Wagering Requirements Explained

April 22, 2009 | Article Category: Casino Bonus

0 Comments Wagering Requirements are put in place to ensure that free bonuses are not abused. Online casinos offer bonuses so that players will play in their casinos and not simply take the free money and run. The requirements may seem somewhat daunting at first for the new player, however, with some understanding of the basic concept of how the wagering requirements work, and then reading the specific requirements, or fine print, on the player's chosen casino site will enable them to understand the conditions placed on receiving bonuses.

What is a Wagering/Play Through Requirement
Wagering, or play through, requirements are the requirements that online casinos expect to be fulfilled in order for players to be able to utilize online casino bonuses.

A wagering requirement is put in place by online casinos in order to ensure that when bonuses are offered they cannot be abused by players who were not really planning to play in the specific casino. This prevents players from signing up, receiving special bonuses, and then withdrawing the bonus as cash without placing any bets.

Usually the wagering requirements work along the lines that players need to gamble the amount of money equal to their initial deposit as well as the bonus money offered by the online casino a certain number of times before they are able to withdraw the cash earned from the bonus or the bonus plus the deposit.

How Play Through Requirements Work
Many online casinos place their wagering requirements on the bonus offered plus the initial deposit. Other online casinos place the wagering requirements only on the bonus they give their players. The following two examples will demonstrate both these requirements.

If a player deposits $50 at an online casino, and receive a 50% of deposit bonus, they will now have their initial $50 deposit plus the bonus of $25. If the play through requirement is that players have to play 10 x the value of their deposit + bonus, the amount needing to be wagered can be worked out as follows:

$50 (deposit) + $25 (bonus) = $75
$75 x 10 (play through requirement) = $750

This means that players will need to wager $750 in order to be able to cash out any money.

Often, when only the bonus has to be wagered a certain amount of times, the number of times for the wagering requirement is greater than when the deposit and bonus are added together. In this example, the initial deposit is not a factor in working out the wagering requirements.

The $25 bonus may have to be played a total of 20 times as opposed to the 10 times when it was added to the initial deposit.

$25 (bonus) x 20 (play through requirement) = $500

When structured in this way, players will have to wager $500 within the alloted time.

What Play Counts Toward Wagering Requirements
Although online casino wagering requirements differ from casino to casino, usually wagering on craps and roulette do not count towards the play through requirement. Games such as blackjack and video poker will often count towards the requirement, but usually at a much reduced rate, where only a percentage of what has been wagered will count towards the requirement amount.

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