You would be hard pressed to find a reliable online casino on the market today that doesn’t offer a wealth of different bonuses to its players. Bonuses and promotions act as incentives to encourage new players to sign up and play for real money, while also rewarding existing players for their loyalty and patronage.
If you have considered signing up, you should definitely understand how these bonuses and their rules work first. There are many different kinds of bonuses available, but most of them come with mysterious ‘wagering requirements’ and ‘playthrough terms’ attached to their best Aussie online pokies and table game offers. Read on as we break down these concepts and tell you how to make the most of your online casino bonus offers!
How Playthrough Terms Came to Be
During the early days of online casino gaming in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the industry decided to introduce bonuses as a way to attract more customers to the blossoming market. However, without any rules governing how these bonuses were used, casino brands soon saw their cash offers being abused, costing them many hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. It was not uncommon for players to open multiple gaming accounts to claim multiple welcome bonuses, and they would cash them out as soon as possible, posing a huge financial risk to the brands they had registered with.
To combat this and mediate their financial risk, the casinos began introducing a general set of rules known as playthrough terms or wagering requirements. Designed to protect the brands from fraud while still allowing them to reward their players, the rules were created in such a way that they do not affect genuine players who sign up to have fun and play long-term.
Breaking Down Wagering Requirements
The way wagering requirements work is actually pretty simple, although they do seem complicated at first. The most common method associated with bonuses is that a certain multiple of the initial bonus or deposit needs to be played for real money at a casino before a player is allowed to cash out their winnings.
This multiple varies from brand to brand and generally ranges from 20x to 50x the value of the bonus, so players are always advised to read their casino’s terms and conditions carefully before trying to claim any bonuses. A site’s wagering requirements are usually listed in their standard terms and conditions – and if they are not prominently displayed, it might be a sign that your casino is rogue!
Which Casino Games Contribute More
To offer an example of a multiple playthrough requirement, say an online casino’s requirement is 20x the value of the bonus. This means that a player needs to place real money wagers to the value of 20x their original deposit before they can cash out.
So, if a player deposits $100 into their account and receives a 100% welcome bonus, they will end up with a bankroll of $200 to play with. From there, they would need to wager $2,000 in cash (20x the bonus’s value) in order to be able to claim their winnings.
It’s also important to bear in mind that some gambling games can contribute more towards wagering requirements than others. For example, slots tend to be worth 100%, while poker can contribute as low as 40% – so only $40 of every $100 poker wager would go towards fulfilling your playthrough terms. This is why it is essential to do your research before you sign up to ensure that you are getting the best deal possible when it comes to casino bonuses!