A wagering requirement determines whether a casino bonus is actually worth claiming — or a trap. Here's exactly how the multiplier is calculated and how to spot a bad deal before you deposit.
A wagering requirement (also called a rollover or playthrough requirement) is a multiplier applied to a bonus amount, telling you how much you need to wager — not win, just wager — before the bonus becomes withdrawable. A $100 bonus with a 35× wagering requirement means you need to place $3,500 in total bets before that $100 unlocks for cash-out.
Critically, this is about total action, not net loss. You could win and lose the same $100 back and forth repeatedly — every bet placed counts toward the requirement, regardless of outcome.
Without a wagering requirement, a bonus would be pure free money — deposit, claim the bonus, withdraw immediately, no risk to the casino. Wagering requirements exist to guarantee the casino gets a reasonable amount of real play (and house-edge revenue) out of an account before it can cash out promotional funds. It's the mechanism that makes bonuses commercially viable for the operator in the first place.
Not every bet counts equally toward clearing a wagering requirement. Slots often contribute 100%, meaning every dollar wagered counts fully. Table games like blackjack or roulette frequently contribute much less — sometimes 10% or 0% — because their lower house edge makes them a cheaper way to grind through a requirement without real risk to the casino.
This means the effective wagering requirement on a game with a 10% contribution rate is really 10× higher than the stated multiplier. Always check the game contribution table in a casino's bonus terms before choosing what to play while clearing a bonus — it can dramatically change how long it takes.
Wagering requirements in this category range from 0× (no requirement at all — the bonus is withdrawable immediately, as with several of Winz's and BC.Game's welcome offers) up to 40× or higher on more traditional deposit-match packages like BitStarz's welcome bundle.
A 0× offer is always worth its full face value. A 40× offer is not — the real value depends heavily on the RTP of the games you play and how much of the requirement they contribute toward. As a rule of thumb: the higher the multiplier, the more the headline bonus figure overstates what you'll actually walk away with.
Rather than guessing, run any wagering-attached offer through our bonus wagering calculator before you accept it. Enter the bonus amount, the multiplier and the game RTP, and it will show the theoretical net result after the requirement is cleared — sometimes a bonus that looks generous on the surface nets out worse than simply not claiming it.
If you're trying to figure out how much total wagering volume a given deposit can realistically sustain before you bust, our wager budget calculator answers that based on your deposit size and the game's RTP.