Although online casinos are for-profit businesses, they offer many bonus offers and promotions to their players and loyal customers. The objective being pursued is not only to increase its client portfolio by attracting users but also to keep them as permanent members.
Wondering how to access a bonus at an online casino? Note that the process is quite simple. Fun online casino establishments offer several promotions and bonus offers. But, the first and most enticing is the welcome bonus. First, you must choose a reliable online casino site and complete the registration form to benefit from this offer. Second, you will need to replenish your account using any of the supported deposit methods by the casino. Once you have completed all these, the casino will award you the welcome bonus. However, this bonus can take the form of a welcome bonus pack distributed over your first deposits.
As for the other bonuses, they are only accessible during your gaming career. They include periodic promotions and a loyalty program, depending on your regularity.
The no deposit bonus is a promotional offer found in numerous online casino establishments. Unlike the others, this is a non-deposit bonus. In other words, you can benefit from it without depositing it into your player account.
The bonus allows the player to discover the casino on which he/she has registered. It offers the opportunity to explore the site, appreciate its gaming library, try the table games, and see the bonuses and promotions available. Note, however, that the no deposit bonus comes with some conditions.
Generally speaking, these generous casino offers sometimes include a welcome bonus, free spins, reward multipliers, deposit bonuses, etc. Most of these online casino bonuses have a wagering requirement that must be met before the bonus money winnings can be withdrawn.
What is a wager?
It is important to get an idea of the definition of a wager before finding out what wagering requirements are. It is a term with multiple meanings. Nevertheless, we will retain only one meaning. In the context of online casinos, a wager means more or less a sum of money invested in the course of a game. To wager is, therefore, to decide to play with money.
What are wagering requirements?
Also called wagering conditions, wagering requirements simply refer to a determined number of times that a gambler awarded a bonus must bet the money from this bonus and the amount deposited before playing before having the possibility of withdrawing the bonus its winnings. Depending on the casino, there’s a variety of rules that apply to welcome bonuses and casino bonuses in general.
How do bonus wagering requirements work?
Some conditions are optional while others are not. Regarding the wagering conditions in the bonuses offered by the online casino, they are mandatory. In other words, there is no way around them to make a quick withdrawal. You must, therefore, necessarily meet each of these wagering requirements.
As stated above, the wagering requirements represent a specific number of times you must wager the bonus and the deposit amount. It will then be necessary to determine the exact value of your bets (the amount of the bonus) as well as the value of the total bet to be in compliance with the rules. Calculating wagering requirements is a very straightforward process, and with the grasp of simple arithmetics can be done. To achieve this, you only need to calculate the bonus amount using the rule of 3 and multiply the result by the number of times you need to bet to determine the total amount. The formula for calculating wagering requirements then looks like this:
Casino Bonus Amount X Casino Wagering Multiplier = Total Wagering requirement.
For example, for a deposit of $10 or its equivalent, a welcome bonus of 100%, the bonus amount is $10 or its equivalent. If the wagering requirements show x30, before you can withdraw the bonus money, you must wager a cumulative total of $300.
As a second example, let’s take the case where the online casino offers a deposit bonus of 75%, knowing that the wagering requirements are x10. When you deposit an amount of $100, the bonus amount is $75. You must then wager a total of $750 before being able to withdraw your winnings.
Reasons for casino wagering requirements
As you already know, wagering requirements are a real source of trouble for gamblers and casino lovers, especially beginners. And yet, they are justified.
First, the integration of wagering conditions is a response from online casinos to their need for protection against players who are exclusively interested in the welcome bonus these recreational establishments offer. These are players whose only intention is to register so that they can withdraw the casino bonus money and disappear. Allowing such gamblers to satisfy their greed would prevent online casinos from building up a stable client portfolio and closing down in the worst case.
Next, the establishment of wagering requirements by online casino gaming companies is justified by the need to prevent any act of money laundering. Indeed, offering bonuses without being accompanied by wagering conditions would be a way of opening up an avenue to criminals and allowing them to launder money easily.
Best choice of wagering games
It is important to know that you cannot bet on any game to meet the wagering requirements. Bonuses are intended for use on a specific game or category of games like table games or card games. Also, not all games have the same share of contribution towards meeting the casino bonus wagering requirements. To quickly beat these requirements, you must choose the games on which to bet. Online casino slot machines should be your preferred choice of casino game if you intend on meeting the requirements within the shortest possible time, as they have a 100% contribution share to the wagering requirements.
