Wagering requirements explained (with a full worked example)

The UK Gambling Commission defines a wagering requirement as “any requirement that a consumer must make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable, whether the total requirement is expressed as a fixed amount or as a multiple of another amount, such as the size of a deposit made by, or bonus received by, the consumer.” That last clause is the whole game. “A multiple of another amount”: the fight is over which amount, because the same 35x can mean two very different sums depending on what the operator multiplies.

I reviewed the bonus terms of five operators to pin down where the numbers actually land. Here’s what that actually costs you.

What a wagering requirement actually is

A wagering requirement (also called a playthrough requirement) is the total value of bets you must place before bonus-linked money converts into cash you can withdraw. It is expressed as a multiple: 35x means you wager thirty-five times a base amount. It is not a fee and it is not money you lose on contact. It is a volume of turnover you have to push through the games before the withdraw button unlocks.

The catch is the word “base.” The multiple is meaningless until you know what it multiplies. And that is the part the T&Cs bury.

The worked example: a €50 bonus at 20x, 35x, and 50x

Take a €50 bonus. Under a bonus-only basis, the multiple applies to the €50 alone. Unibet’s terms are a clean example of this model — bonus funds “must be wagered 10x on slot games before becoming withdrawable,” with the multiple hitting the bonus amount only.

Now assume the €50 bonus came from a 100% match on a €50 deposit, so the combined base is €100. Under a deposit+bonus basis, the multiple applies to that full €100 instead of just the €50 bonus. 888casino’s terms are explicit that wagering on a matched offer runs against the combined deposit-plus-bonus amount, not the bonus in isolation.

Here is every number for our €50 example, computed both ways:

The multiplier headline is identical in each row of the table. The actual turnover required is double on the right-hand side. A “35x” bonus can mean €1,750 of bets or €3,500 of bets, and the multiple alone never tells you which. You have to read the clause that names the base.

That compounding point deserves its own line, because it’s the one players miss most often. Casumo’s terms state that “both the bonus and deposit amounts must each be wagered 30 times before withdrawal, meaning a total wagering requirement of 60x” — two 30x requirements running side by side, not one. Golden Nugget’s terms apply playthrough to “the total amount of the offer, this includes up to the maximum amount eligible for the bonus plus any Casino Bonus Funds,” which is the same deposit+bonus logic stated a different way. Two operators, two routes to a bigger effective number than the headline “x” suggests.

Two clauses that quietly change the maths

The base and the multiple set the target. Two other clauses decide how fast you can actually reach it, and both live several pages into the terms.

Game weighting (contribution rates)

Not every euro you stake counts as a full euro toward the requirement. Slots usually contribute at or near 100%. Table games contribute far less. I compared the weighting tables of four operators, and the pattern holds even though the exact figures don’t.

LeoVegas counts slots at 100% and table games at 10% (first-person table games at 0%). Unibet uses the same shape: slots 100%, table games 10%. Golden Nugget counts slots and keno at 100% but blackjack and roulette at only 20% — its terms note that “$100 in settled wagers on Blackjack and Roulette contributes 20% ($20 of the $100),” with craps, baccarat and video poker at 0%. Casumo is stricter again: slots with an RTP at or above 96.8% count 30%, table games 10%, live casino 5%, video poker 5%, and baccarat 0%.

So the honest statement here is a range, not one universal figure: slots weight far higher than table games, often 100% against something between 10% and 20%, and the exact table-game number varies operator to operator. In practice, clearing a bonus on blackjack can take five to ten times more real turnover than the headline requirement implies, because each bet you place only counts for a fraction of its value. If a weighting table lists your preferred game at 0%, playing it does nothing for the requirement at all — you could wager forever and the counter wouldn’t move.

The max-bet rule

While a bonus is active, most operators cap the size of a single bet. 888casino’s terms set it plainly: “the default maximum bet while wagering a bonus is 5 USD per spin or game round unless a different limit is specified,” and exceeding it “may lead to forfeiture of the bonus and any winnings.” Casumo sets the same €5-per-spin ceiling. Unibet treats betting above its stated per-spin threshold on bonus funds as bonus abuse, with the same practical consequence.

This is the clause that voids winnings after the fact, sometimes on a single mistake. You can clear ninety percent of a requirement, place one €10 spin out of habit, and lose the lot to a terms breach rather than a losing bet. The cap also sets a practical floor on how long clearing actually takes: at €5 a spin, a €3,500 requirement is a minimum of seven hundred qualifying spins, win or lose.

How to judge whether a WR is clearable for your budget

Here’s the heuristic I use. It doesn’t need to be precise; it only needs to stop you starting something you can’t realistically finish. (Our bonus wagering calculator will run the exact numbers for you once you know the base and the weighting.)

First, work out your real turnover target: take the multiple, apply it to the correct base (bonus-only or deposit+bonus, per the clause above), then divide by the weighting of the game you’ll actually play. A €50 bonus at 35x on a deposit+bonus basis is €3,500 of turnover if you stick to 100%-weighted slots — but €35,000 of actual staking on a game weighted at 10%. Second, compare that number to your deposit. If the required turnover comes out at more than roughly twenty to thirty times the money you’re putting in, you’re relying on a long winning run just to survive long enough to clear it, and the house edge is working against you for every spin of that run.

The UKGC’s own transparency guidance backs this up from the regulator’s side: operators must tell players “when they are playing with restricted funds and any requirements or restrictions associated with this,” and “simply including the information in website terms and conditions is not sufficient.” If an offer makes the real requirement genuinely hard to find or compute, that is a mark against the offer — not a puzzle you’re expected to solve alone.

A 60x effective requirement, of the kind Casumo’s dual-component wagering can produce, is objectively hard to clear. That isn’t a moral judgement, it’s arithmetic. On a matched €50 deposit, 60x works out to €6,000 of turnover before a withdrawal is even possible. Bonuses are entertainment with a real cost attached, and the cost is the turnover you have to push through first. If you’d rather set deposit or time limits than do that maths under pressure, GambleAware and GamCare are the places to start.