How to Compare Casino Bonus Wagering Requirements
Wagering requirements decide what a bonus is really worth. Use our calculator, compare offers and learn the UK’s 2026 10x cap. Verified by our editors.
The wagering requirement is the one number that decides whether a casino bonus is worth claiming. It tells you how much you must stake before any winnings become withdrawable cash — and it’s why a large bonus with punishing terms is worth less than a small one with clean ones. This guide shows you how to read it, calculate the real cost, and compare two offers fast.
A wagering requirement is a multiple: bonus × requirement = total you must wager. Lower is better. Always check whether it applies to the bonus only or deposit + bonus, whether your games count 100%, and the max-cashout cap. Most markets — the US, Canada and Ireland — still run 20×–60×; the UK is the exception, capping it at 10× since 19 January 2026.
What is a wagering requirement?
A wagering requirement — sometimes called a playthrough or rollover — is a multiple. It tells you how many times you must bet the bonus before the casino lets you cash out anything attached to it. The maths is simple, but the multiple does the damage:
A 50 bonus at 40× means 2,000 in wagering. For most players that isn’t a gift — it’s a target almost no one reaches before the funds are gone.
Is it on the bonus, or deposit plus bonus?
This is the detail that catches people out, and it’s the single most useful check on this page. Two offers can both say “10×” and mean completely different things, depending on what the 10× is applied to.
Always confirm which basis an offer uses before you deposit. We flag this on our listings because the casino rarely puts it front and centre.
Wagering calculator
Rather than do the arithmetic in your head, drop any offer’s numbers in below. It factors in the basis, game weighting and your stake — and flags where an offer sits against the UK’s 10× cap. The amounts are unit-free, so they work in whatever currency you play in.
Real-cost wagering calculator
See exactly what clearing a bonus costs before you claim it.
Does the UK’s 2026 cap apply to me?
Only if you’re playing on a UK-licensed site — but if you are, it changed the maths dramatically. From 19 January 2026 the UK Gambling Commission capped wagering at 10× the bonus amount on all promotional offers, ending the era of 30×, 40× and 50× terms. No other market in our coverage has an equivalent ceiling, so this section is the one place we’ll talk in pounds.
The reform sits under the Commission’s revised rules on rewards and bonuses — read the regulator’s summary on the Gambling Commission website. It also forced two more changes that help when comparing: promotions can no longer bundle different products, and the key terms must be shown before you click claim. Our full breakdown is in what the UK’s 2026 bonus rules mean for players.
A 10× requirement can still cost you more than it looks once game weighting is involved.
Which games count toward wagering?
Wagering doesn’t count equally across games. Slots usually contribute 100% — every unit you stake counts in full. Table games are where it gets slippery.
| Game | Typical contribution to wagering |
|---|---|
| Slots | 100% |
| Roulette | 10% |
| Blackjack | 10% (often less) |
| Live dealer | 5% or excluded |
So a “10×” bonus you intend to clear on blackjack at 10% weighting effectively behaves like 100× in slot terms (try it in the calculator above). If table games are your thing, the contribution table matters more than the headline multiple. Our no-wagering bonuses sidestep this entirely.
What about the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland?
The mechanics on this page are universal — bonus × requirement, game weighting, max cashout — but the ceiling differs by market. The UK is the outlier: it’s the one major market in our coverage that caps wagering by law. Everywhere else leaves it to the operator, so you do the arithmetic yourself.
In the US, online casino is regulated state by state, so first check it’s legal where you are — then expect the same 20×–60× norms, with no cap doing the work for you. Canada and Ireland are both regulated markets without a UK-style ceiling, and New Zealand is mid-transition, having introduced its first online-casino licensing regime in 2026, so its rules are still settling. Wherever you play, the four checks below are what actually decide value. Filter to offers verified for your market using the flag icons on our casino bonus comparison.
How to compare two offers in under a minute
Line up four numbers for each offer:
Run two real offers through those checks and the winner is often the opposite of what the banners suggest:
- 10× on bonus only = 300 to wager
- Slots count 100%
- No max-cashout cap
- 30 days to clear
- 10× on deposit+bonus = 1,200 to wager
- Slots only count 50%
- 100 max cashout
- 7 days to clear
The smaller bonus wins comfortably — and you’d never know it from the headlines. This is the comparison our 5-star rating method is built around.
Red flags the cap doesn’t fix
Lower wagering is a real win, but three terms still limit a bonus’s value whatever the multiple — and in markets with no cap they matter even more:
A bonus that caps withdrawals at a fixed figure is worth only that figure, however much you win.
Exceed the per-spin cap (often a low limit) and the bonus can void instantly.
Miss the deadline — usually 7 to 30 days — and everything attached disappears.
The takeaway
Read the requirement first, confirm what it’s applied to, check game weighting against how you play, then sanity-check the cashout cap and expiry. Do that and the headline number loses its power to mislead you.
Next: see how this plays out across two bonus types in our guide to free spins versus matched deposits, or browse current verified offers on the casino bonus comparison.
Gambling should be fun, never a way to make money. Play within your means. If gambling is becoming a problem, free, confidential help is available — in the UK at BeGambleAware, and in the US at 1-800-GAMBLER. 18+ (21+ in some jurisdictions). More on our responsible gambling page.
FAQ
Do free spins winnings carry their own wagering requirement?
Usually they do. If the spins came bolted onto a bonus, whatever you win from them tends to land as bonus money — and it carries its own playthrough, often a steeper one than a deposit match, in the region of 25x to 60x of the winnings. "No-wagering" spins are the exception: there, the winnings arrive as cash you can simply withdraw. The thing to check before spinning is the multiplier on those winnings and whether a cap limits how much you actually walk away with.
What happens to my winnings if I don't clear the wagering in time?
Every bonus runs on a clock, usually somewhere between 7 and 30 days. Miss the deadline and the bonus disappears, taking the winnings attached to it along with it — what's left is whatever you originally put in. It's the reason a short time limit can quietly sink an otherwise decent offer. Read the deadline before you opt in, and be honest about whether you can clear it without throwing more money at it than you meant to.
Is there a maximum bet while I'm clearing a bonus?
Often, yes, and it trips people up constantly. While a bonus is live, plenty of casinos cap what you can stake on a single spin or hand — £5 is a common line. Go over it just once and you can lose the bonus and everything you've won with it, even by accident. If the terms name a max bet, treat that number as a hard wall until the wagering's done and dusted.
Can I withdraw my own deposit before finishing the wagering?
Depends how the casino files your money. Keep the deposit and the bonus in separate pots, and you can normally pull your own cash back out — though doing so usually waves goodbye to the bonus and anything it earned. Lump them into one balance, and an early withdrawal tends to cancel the whole thing. When it's not obvious which setup you're dealing with, the terms will say what happens to a live bonus the moment you cash out.
Do no-deposit bonuses have higher wagering than deposit-match bonuses?
As a rule, yes. The logic is simple enough: you risked nothing to get it, so the casino leans on a bigger playthrough to balance that out, and the multiplier usually sits well above a like-for-like deposit match. Low maximum-cashout caps are common on top of that, which means even a fully cleared win can be held to a modest figure. Plenty of headline-grabbing no-deposit offers are worth a fair bit less than the number on the banner.
Are "no-wagering" bonuses actually better value?
Frequently, yes — even when they look smaller next to the big matches. The appeal is that there's nothing to clear: win, and it's yours to withdraw, full stop. What you give up is scale, since these offers tend to run modest, and they sometimes fence off certain games or limit what you can cash out. For anyone who'd rather have certainty than a fat number with strings attached, they're usually the smarter claim.