Wagering requirements are the restrictions or terms online casinos put on their bonus offers to help stop players taking advantage of them. Basically when your casino account is credited with a bonus balance you will have to pass the wagering requirements before you can turn it into real money and have the right to cash it out. Also known as turnover or rollover requirements, wagering requirements can vary greatly from one casino to the next, so it always pays to read the terms and conditions before accepting a pokies bonus offer.
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What is a wagering requirement?
Wagering requirements (also referred to as play-through requirements) are the terms and conditions applying to any bonus credits you receive when claiming a bonus from the best pokies sites. The rules regarding wagering requirements are often listed in the fine print of the bonus terms and conditions, so it pays to be aware of their existence as many unsuspecting players ignore the fine print and are disappointed to learn wagering requirements apply.
Essentially, wagering requirements are minimum limits set by the casino which stipulate the amount of real money you need to play through the casino before you’re able to withdraw any of your bonus credits, or any of your winnings earned while using your bonus credits.
Why do wagering requirements exist?
Wagering requirements exist to protect online casinos from complete bankruptcy. Can you imagine if casinos were genuinely handing out free money with no play-through terms? People from all over the world would sign up for an account, withdraw their bonus money and never look back (in fact, there are records of this happening in the early days of online gambling, which is why casinos introduced wagering requirements in the first place).
When you receive bonus credits from a casino, you’re basically playing with the casino’s own money, so operators want to ensure that their money comes back to their venue. It’s similar to when you purchase a gift voucher from a specific store and its value can’t be used elsewhere.
Wagering requirements at our recommended pokies sites
Different casinos and promotions (including pokies bonus codes) within that casino come with different wagering requirements. To understand what the play-through requirements are for your pokies bonus, you must always read the terms and conditions of a bonus offer carefully. Below are some of the wagering requirements attached to the bonus offers at our top-rated pokies sites:
- Slots Million – 35X wagering requirement on all bonuses across the casino.
- All Slots Casino – 40X wagering requirement on all bonuses unless otherwise stated.
- House of Jack Casino – 50X wagering requirement during the first matched deposit bonuses, with a 40X wagering requirement attached to the second and third matched deposit bonus.
- 7Sultans – 40X wagering requirement on the welcome bonus, with between 35X-40X on all other bonus offers.
- Royal Vegas Casino – 40X wagering requirement on the welcome bonus, with a 30X wagering requirement on all other bonuses unless otherwise stated.
- G’day Casino – 35X wagering requirement on all bonuses across the casino.
As you can see, a 35X play-through is pretty stock-standard when playing pokies online.
So, what exactly does this mean? When a bonus stipulates it has a 35X wagering requirement, it means you’ll need to play-through the amount of your bonus 35 times before you can withdraw the amount of the bonus. For example, if you claim a matched deposit bonus of $10, and that bonus comes with a 35X play-through requirement, you will need to play $350 of your own real money (that’s $10 X 35) before that $10 bonus is converted into your real money balance.
Industry moves to clarify wagering requirements
New advertising standards set by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission in 2017 have been put in place to ensure online casino operators and affiliates do not mislead players when advertising welcome bonuses. Namely, the Commission wants to put a stop to bonuses that are advertised as “free” as players are often not aware that they must wager a certain amount of money at the casino before they can benefit from the bonus money. As such, any online casino licensed in the UK must no longer use the term “free spins”, replacing it instead with “extra spins” or “fair spins.” For our UK readers, wherever you see free spins advertised across our site, these will actually be called fair or extra spins when visiting the casino sites. We expect more countries and online gambling jurisdictions to adapt this practice in the near future to make online gambling a fairer place for players. Read more about the changes here.
Pokies for play-through requirements
Another important thing to note is not all games contribute towards your play-through requirements equally. The good news here is pokies almost always contribute 100% to wagering requirements, unlike some table games which contribute as low as 10%. This means the quickest way you can meet your wagering requirements at an online casino is by playing the pokies, and with hundreds and hundreds of real money pokies available, you have plenty of variety to choose from.
Are pokies bonuses worth it?
After reading about wagering requirements, you might be asking yourself whether it’s even worth claiming any of the welcome bonuses offered at our online casinos. This, of course, is entirely up to you. Welcome bonuses are definitely worth it if you intend to play online regularly, and the wagering requirements provide a good incentive to remain loyal to the one casino. As all of our recommended casinos also allow you to play the pokies for free in practice mode, you can give multiple online casinos a go before deciding which one to deposit real money to.
We recommend checking out Bitstarz Casino, our top-rated casino site for players from United States, which has some excellent welcome bonuses available for new players along with hundreds of real money casino games to choose from, with no downloads required.