake or bet your first deposit before you can cash out your bonus. It stops for example, a player placing a deposit and instantly checking out that 200% bonus of your deposit amount without actually playing! The core restrictions against this are something called the playthrough requirement which basically specifies the number of times you have to wager that bonus before it becomes available to withdraw. You’ll also see this term referred to as rollover or wagering requirements too although they can mean slightly different things.

So what does wagered 30 times mean hidden in the bottom of the conditions – it simply requires you to wager that bonus 30 times before it’s eligible to be withdrawn.

For example let’s look at one of the most trusted names in online gaming – Casino.com, here’s their main bonus page – Casino Bonus Page where they display their current best offers to match the deposit. If you search for the requirement, which to be fair are not hard to find. You’ll see on the offer, the expression – X40 wagering requirement which refers to the number of times you’ll have to play the ‘bonus’ amount before you can withdraw it. So for example a £100 bonus would need to be played 40 times – that is wagered to the level of £4500 before you can withdraw it. Furthermore the bonus will only be allowed on certain games maybe just on roulette or slots, and on others it might not contribute to the wagering requirement.

Top Online Casino Bonuses

If it’s too high it makes the bonus almost worthless other than a way to practice the games first, which is probably how you should see these bonuses. The best way to playthrough casino bonus if you do want to attempt to win is to place it on even money bets but it will still take a huge amount of luck to withdraw any winnings from the bonus. There is unfortunately no simple method on how to beat wagering requirements, they are there for a reason – to stop you withdrawing them

Casino.com as a reputable company will be straight up with these requirements and bonuses but many online casinos are not. The typical pattern is to offer huge bonuses but linked in with ridiculous wagering requirement which you can simply never cover. The idea is to draw the player in with amazing offers and never actually pay out any of these bonuses.

It’s important to bear these in mind, wherever you receive a bonus there will be playthrough online casino requirement. They can often be quite complicated to work out, with lower wagering limits like x2 but very few games counting towards the requirement. In reality, it’s best to see the bonus as an added extra, but don’t choose a casino simply based on this.

If you can’t see the Terms and Conditions displayed on the bonus or home page then forget it, if it’s hidden it will probably be for a reason. They all vary substantially but usually the reputable online firms, will end up being very similar in bonus level payments.

Tips for Completing the Playthrough Requirements for Online Casinos

As we’ve mentioned above it’s usually a mistake to get too fixated on the value of the online bonuses. Sure they’re great to have, but focus instead on the reputation of the casino and the games they supply. After all it’s supposed to be fun – playing dreary slot games or boring casino table games just because they offered huge casino bonuses is not going to be that enjoyable.

Nevertheless, when you’ve found the casino you want to play in, there’s no harm in trying to turn as much of that deposit plus bonus as possible into real cash in your account. Here’s some very basic tips on how to achieve this –

Read the Terms and Conditions of the Wagering Requirements

This is crucial, most of the huge bonuses have incredible almost impossible wagering requirements so it’s important to find these out. There will often be two sets of conditions for most offers – the general ones which account for all the offers on the site. The second will be any specific conditions related to that particular bonus offer regarding the amounts you must wager.

It sounds tough trying to sift through lots of fine print, but on the decent sites you’ll find it’s not that bad. The big names value their reputation so want to ensure that their casino bonuses are pretty simple and transparent. You’re looking for certain key elements – including the playthrough requirement plus which betting methods are actually permitted. Sometimes they’ll exclude certain bets from counting toward the requirement or at a reduced rate.

The other restrictions maybe on things like maximum bet, stopping players placing huge bets at low odds to cash out quickly. The other typical methods that might be a problem are things like ‘opposite bets’ e.g. placing equal stakes on red/black at same time in roulette. This makes sense from the players side to minimize the house edge, but it may well invalidate your bonus.

Picking the Right Game

If you’re focusing on claiming that bonus for yourself then choosing the right game to play is crucial. This might not always be an option if it’s related to a specific activity like free spins. Yet a common bonus is linked to your deposit so you can technically play anything (as long as it’s not restricted in the T&Cs). Working out which is the most effective game to play is crucial to cashing that bonus out.

The most important factor is definitely the ‘house edge’ which is the built in advantage that the casino has in each game. These can vary widely and directly affect your chances of winning, they will vary from game to game and across casinos too. Generally though the best chances are Poker, Video Poker and Blackjack as long as you know how to play well. There could be others though, watch out for roulette – you need a European wheel with one zero or the house advantage will double.

No Wagering Casinos & Lowest Playthrough Bonuses

The other factor to consider is that some games will have a lowered playthrough rate. This essentially means that only a proportion of your wagers will count towards the total. For example many casinos lower the rate on Blackjack simply because it has the lowest house advantage – it’s often as low as 10%. Which would mean that only .10 of your wager will actually contribute to the playthrough and you’d have to play 10 times as much to secure that deposit bonus.

Monitor Your Own Playthrough

Ok you don’t have to spoil all the fun with checking everything down in a little pad. However to make sure you get some of that match bonus back then keeping track of where you are is very sensible. Most casino software will keep track for you with a counter however they’re not always completely accurate. Some update after the sessions are over, others have been known to not register the lowered match bonus on some games.

Online Casino Bonuses Explained - Reviewed-Casinos.com

The reason why it’s so important to have a decent record is that if you cash out before making the playthrough requirement you may very well lose that bonus completely. There is an easy solution

Quarterly Online Casino Bonuses And Online Tips