Casino Bonuses: Wagering Requirements Explained

With casinos being a dime a dozen, it can be quite difficult to make your choice. It comes down to a multitude of factors. Do they have the games you enjoy playing? If so, how many releases in total are available? What software providers? And most important of all, are the bonuses they offer any good? Are welcome bonuses even good for you?

And if you’ve ever checked out a casino, you’ll know these promotions often come with wagering requirements. Of course, how high the requirements are and if they come with any caveats is different for each website. Let’s break wagering requirements down to the basics, and learn to recognize the great offers from the bad ones.

What Are Wagering Requirements?

A wagering requirement is a condition a player must meet to receive the full reward from the offered bonus. And while that sounds great, it’s easier to explain it with an example.

Let’s say the casino is offering 25 free spins. To claim this promotion, you may have to make a deposit. And while you receive the free spins instantly, the prizes won afterwards may be unlocked via wagering requirements.

That means that the cash you receive from the promotion isn’t real money you can immediately withdraw. Instead, it’s subject to wagering requirements. You have to play through a certain sum of money before those bonus funds become real cash.

On average, online casinos tend to offer between 30x to 40x wagering requirements. Let’s say you’ve won ₹1000 in our previous example. If it was subject to a 40x wagering requirement, you would have to play through ₹40,000 before you could withdraw funds.

Wagering requirements can also apply to deposit bonuses. They tend to be more straight-forward in those cases. Rather than applying to the sum you’ve won, they apply to the money you have deposited. It makes it easier to control how much you’ll have to play through. Especially useful if your casino doesn’t have an easy way to track wagering requirement completion.

One more thing to keep an eye out for is tiered wagering requirements. These appear sometimes as a way for the casino to encourage both casual players and high rollers. The more you stake, the better the prize. This doesn’t change the wagering requirement itself, so don’t stake more than you can afford!

Which Ones Are Good?

As a general rule of thumb, we try to stick to bonuses which have a 30x to 40x wagering requirements. You won’t find all casinos conform to this rule. Usually, the more upfront bonus money they offer, the steeper the wagering requirements! Above 40x, the bonus stops making sense, in our eyes. Above 40x, you have greater odds that you’ll lose all the bonus money before you can play through it all.

Beyond that, it’s just a matter of carefully screening the terms and conditions for any ‘traps’. For wagering requirements specifically, try and check how the casino defines the condition. For some websites, just the deposit on a wagering requirement counts. For others, it can be both the deposit + any bonus funds you win that are subject to the wagering requirement.

Final Thoughts

Wagering requirements aren’t the most exciting part of bonuses. In fact, they’re usually the one thing gamblers would like to avoid! But without understanding what they are, you will always remain at a disadvantage.

Thankfully, after this article, you know better. Now, it’s just a matter of finding the best casino possible! We suggest browsing through the Indian Casino Club front page, where we list some important requirements. And if you find a website that catches your eye, make sure to read its terms and conditions carefully!