How wagering works and how you beat the casino

Before we jump into what wagering requirements are, it is good to look at how wagering works and why they are such a big part of online casinos and their bonuses.

To wager, means to bet, so a wager is just another term for the bet you place on a slot game, live casino game, or any other game you would place a bet on. In most cases when you claim a bonus, whether it is a welcome bonus offer, a deposit bonus or a reload bonus, the money you get are bonus money, and not real cash. If you play with free spins, the winnings you receive through those free spins will be paid out as bonus money as well. These bonus funds that you now have on your account are not withdrawable, and they come with certain requirements to be met, before you can convert the bonus money into real cash, and eventually withdraw your winnings.

These bonus funds are locked to your casino account, and the only thing you can do with them is to play at the casino, until you meet the wagering requirements, as well as other terms attached to your bonus. We always encourage all our readers to carefully read the bonus terms before you accept any type of bonus. These terms can however be very difficult to understand, and it does not matter If you are a casino veteran or new to online casinos, as some casinos may have long terms with a lot of strange terminology. To put it simple, a wagering requirement is the amount of money, which is normally your deposit amount or bonus money, timed with a multiplier.
For example:
you deposit €100 and receive a 100% deposit bonus. You now have €200 to play for, and all €200 are locked to your casino account as bonus money. In the bonus terms it was stated that you needed to wager the deposit amount + the bonus amount 15 times to convert the bonus into real cash. You then take the total bonus amount, which is €200 and multiply it with 15, leaving you with a total wagering requirement of €3000. This means you need to place bets worth a total of €3000 for any remaining balance to be withdrawable as real money. If you fail to meet those wagering requirements, your bonus money will not be converted to real money, and the bonus will eventually be forfeited, meaning you are left with no withdrawal and no money in the end.

There should never be an instance where you are forced to go through wagering requirements, but this will in most cases mean that you either must forfeit the bonus or not claim the bonus in the first place. Any casino will naturally allow you to play with pure cash instead of with a bonus on top of your deposit. In general playing with a bonus will give you an extra edge against the casino, meaning that you have a higher probability of winning money and withdrawing more money than you deposited.

You must look at the bigger pictures, as even though your funds might be locked by a wagering requirement, the casino bonus increases the amount of money you must play for. This can be doubling your deposit, tripling your deposit or sometimes even five times your deposit amount. Not only does these types of bonuses give you more money to play for, but this also means more entertainment for a lower cost, as you get to play your favorite games even longer.

If you really want to avoid wagering, but you still like casino bonuses, then an option would be to go for no wagering bonuses. These bonuses can be cashback or other bonuses where there are specific terms stating that there are no wagering requirements attached to your bonus.

Can I get bonuses with no wagering requirements?

These types of bonus offers are much rarer than the ones with wagering requirements attached to them, but when you find them (and Bacon.bet offers plenty of wager-free options), you will be happy you went for the bonus with no wagering. What makes these types of bonuses truly great, is that you can withdraw your winnings at any time, and your money is never locked to your casino account. These bonuses are also often smaller than the ones with wagering requirements attached, and they normally appear as, Wager-free spins, Wager-free deposit bonuses, or Cashback.

We went through an example of how to calculate bonus wagering above, but we believe that this is a key to understand how wagering works, so we will dive a bit deeper into the topic. Let’s pretend you signed up with any of our listed casinos, and you decide to redeem one of the bonuses offered. If the bonus you took was a free spin offer, then you do not have to worry about the wagering requirements initially. The calculation of how much you need to wager, depends on the amount you win on these free spins. Let’s say that you got 100 free spins, and during those spins you won €20, in the bonus terms it was stated that any winnings from the free spins had to be wagered 10 times. You will now have to place bets for a total of your winnings (€20) + the wagering requirements (10x), meaning that you need to play for €200 before the remaining funds would be converted to real cash.

The bonus you claimed was a deposit bonus

When you claim a deposit bonus of 100% and the terms of the bonus state that the wagering requirements exclude the deposit amount, you only need to calculate the wagering requirements on the bonus you claimed. You deposited €100 and got €100 in bonus money on top of your real money deposit. The wagering requirements states that there is a 10x wagering on the bonus money, excluding your deposit. You will have €200 to play for and need to wager €1000 for the bonus money to be unlocked and withdrawable.

If the bonus terms state that bonus offer’s wagering requirements are including the deposit amount, then you must include your deposit amount, as well as the bonus you received. Again, we pretend you deposited €100 and got €100 in bonus money, but in this case your original deposit also became bonus money, so you have €200 in locked bonus funds. The wagering requirements were 10x on deposit + bonus, meaning that you must wager €2000 for your bonus money to be unlocked, and for you to be able to withdraw your winnings.

There are now legislators that monitor online casinos. and they have put in place regulations on how online casinos need to be transparent with terms and conditions, specially relating to bonus offers. This means that it should not be hard for you to find and understand the bonus terms, and what the wagering requirements of your claimed bonus are.

All casino operators listed on Bacon.bet that are providing a cash bonus offer including free spins, will display the terms and conditions, no more than one click away. In these bonus terms you will find the wagering requirements and other information on how wagering works. All this is useful to know about the bonus, so you are aware of what is needed for you to make a withdrawal. Make sure to always read the fine print. Usually, the full T&Cs are found by clicking a link in the promotional e-mail or by visiting the promotions page. On the odd chance that you are not able to find the amount of wagering needed, or the terms are unclear to you, contact the Customer Support of the casino, as they will gladly help you clear things up.

The most obvious reason for wagering requirements to be attached to bonuses, is that it gives the online casinos less risk when giving out free bonuses. If casinos were just giving out free cash to every player that signed up, they would open themselves up to bonus abuse, and the financial losses could be devastating. There are also other reasons for the wagering to be attached, like anti-money laundering laws, where criminals could launder money with ease, if there were no restrictions to depositing and then withdrawing the extra money. Not all casinos have wagering requirements though, and we recommend you check them out in our bonuses without wagering section. You should now be well equipped and understand how wagering works.