Whether you’re new to online casino or have played for years, we can all accidentally misinterpret or negate the wagering requirements that appear on casino sites.
A ‘wagering requirement’ is the minimum amount of money you must spend when a bonus is offered. More often than not, the minimum you must spend is a multiple of the total bonus, or a multiple of the bonus and the deposit you’ve made. The deposit must also sometimes be spent on specified games rather than other games around the particular site to be eligible.
For instance, the term ‘10X (Deposit + Casino)’ is common on online casino sites. This means that if you deposit £25, for example, and received a 200% bonus you’d receive £50. The ‘10X’ denotes a wagering requirement of (£25 + £50) X 10, which equals £750. You would need to spend £750 on casino or slots to meet and clear the wagering requirement.
There are two types of wagering requirements:
There are two main reasons why casino sites have these wagering requirements; despite the fact they may irritate gamers. Firstly, to make sure the welcome bonus you receive keeps you playing on their site for a while and secondly, they must comply with money laundering regulations.
A good point to remember is that the slot and casino sites that offer the most appealing welcome bonuses often have the highest wagering requirements, and when reload bonuses are offered they have further wagering requirements, all of which can take a long time to clear.
That said, some sites may allow you to opt out of their bonus offers so wagering requirements will not apply – though they usually require you to clear your deposit due to money laundering requirements. Other sites no longer use traditional wagering requirements at all.
In September 2013, the UK Gambling Commission released a document that labeled bonus offer and free bets marketing as an area of concern ‘particularly in relation to potentially misleading or unfair terms and conditions.’ The Advertising Standards Authority had received numerous complaints regarding misleading bonus offers and free bets, 53 of which resulted in enforcement actions between 2008 and 2013.
Some big companies on the Virtue Fusion Network reacted to this news by abolishing wagering requirements and replaced them with welcome bonuses that aren’t released until you have spent at least £10. Ladbrokes also offered this option on five separate occasions but none lasted very long.
It’s possible that in the future other sites will be drawn towards this sort of arrangement.