What Are Wagering Requirements? Your Complete UK Guide

If you’ve ever claimed a casino bonus in the UK, you’ve encountered wagering requirements, and if you’re like most players, you might have lost your bonus funds because you didn’t fully understand them.

Our KingCasinoBonus experts have tested over 200 UK casino bonuses, spending more than £2,500 to understand exactly how these terms work. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about wagering requirements, from the basics to smart strategies that help you actually keep your winnings. Let’s make sure you never lose another bonus unnecessarily.

Understanding Wagering Requirements: The Basics

The wagering requirement attached to an online casino bonus represents the number of times you have to play the sums received from the casino. If you’re new to casino bonuses entirely, our beginner’s guide to casino bonuses explains all the different types available and how to choose the right one for your playing style.

And while every casino bonus has some wagering requirements, you will not always find them under the same name. Terms like “rollover”, “turnover,” and “playthrough,” respectively, refer to the same thing. It depends on the choice of the casino you’re using.

We provide you with two fictitious examples to illustrate wagering on two different bonus types for clarity.

How Wagering Works on Bonus Funds

Suppose you receive £50 as a welcome bonus from an online casino. Continuing our imaginary example, let us say that the casino asks you to play them 35 times. 

In this case, the wagering rule will look like “wagering: 35x B”. The formula will be “35 x £50 = £1750”. You must roll £1750 in the casino’s gaming lobby to cash out.

Free Spins Wagering Requirements

Suppose you signed up for a top online casino, giving you 25 spins on a popular video slot to start your journey. 

Again, we have to suppose that the wagering is 35x. It will apply to your initial wins, derived after you spin 25 times. Thus, if you initially win £10, multiply them like “£10 x 35 = £350”. Usually, wagering on spins is written as “wagering: 35 x B” or “wagering: 35 x W”.

These examples show how wagering requirements work in practice, but choosing the right bonus is just as important as understanding the terms. For players interested in exclusive offers with potentially better terms, our VIP casino bonuses guide explains how to access premium promotions that often come with lower wagering requirements.

Why Casinos Use Wagering Requirements

There are two main reasons why casinos have imposed this rule over the years.

1. Firstly, online casinos impose this feature on players to prevent bonus abuse. If playing and withdrawing were easy and fast, many folks would try to exploit the monetary opportunities.
2. Secondly, casinos also take this precaution to follow the UKGC statements regarding anti-money laundering situations. If the money put in needs to be rolled over and kept for a while, then the chances of illegal activity are minimised. UK-licensed casinos will ask you to prove the source of your funds for the same reason.

So, the wagering requirements are put in place mainly because otherwise, the repercussions would harm both the casino and the player. The casino would eventually lose funds too quickly, while players would gamble for too long. Not to mention the legal implications of accidental money laundering. 

Some websites have a self-imposed limit feature for gaming sessions that you can use to keep your gambling in check in terms of time, exactly for this reason.

Best Games for Meeting Wagering Requirements

From our experience, slot machines are the best choice. This is because, almost always, casinos assign the most significant importance to slots when deciding contributions.

As we have seen, slot games with an exceptionally high RTP are only sometimes included in the game list accepted for wagering.

Understanding RTP and Wagering

It is the theoretical percentage of guaranteed payback over time, containing consistent bets. Modern video slots have this feature pre-set; you can check it before playing.

Keep in mind that shorter sessions may not reflect this number accurately!

Smart Strategies for Wagering Requirements

Unfortunately, fair casino play does not allow you to avoid them. 

Even though we see this question floating around in the industry, we strongly recommend you follow the rules of the casino you’re a client of.

However, using our guides and advice, you can complete them using smart strategies. In the long run, these will result in fewer losses, and be mindful of your time.

Expert Tips for Faster Wagering Completion

• Check the game settings/game features and choose a slot with low or medium volatility to protect your funds
• Go for lower wagering requirement bonuses
• As compared to slots or bingo, table games, such as Poker, Blackjack, or Roulette, usually have a minor contribution. Hence, they may not be ideal for helping you in your mission.
• Some games will sometimes be excluded from the wagering requirements completion scheme imposed by casinos. Read the bonus terms carefully to spot any exceptions.

What Happens If You Don’t Meet Requirements

If wagering requirements are not met in time, the bonus funds and all the earnings resulting from a particular bonus will be nulled, and players will not be allowed to withdraw them.

Are there any casinos with no wagering requirements?

Yes. No online wagering casinos exist – but they are pretty rare. Wagering is the main guarantee online casinos have that they may gain a profit after providing bonuses to users, so they don’t end up in significant losses or risk going bankrupt.

While some users access no-wagering bonuses at a casino and then move on to another website, others will keep returning to that specific website if they are satisfied with a specific platform’s game selection and features. 

Therefore, the hope remains that many more no-wagering casinos will come up since such incentives could be a lucrative marketing technique for casino businesses.

Why Do UK Casinos Have Wagering Requirements?

Online gambling sites attach wagering requirements to their promotions, so you can’t simply take advantage of them and instantly withdraw your 100% deposit match, for example. This makes the transaction fair on both sides.

In most cases, you cannot withdraw your winnings unless you complete the rollover rules. If this situation is a tad unclear, follow our hypothetical example:

You have received a bonus from Queen Elizabeth Casino (a fictitious gambling website). The bonus rules state that you must play the funds 50 times before cashing out. If you are anywhere between 1 and 49x in your wagering requirement completion, you cannot take out what you have earned.

