Wagering & Playthrough Requirements

a hefty bonus has its requirements, terms & conditions that come along with it

Who does not like the notion of getting free money to play with, especially when there is an opportunity to win a lot more – and that with money you did not even have in the first place. There certainly would be no risk involved, but what's the fun in that. As much as casinos might be inclined to offer players completely free money in exchange for their signing up and playing, they simply can't afford the risks involved.

A word about Wager Requirements

Wagering or play-through requirements are rules laid down to offset the risk that a casino takes by offering bonuses to it's players. Essentially, play-through requirements specify the amount of wagering that has to occur before the bonus money is awarded. In most online casinos this is a multiple of the deposit and/or bonus.

How dare they imposing wagering requirements on their so-called free bonus you might ask. Let’s face it, online casinos, just like offline casinos or any other business for that matter, must generate revenue in order to stay in business. Their bonus offers should therefore be seen as an incentive for you to let the casino entertain you rather than a free cash giveaway. If they where to give away money for absolutely free, the casino would suffer massive losses and go out of business sooner or later. This would mean no more entertainment for you.

Technically, they are still offering players free money, it’s just a little harder to get. Since wagering requirements are not one of the most attractive parts of the bonus, they are often tucked away and can not be found as easily as the bonus promotion’s more appealing part. The most important thing to keep in mind when evaluating a bonus at a casino you'd like to play at are the terms & conditions for that bonus. They include details on the wagering & playthrough requirement for the bonus in question. Usually, this information can be found in either the promotions, bonus section of the page or alternatively directly under terms & conditions.

So what exactly is a Wagering Requirement?

A wagering requirement represents the number of times you have to play through either your bonus or bonus + deposit at this casino before you are eligible to cash out. Generally the more generous the bonus the more likely it is that they’ll have imposed a larger wagering requirement on that bonus. Playthrough requirements usually range between 15x for the less strict bonuses and 40x for more strict bonuses.

For example, a wagering requirement of 40 times your (deposit + bonus) applied to a 100% match bonus of up to $100 free (giving you $200 max. in total) would require you to play through $8000 worth of bets before you'd meet wagering requirements for that bonus and be eligible to cash out.

Are there different Wagering & Playthrough Requirements for different Games?

This is where things might get a little confusing. Games played contribute a different percentage of the wager (up to 100%) towards the required wagering. Typically, slots wagers will count 100% of their bet value towards the play through requirement, whereas other games, such as Blackjack and Roulette may not count at all or count very little towards meeting the playthough requirement.

Certain games contribute greater amounts than others. The following is a list of contributions towards wagering requirements for each individual game type at 888com:

• Video Slots & Slots, Scratch card, Keno, Race, Arcade, Dice and all other games that do not appear in this list count full (100%) towards wagering requirements.
• Live Roulette counts 50%
• All versions of Roulette, Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Poker, Triple Card Poker & Poker table games contribute 20%
• All versions of Blackjack, Live Blackjack, Hi-Lo, VideoPoker, Power Video Poker, Baccarat & Live Baccarat count 10%
• Craps (5%)

examples:

Please note, the above is just an example of this particular casino. Before playing at other casinos be sure to review the their terms & conditions for the bonus, so you know exactly how much each game contributes to meeting the wagering requirement.