If you ever tried your hand at promotion, you have come across a wagering requirement. Almost every promotion comes with a playthrough you have to meet, except for no deposit bonuses. As such, understanding what wagering requirements are and how to meet them is important for any US-based player.
Given the importance of the topic, we felt it was important to write up a guide on the subject. Join us as we explore what wagering requirements are and if it is possible to beat them.
What are wagering requirements for USA players?
A wagering requirement is a bonus condition players have to meet before they are allowed to withdraw funds. Online casinos will offer different playthroughs depending on the nature of the bonus. As the name implies, you need to wager a certain amount of cash to meet the requirements. Most online casinos will set their wagering requirements between 20x to 40x the bonus amount.
That all might sound a little confusing, so we will use an example to clarify things. You deposit $10 on a 100% deposit match bonus and receive $10 worth of bonus cash. The wagering requirement for this promotion is 30x the bonus amount. To meet the wagering requirement, you will need to bet through 30×10 = $300 to complete the promotion.
What is your reward for completing the wagering requirement? It releases the bonus, allowing you to withdraw any remaining bonus funds. Keep in mind other restrictions may apply to promotions, such as a maximum withdrawal limit.
Additional wagering requirement details
Completing a wagering requirement is simple in theory. However, playthrough numbers do not come in a vacuum. Other terms and conditions also apply to any bonus and can have an effect on the wagering requirement. We advise keeping an eye out for these when choosing what bonus you want to play.
Some wagering requirements may affect the initial deposit as well as the awarded bonus funds. Going back to our example, that would mean the 30x wagering requirement was being applied to both the $10 deposit and bonus cash. That means you have to play through $600 to complete the promotion instead of $300 like before. As such, when picking a bonus, we want the wagering requirements to apply only to bonus cash.
Another detail worth paying attention to is whether deposited or bonus money is being used first. If deposited money is used first, you need to go through your funds first. When you spend them all, you can start playing with bonus funds and making progress on the wagering requirement.
Nowadays, many online casinos are also enforcing a maximum bet when clearing wagering requirements. If a maximum bet is present, your ability to rush through and complete a playthrough is limited.
The last two details would not be so important if wagering requirements did not come with time limits. Most online casinos will give you a month to complete the wagering requirement of a bonus. However, some operators have begun decreasing that time to fourteen days or even a week.
Finally, make sure the games you are playing are contributing to the wagering requirement. Some releases contribute to a limited capacity or do not contribute to the playthrough at all. If a game offers a 50% contribution, 50% of all wagers will go towards completing the wagering requirement.
beating wagering requirements for USA players
All of these little details add up over time. You have to keep them in mind if you plan on beating the wagering requirements. Just looking at the numbers can be misleading. To explain, we need another example.
We have two hypothetical casinos. One of them is offering a 20x wagering requirement, which applies to both the deposit and bonus money. The other has a 30x wagering requirement, but the playthrough only applies to the bonus funds. We will deposit $10 in both casinos and see where we will complete wagering requirements faster.
For the 30x wagering requirement, you need to play through $300 before completing the bonus. Meanwhile, the 20x wagering requirement applies to both the initial deposit and the bonus money we receive. That means we need to bet through 20x ($10 deposit + $10 bonus cash), which comes out to $400.
As you can see, one extra clause has pushed a seemingly smaller wagering requirement into being more difficult to beat. As you play, you will need to consider all these factors when deciding what promotions to accept or skip.
You will not know how to do this immediately. We recommend keeping this guide open and going through the checklist when deciding. Over time, you will learn what to look out for by yourself. Until that happens, you can rely on your friends in HyperCasinos to help you out.