bonuses
How wagering requirements work, the difference between bonus-only and deposit plus bonus terms, what game contribution rates do to the maths, and how to price an offer in dollars before you accept it.
A casino bonus is not money. It is a conditional credit attached to a turnover obligation. The headline number tells you what you receive. The wagering requirement tells you what you have to do before any of it becomes withdrawable. Without the second number, the first one means nothing.
This guide sets out the arithmetic. Every figure below is worked in dollars so you can see where the cost sits. You can run your own numbers in the bonus calculator.
A wagering requirement is a multiplier applied to a base amount. It produces a total turnover figure. Turnover means the sum of all bets you place, not the amount you lose and not the amount you deposit.
If the terms say 35x and the base is a $100 bonus, you must place $3,500 in qualifying bets before the balance converts to cash. You are not required to win $3,500. You are required to cycle $3,500 through the games.
This distinction matters because turnover recycles. A $100 balance played in $1 spins at 96% return to player will, on average, survive roughly 2,500 spins before it is gone. Money you win is bet again. That is how $100 can produce thousands of dollars of turnover from a single deposit.
The requirement is also a deadline. Most offers carry an expiry, commonly between seven and thirty days. If the clock runs out, the bonus and anything attached to it is removed.
The base amount is the single most important variable in the terms, and it is the one most often skimmed.
Bonus-only (35x B) applies the multiplier to the bonus alone. Deposit plus bonus (35x D+B) applies it to your deposit and the bonus together.
Same headline, double the work.
| Terms | Deposit | Bonus | Base | Multiplier | Required turnover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35x bonus-only | $100 | $100 | $100 | 35 | $3,500 |
| 35x deposit plus bonus | $100 | $100 | $200 | 35 | $7,000 |
| 20x deposit plus bonus | $100 | $100 | $200 | 20 | $4,000 |
Read the third row carefully. A 20x deposit plus bonus offer demands more turnover than a 35x bonus-only offer. The smaller multiplier is the worse deal. Comparing headline multipliers across casinos without checking the base is how people talk themselves into the weaker offer.
Not every bet counts in full. Terms assign each game category a contribution percentage. A bet of $10 on a game contributing 10% moves the wagering counter by $1.
The pattern is consistent across the industry because the reason behind it is structural. Games with a low house edge are throttled. Games with a high house edge are not. The casino is protecting the expected cost of the promotion.
Here is an illustrative contribution table. The exact figures vary by operator and by offer, so treat this as the shape of the rule rather than a quotation of anyone's terms.
| Game | Typical contribution | Turnover needed to clear $3,500 |
|---|---|---|
| Slots | 100% | $3,500 |
| Craps, roulette | 10% to 20% | $17,500 to $35,000 |
| Baccarat | 5% to 10% | $35,000 to $70,000 |
| Blackjack | 5% to 10% | $35,000 to $70,000 |
| Live dealer tables | 0% to 10% | excluded, or up to $70,000 |
Now combine contribution with house edge, and the throttle reveals its purpose.
Suppose you clear the $3,500 requirement on slots returning 96%. The house edge is 4%. Expected cost is 0.04 x $3,500 = $140.
Suppose instead you try to clear it on blackjack, where basic strategy brings the edge to roughly 0.5%. At 10% contribution you need $35,000 of turnover. Expected cost is 0.005 x $35,000 = $175.
The low-edge game is the more expensive route. That is not an accident. Contribution rates are calibrated so that no game category offers an escape from the cost of the promotion. No pattern of bet sizing, game selection or timing changes this. The edge applies to every bet regardless of what came before it.
Most terms carry a maximum bet rule as well, often around $5 per spin or per hand while a bonus is active. Breach it, even once, and operators routinely void the bonus and everything won with it. This is the single most common reason bonus winnings are refused.
Take a concrete offer. A 100% match up to $100, 35x on bonus only, slots contributing 100%, maximum bet $5, seven-day expiry.
You deposit $100 and receive $100 in bonus credit. Your playable balance is $200. Required turnover is $3,500.
At $1 a spin, that is 3,500 spins. At 600 spins an hour, roughly six hours of play.
Expected cost on a 96% slot is 0.04 x $3,500 = $140.
Your bonus is worth $100. Your expected cost of unlocking it is $140. The expected value of the promotion is $100 minus $140, which is negative $40. You are, on average, paying $40 for the entertainment of six hours of play. That is a reasonable thing to buy. It is not a way to acquire $100.
Change one variable and the picture moves. On a 97% slot the cost is 0.03 x $3,500 = $105, and the offer sits near break-even. At 30x bonus-only on a 97% game the cost is 0.03 x $3,000 = $90 against $100 of bonus, and the expected value turns slightly positive before you account for the cashout cap.
Many bonuses, particularly free spins and no-deposit offers, cap what you can withdraw. A common structure is a cap set at a multiple of the bonus amount.
If your $100 bonus carries a 5x max cashout, the most you can take out of the promotion is $500, no matter what the balance reaches. Reach $2,000 and $1,500 is removed at withdrawal.
This cap does real damage to the arithmetic, because slot returns are carried by rare large outcomes. A 96% RTP game reaches that figure by combining many small losses with occasional very large wins. Truncate the top of the distribution and the effective return to player falls below the advertised figure. A capped bonus on a high-volatility game is worth materially less than the same bonus uncapped, and the gap widens the more volatile the game is.
On a no-deposit offer the cap is usually the entire story. The bonus is free, so the expected value cannot be negative in cash terms, but it is bounded hard and low.
Price the offer before you accept it. Four numbers decide it.
An offer is worth taking when the expected cost is close to or below the bonus value, when the contribution rules let you play games you would have chosen anyway, and when the turnover fits the amount of play you wanted regardless. If the requirement only makes sense by playing far longer or far larger than you intended, the bonus is steering your behaviour rather than rewarding it.
Some accounts allow you to decline a bonus and play with the deposit alone. Where clearing the requirement would cost more than the bonus is worth, that is often the better option, and it removes the max bet rule and the expiry clock at the same time.
Gambling is a purchase of entertainment. The house edge is the price, and turnover is the quantity. A wagering requirement is simply a minimum purchase clause. It specifies how much entertainment you must buy before the promotional credit becomes yours.
Seen that way, the question is not whether a bonus can be beaten. It is whether the price is one you were willing to pay for the hours involved. Set a budget you can lose, check the multiplier and its base, read the contribution table, and note the cashout cap. If the terms do not publish a wagering requirement at all, that absence is itself the finding.
Further reading: RTP explained, house edge explained, and our responsible gambling page.