Wagering requirements are probably the peskiest thing about online casino offers. Players search for places to gamble online and find a massive list of bonuses of which they pick one, just to learn they can’t withdraw any money if they haven’t met the wagering requirements.

That is why we created this guide, showing you how wagering requirements (WR) work and how to beat them.

How wagering requirements work

Online casinos give you two types of bonuses, a cash bonus and a game bonus, and they apply different wagering requirements on both.

• Cash bonuses typically come with wagering requirements of 20-50x.
• Game bonuses like free spins and bonus spins come with wagering requirements of 50-100x

The winnings from either convert into bonus money, which is also subject to wagering requirements. Your bets will always be deducted from the bonus balance before your deposit.

A wagering requirement is the multitude of times you have to stake your bonus and winnings accrued from playing with it before being allowed to withdraw, e.g. if you claim a bonus worth £100.00 with a 50x wagering requirement and win £100.00, you’d have to stake both sums 50x (50x£100.00+50x£100.00=£10,000).

Wagering requirements are applied to bonuses to ensure the online casino is not getting freerolled. If a casino bonus had no wagering requirements, you could immediately withdraw the funds – which would be massively unprofitable for the operator.

So, online casinos have a justified reason to apply wagering requirements to their bonus offers.

Your deposit will never be subject to wagering requirements when playing from within the United Kingdom but can be in other regions. ⁽¹⁾

Wagering contributions

Not all of your bets fully contribute towards the wagering requirement as online casinos restrict certain games from doing so due to their high RTP.

RTP stands for Return to Player and is the mechanic that dictates how much of the player’s bet returns, e.g., you stake £10,00 on a game with a 95% RTP and consequently lose 5% on average, which translates to a £0.50 for each circle.

Here is how much different games contribute towards the wagering requirement( typically).

Game	Wagering contribution
Video slots & virtual games	100%
Classic slots	75%
Table games	10%
Baccarat	0%

Assuming you claimed a bonus worth £100.00 with a 50x WR, you could bet £5,000 on video slots or virtual games to fully clear the wagering requirements and withdraw your bonus.

In contrast, you’d have to bet a whooping £50,000 to clear your bonus playing table games like roulette and blackjack.

Additionally, some games do not contribute to the wagering requirement at all.

Online casinos apply different wagering contributions because they want the campaign to remain profitable, for which they have to consider the games’ RTPs.

How to beat wagering requirements

Beating the wagering requirements means turning in a positive EV (Expected Value) when claiming a bonus. 

It can be done but it’s a painstaking task to find offers with the right conditions.

You need to:

• Find offers with extremely low wagering requirements;
• Find offers with favourable wagering contributions.

Let’s set up a hypothetical scenario in which you could use a casino bonus and make guaranteed profits.

If you claim a bonus of 100% up to £100.00 with a 40x wagering requirement, you’d have to bet £4,000 to be able to withdraw your bonus.

Considering that you have to bet £4,000 to clear the wagering requirements, we have to find a game with an RTP high enough so that you don’t lose more than £100.00 (your bonus).

£100.00 of £4,000 is 2.5%, so the game you choose should have an RTP of at least 97.5% for your endeavour to be profitable.

The problem is that many of the games with such high RTPs are excluded from contributing to the wagering requirement. 

But it can be done. You simply have to search for offers with the right conditions, but it’s a painstaking task we must admit.

Online casinos also have a policy in place called “bonus abuse” which deters you from the tactics we just mentioned, as they’ll ban you if they detect any “foul play”.

Summary

We always recommend using casino bonuses with no wagering requirements. While you can’t get your deposit matched with these offers and usually only receive a bonus to play slots, you’ll have an easy time converting the money into withdrawable funds.

You can alternatively pick casino bonuses with low wagering requirements. They are your second best bet when trying to avoid withdrawal complications and question if casino bonuses are even worth it.