The possibility of receiving a huge bonus is enough to excite any casino player. Any casino fan can attest to this: free money that you can play with all your beloved games, especially when you stand a chance to have an enormous payday using those funds.
Casinos tap into this excitement by offering you different kinds of bonuses. Some rewards help make your deposited money last longer, some actually give you a slight advantage when playing, but only if you’re aware of what you’re looking for. The geekspeak describing these bonuses also varies from one site to another. It sometimes seems like you have to hire a lawyer to decipher what exactly some of these bonus terms are saying.
A critical aspect of bonus offers is the playthrough. So, what is a playthrough bonus? Playthrough, also known as a wagering requirement, is the number of times a player must bet on the bonus before they’re allowed to withdraw the cash. Almost all casinos must have a playthrough.
Protection for the casino
What happens is that playthroughs are conveyed as a multiple, but in two contrasting ways. Firstly, there is the option of multiplying only the bonus balance. But there’s also the less appealing option of multiplying both the deposit and bonus balance. Whatever the case is, you’re better off multiplying a lower balance, but this also implies that comparing the wagering requirements of two varying casino bonuses UK can be difficult.
Imagine two sites with a 100% match of your balance. The first site has a 30x playthrough stipulation on your combined deposit and amount. The second site has a 50x requirement on your bonus. Surprisingly, the second casino is the most favourable to you. While 30x is figuratively lower, it’s the most difficult to clear. Assuming you deposit £300, you’ll have to wager £1500 in bets on the latter and £1800 in the first site.
Understand that you don’t have to lose or spend the amount in this requirement to deplete your funds. Each bet you’re making contributes to your total – betting on a slot machine for £5 each spin will eventually cost you. A sound strategy would be to play down your required playthrough while you make out some profit.
Not all games contribute equally.
Originally, casinos’ terms and conditions were straightforward. Later on, the casinos started to realize that some players leveraged on the easier games to complete their playthroughs. The online sites took initiative to protect themselves and ensure they still made profits from their promotional offers.
Such efforts resulted in casinos reducing the value of some games in wagering requirements. Many casinos have further narrowed players’ gaming options and ensured some games don’t contribute to waging requirements at all. The only way to confirm the requirements is by reading the terms and conditions.
Some casinos provide a complex list of games that contribute to your wagering requirements. In such a case, the games may all have different contribution percentages. For example, think of a site whose menu of options looks like:
Slots — 100%
Blackjack – 10%
Roulette – 50%
If you have a stake of £50, then slots will provide £50, blackjack will give £25, and roulette will contribute £5 towards the completion of your wagering requirements.
In other instances, the requirements will change based on a company’s policies. For example, some companies will be harsher to players from specific countries, because they believe that such players are looking to exploit their bonus offers.
Final thoughts
Sometimes the jargon used in the online casino can be confusing. What you don’t know, though, is that some terms are meant to be confusing to you as a player. The idea is that if you don’t understand the terms, then you don’t understand the games, and so you’re most likely to lose. But now that you’ve learnt what a playthrough bonus is, you’re well on your way to mastery of the casino vernacular.
Will Writing has been writing about online casinos and casino bonuses for over 9 years. Will prides himself on paying attention to detail when checking out any new casino bonuses that come onto the market. Aside from verifing casino bonuses, Will enjoys playing video games and football. Will currently resides in London, UK.