Bonus with no wagering requirement
As the name says, a no-wagering casino bonus has no wagering requirements. You usually will not be allowed to withdraw bonus funds, but winnings from bonus rounds or cash are credited to your real account balance, and you can then withdraw them at your request.
Fred decides to make a deposit and get a no-wager bonus. He deposits $50 or its equivalent, and he receives another $50 as a bonus without betting.
He starts playing with his deposit first, and he loses it. Then he starts playing with the bonus amount of $50, and at some point, he wins $400, and now he wants to request a withdrawal. Now he can withdraw the total winnings immediately without the rest of the bonus amount. He can choose what to do with his own money without having to play that amount a few times to withdraw it. Some casinos have x20, x35, x45, x60, and even x90 wagering requirements for bonuses. This means that you have to wager that $400 another 30 times before you meet the wagering requirements and request a withdrawal. In 95% of cases, players are unable to do so.
Here are other different types of online casino bonuses offered to players:
Welcome bonus
Almost all, if not all, online casinos will offer some type of welcome bonus to new players. However, with wagering requirements, it becomes clear that casinos do not want you to withdraw your winnings from the bonus or make it very difficult to withdraw them. Unfortunately, many players are unaware of the wagering requirements and only find out about them when trying to withdraw their winnings and end up disappointed. A no-wagering requirement welcome bonus means that welcome bonuses come with no wagering requirement, so whatever you win with the welcome bonus is yours to keep and withdraw.
No deposit bonus
Online casino no deposit bonus with no wagering requirement can be one of the best promotional offers in an online casino. However, it is still rare, with only a few operators offering them to players. These bonuses are available to new customers immediately after registration, and, as the name suggests, there is no fund your casino account with real money to become eligible.
They are usually awarded in the form of free spins or free credits, which players can use to try out the newest or hottest games in the casino gaming catalog. There are no strings attached to such offers when it comes to wagering, but sooner or later, you will need to deposit money into your online casino account to release your winnings.
This way, you can get a good idea of what the casino offers upfront and potentially win real money. Of course, to prevent bonus hunters from abusing these generous offers, online casinos would sometimes restrict the maximum amount you can withdraw in winnings. If you have won $455, but the cap is $200, the balance of $255 will be removed from your balance after the withdrawal, which can be very heartbreaking, but hey, it’s still free money.
Cashback Bonuses
Cashback is easily some of the most valuable bonuses you can use at casinos with no wagering requirement. These are practically refunds on deposits that you have entirely lost through poor execution and bets. This approach allows online casinos to keep their customers satisfied, so they keep coming back for more betting action. Cashback is usually awarded as a percentage of the amount deposited.
Suppose you deposit $100 and have a 20% cashback bonus; if you lose your $100 deposit, the casino then credits you with $20 in free money, although there usually is a limit on the amount you can be reimbursed. Surprisingly numerous online casinos give cashback on the total amount you bet, whether you lost it all or registered any winnings.
Bonus free spins
Online casino bonus free spins accompany some bonuses offered by online casinos, and these must be integrated into your gaming approach to satisfy the wagering requirements. Indeed, like the bonus amount, you must bet the winnings obtained by playing the free spins a certain number of times. Assuming you won $10 or its equivalent playing games using your bonus free spins, and the casino wagering requirement is x50, your total bet will be $500 or equivalent.
Are low bet bonuses attractive?
Bonuses are always available at online casinos. However, the value of these bonuses varies from establishment to establishment. So, while some offers are considerable, others may seem trivial: these are the low bet bonuses. Despite their low value, these bonuses remain good for players since little is better than nothing in most cases. Because they have the same advantages as any other generous offer, it is better to benefit from it than not to have it.
Can wagering requirements be avoided or exceeded?
Wagering requirements, as stated above, are mandatory requirements. As such, they are binding on all members of an online casino. It can be inferred from this that it is impossible to avoid or exceed the bonus wagering requirements. Either you respect them to benefit from them and have the possibility of withdrawing your winnings, or you ignore them with the full knowledge of being unable to make a withdrawal.
However, you can waive the bonus if you want to make a withdrawal, and that’s the only other choice available the only way you have.
Conclusion
In the world of online casinos, bonuses can be likened to essentials. However, players will have to comply with the wagering requirements to take full advantage of these offers. Although boring, following these rules is not as hard as they sometimes might seem.