One of the great things about betting sites is that they offer copious bonuses to entice you to play. Whether it is “free” money to play on the slots or a promise to match your first bet, you can get a taster for a casino or better experience without having to deposit too much money. Bingo sites also offer bonuses for playing games online. However, like elsewhere, there are bingo wagering requirements to take into account. Here we guide you through the meaning of wagering requirements and how they will impact your experience when online gambling.
What is a wagering requirement?
When casinos and bingo sites offer a welcome bonus, they are encouraging you to come play. However, they also want you to stay a while. So, when they offer to give you money for free bets or games, the set conditions on this offer. This condition is called the wagering requirement and it sets a limit on how much you must spend before you can withdraw money from your account.
The minimum amount you need to spend on the site is usually set as a multiple of the bonus give. So, it will tell you there is a minimum wagering requirement of 10x or 25x or 35x. What this multiplier is telling you is how many times you will have to spend the amount you are given as a bonus before you can withdraw any money won.
Most bingo sites give bonuses and for all sorts of reasons. You can be given a sign-up bonus or a reward for your loyalty. The site, when giving you these bonuses to buy more bingo tickets, wants to guarantee that you will play rather than just take the money and run. Even if you win on the ticket bought with your bonus, your winnings will be held as pending in your account until you have spent the multiple amount of the bonus requested.
How do I work through the wagering requirements?
So, imagine you are given a £20 bonus to play on your favourite site. This bonus comes with a 4x wagering requirement. This means you will have to spend £80 of your money before you can withdraw any winnings. Until you work through this £80 requirement, your winnings will be held as pending.
There will be a time limit set on this wagering requirement. So, you will have maybe 30 days to chip away at the amount you have to deposit before you can download the winnings from your bonus. If you don’t get through the wagering requirement in the time limit then the pending balance will be removed.
You will be able to view the wagering requirements for your bonus in your account area on the site. Some sites will also show you how close you are to meeting the wagering requirements.
So, are the bonuses a trick?
Most newbies to casino and bingo sites feel slightly cheated by the promise of the bonuses. The offer to draw you to the site seemed amazing, maybe offering you a matched deposit up to many hundreds of pounds. Why wouldn’t you sign up? However, then you find out that the fun of the game is limited by the need to keep depositing your cash in order to get to your winnings – and in pretty rapid time too.
While the casinos are giving you free time on their website, they are not giving away money. You still have the chance to play for free and enjoy the user experience – so you are getting something for nothing. However, the casinos and bingo sites do not want you signing up, playing once and then running away with the cash.
For users it means being realistic about what you are getting with the bonus and also evaluating whether the bonus is the best value or not. It is easy to get sucked into big values. Some sites offer to match deposits up to £2000. Amazing, you think. However, they will also have a high wagering requirement, some up to 40x. Therefore, to get at the £2000 offered you will need to have deposited £80000 within about a month. Yet, a smaller bonus of £10 with a 4x wagering requirement is going to be a realistic option, as spending £40 of your own money within a time limit feels possible.
If you stop thinking of it as free money and instead think of it as a free ride on the site – then the matched bonus of £2000 is an excellent deal. However, you have to be aware that you are not necessarily playing with “real” money unless you are willing to invest big yourself.