Alternatively, you could take out the money you have deposited initially to qualify for the bonus. Remember that the bonus will become nullified and be deleted from your player account in such cases.

The bottom line is that your bonus funds will not be transformed into cashable credit if you still have an incomplete turnover to finish up. In plain terms, you cannot cash out the funds you have deposited, received, or even the ones you have earned.

Where can you find these rules?

According to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, casinos must clearly state the required wagering in the main terms of use or the specific bonus policies. 

It is part of the casino’s responsibility to be transparent to UK punters. This includes keeping essential information private. Ensure you find, read, and understand the casino messages written in fine print, as crucial things, like wagering, can be stated there.

Bonus policies may also be called “Bonus conditions” or “Significant conditions.” The wording varies from site to site.

How Wagering Requirements Work in Practice

Now that we have explained this casino feature’s baseline, let’s continue with our examples and discuss how these requirements reflect monetary value.

For example, let’s say that Queen Elizabeth Casino’s welcome bonus offers you £100 to play all games from their lobby. The bonus rules say that you need to play the offer 35x.

The formula would be 35 x 100 = 3500. Thus, before you cash out, you must play a total of £3500.

The £3500 you need to put into play is not a loss, as it can be derived from the bonus play. Usually, these things will happen in the bonus policies’ timeframe, up to a month at most.

According to multiple KingCasinoBonus analyses, the industry average for wagering is between 35x and 45x, so a promotion like the 888 Casino deposit-free deal with 10x wagering is a rarity. Either way, ensure you read the site terms and how they organise the bonuses. Some moves may disqualify you.

Where can you find wagering requirements on casino sites?

As previously established, wagering casino incentives requirements must be written somewhere prominent. From what we have noticed so far, three main places host this kind of information:

• In the site’s/offer’s terms and conditions

Naturally, it would be best to look for this information next to all the promotional rules or the gambling website’s general rules.

• In the FAQ section

Some casinos have answered this fundamental question you may have in their FAQ pages. You might find it there if they have a subsection dedicated to bonuses. If the first two items do not hold the answers, you can always use the support team’s help. We advise formulating your questions beforehand and asking them via chat, email, or phone.

What Do Wagering Requirements Actually Affect?

Again, we must reinstate the importance of wagering requirements. We have created this section to show you all the aspects that are modified by the existence of turnover.

Stick around to know more about:

• The difference between bonus and credit funds
• The accepted maximum bet
• The availability of the offer
• Accepted games

Bonus funds and real-money funds

You will see this distinction made quite often if you play in the online casino world. The real-money funds are the ones you deposit in your gaming account. For this reason, real money funds are also called “deposit money” or “cashable credit.”

Let us exemplify.

Let’s say that you want to partake in the bonuses of Queen Elizabeth Casino (a made-up example), and you make the payment they require. If you pay £35 to your gaming account, these pounds will be your real-money fund.

Conversely, you receive your bonus funds from the casino as a partial or complete incentive. It is important to note that bonus funds can’t ever be withdrawn. Players can only use these funds in the gaming lobby.

Let’s illustrate that!

Suppose Queen Elizabeth Casino offers you a deposit match of 100%. So, if you make a £35 payment, you will receive £35 in bonus funds. These cannot be cashed out and have more rules imposed on them than the money you brought in initially.

All the rules should be stipulated in the site’s terms.

Which one comes first when rolling over?

Unfortunately, we cannot give you a universal answer. The decision depends solely on every casino’s policy. 

Some sites allow you to start consuming your bonus funds first, while others go the other route. This detail should be presented in your bonus rules. If not, you should ask customer support for this information.

The maximum bet allowed

Generally, casinos will cap the sum you can wager in one bet in any bet placed on the website. As an extension of this rule, bets are capped when you are wagering a bonus.

Again, this detail should be found in the wagering rules or the main terms of use. This is essential, as a bet exceeding what is allowed will disqualify you from the offer.

Depending on the casino, disqualification may mean losing the bonus, but also account suspension.

Bonus availability

You must be careful when playing an online casino bonus since most are only active for a pre-set period. According to our analysis on the topic, the average is 30 days since you claimed it. But we have also seen cases where gamblers can play bonuses within a week.

Generally, spin bonuses have a lower availability limit than money-related promotions. Spin bonuses’ average time limit is set at one week.

If you don’t finish your turnover in the period stated in the rules, you will lose both your offer and your deposit, if that is the case.

Excluded games

More often than not, casinos have a curated list of games that cannot be played when a bonus is active in your account. Thus, not only do these games not contribute to your wagering requirements, but playing them may be against the bonus rules.

Like any rule-breaking scenario, it can trigger anything from losing your bonus to losing your gaming account on the website.

Some casinos explain wagering and how they handle it. We recommend those, but you could use this page if another casino caught your eye.

Are wagering requirements legally enforced?

You enter into a contract when you agree to the terms and conditions. Thus, if the wagering rules are stated there, you must follow them once you agree.

When you break your agreement, the casino can suspend the service given to you, partially or totally.

Final Expert Advice on Wagering Requirements

We have reached the end of our informational page about casino bonus wagering requirements. First, we defined them and explained their importance. Then, we went even more in-depth and gave tips on what games will help you complete them faster and other aspects to consider when wagering a casino bonus.

We hope we have helped, and remember to stay gamble aware!