Wagering Requirements Explained

The wagering requirement is the single most important number in any bonus — and the one operators bury in the small print. Master it and you’ll never be fooled by a big headline again.

What a wagering requirement is

A wagering (or “playthrough”) requirement of, say, 40x means you must bet the bonus 40 times before you can withdraw any winnings from it. A $100 bonus at 40x is $4,000 in total bets. Watch the wording closely: some casinos apply the multiplier to the bonus alone (“40x bonus”), while others apply it to bonus + deposit (“40x (bonus + deposit)”), which on a matched deposit roughly doubles the turnover to $8,000. Same headline number, very different reality.

Game contribution changes everything

Not every game clears wagering at the same rate. Typical contribution rates:

• Slots: usually 100% — $1 bet counts as $1 toward wagering.
• Table games (blackjack, roulette): often 10% or less — $1 bet counts as 10¢, so a 40x requirement effectively becomes 400x on those games.
• Live casino: frequently excluded entirely.

This is why bonuses are built around slots, and why trying to clear a bonus on blackjack is usually a trap.

The catches that shrink value further

• Max cashout: a cap on what you can withdraw from bonus winnings, regardless of how much you win.
• Time limits: clear it within X days or forfeit the bonus and its winnings.
• Max bet while wagering: exceed a per-spin cap (often $5) and you can void the entire bonus.
• Game restrictions: some high-RTP or feature-buy slots are barred during wagering.

A worked example

Say you take a $200 bonus at 35x (bonus only), slots at 100%, $500 max cashout. You need $7,000 in slot bets to unlock it. At $1 a spin that’s 7,000 spins; on a 96% RTP slot you’d expect to lose roughly 4% of turnover (~$280) getting there — often more than the bonus itself, and even if you get lucky, the $500 cap limits the upside. This is why a smaller bonus at 25x with no cap frequently beats a giant one at 60x.

Check before you opt in

Run every offer through our wagering calculator to see the real play-through and clear-time, compare offers with the bonus comparison tool, and never opt into a bonus with money you can’t afford to lose. Our bonus pages show the wagering up front — because it’s the number that decides everything.