How to Complete Online Casino Bonus Wagering?
Bonus wagering quite often becomes a source of conflicts between players and operators. Players without prior gambling experience might have no idea there are multiple requirements attached to bonuses. They think those sweet promo offers come absolutely free, and that usually isn’t true. There are different things players need to consider before accepting bonuses.
How to Wager Casino Bonus?
Playthrough is the process of turning bonus money into real funds. To complete wagering, one must spend certain amount of money playing casino games. Let’s say playthrough for a $100 bonus is 30x. Multiply these numbers and you’ll get required wagering amount, which in this case is $3,000 (30x$100). If wager is 10x, then playthrough amount is much smaller, just $1,000 (10x$100).
Unless wagering amount is reached, bonus credits and bonus winnings can’t be withdrawn. Player deposit, however, can be cashed out. But requesting deposit withdrawal usually means bonuses get cancelled and you usually don’t want that to happen as everything you win with your real money is credited to your bonus account. And once bonus gets forfeited, those winnings are gone too.
In addition to wagering amount there are multiple other conditions to meet before bonus funds get unlocked. The problem is those conditions make playthrough harder to complete. When talking about casino bonuses, devil is really in the details, and unless you know what to look at, it’s easy to miss some important information.
Things to Consider When Wagering Bonuses
Wagering Bonus or Bonus + Deposit? First thing to pay attention to is whether wagering is applied just to the bonus amount or bonus + deposit. This makes a big difference. In case of a 100% match bonus, the playthrough requirement doubles if deposit is to be added. Small things like that make a huge difference.
Game Contribution. Another thing to keep in mind is that each game has its own contribution towards playthrough. Generally, slot machine bets contribute 100%, and for the rest of the games it’s whether 10% or 0%. Zero contribution means you can wager thousands of dollars without getting any closer to cashing out your bonus.
Limited Amount of Time. The challenge isn’t just making enough bets to reach certain amount, but to do it in time. Players are typically allowed one week, sometimes it’s one day and quite rarely a month. Keep track of how much time is left, otherwise they just expire. Time limits can vary significantly. If you don’t feel like playing intensively, you should take offers with the longest wagering time limits.
Restricted Games. This is what you basically won’t find in the bonus description right away. Restricted games are typically listed in general casino terms and conditions or in bonus T&C. Any game can be restricted as casinos all decide that by themselves. But usually these are progressive jackpot slots, certain high volatility slots and live casino games. If you can’t find which games are restricted you should contact customer support.
Playing restricted games when you have an active promo will result in your bonus credits and winnings being forfeited. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done it deliberately or not, casinos just cancel the promo and strip you of all the winnings collected after bonus was credited. So you should always be aware of what games to avoid.
Bonus Wagering Without Delaying Game Rounds. This is another important rule to remember. Most online slots have bonus rounds, and when it gets triggered, you have to wait before it’s over and only then exit the slot. If you exit the round too early, you are breaking casino rule that says no game can be delayed to a later time.
The rule was designed to protect operators from bonus abusers. Players used to delay bonus rounds to a time when they don’t need to complete wagering anymore. This way they could get all winnings from that round credited directly to their real money account.
Casinos usually don’t try to investigate if players do it intentionally or not, and just punish them. They have to stay continuously alert as there are lots of individuals trying to cheat.
How to Wager Bonus Without Exceeding Max Bet? Casinos always set maximum bet size that can’t be exceeded during bonus wagering. Standard limit is $5 per round, but the number can be smaller or bigger, so make sure you know exactly what that number is. This information you can usually find in bonus description or bonus T&C. Ask customer support if can’t find it.
You may wonder why casinos set maximum bet. The answer is simple. They don’t want players get lucky placing a single big wager as this would help complete wagering requirements too easily. Instead, operators want players to place lots of small bets, and that makes the proportion of their winnings and losses more predictable. Without max bet limit offering bonuses would be too risky for casinos.
How to Know Casino Bonus is Worth Taking?
By looking at the size of the bonus and wagering requirements it’s not always obvious what offers are good or bad. But there’s a formula that can help you. It is used by bonus hunters to calculate expected bonus value.
- 100% – (wager x house edge)
If the resulting number is positive, then the offer is worth taking. If the number is negative, that means you theoretically will lose more while completing wagering than what you can get from it. Assume bonus wager is 35x, casino edge is 4%. We use the formula and get expected bonus value -40%, meaning the offer isn’t good.
- 100% – (35×4%)=-40%
Casino edge is the only thing you can change as you yourself get to choose which game to play. Assume you are going to play a slot with 98% RTP instead of 96% RTP. That means the house edge is just 2%. Expected bonus value in this case is 30% (100%-(35×2%)). Now this is the type of offer you would want to accept.
How to Wager No Deposit Casino Bonus?
The process of wagering no deposit casino bonus is the same, and you should pay attention to the same characteristics mentioned above. But playthrough in general will be higher than normal as players don’t risk their own money and it’s fair that chances of withdrawing bonuses are lower. Instead of 30x, players can be asked to wager 60x bonus amount or anything up to 100x or even higher. Additional restricted games can be introduced along with shorter time period. All in all, withdrawing no deposit bonuses is going to be much harder.
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