If you have looked into casino bonuses at all, you have come across wagering requirements. They are the conditions attached to a bonus that control when your winnings can be withdrawn. Most casino sites shove the details in the T&Cs, but they are legally required to explain exactly how bonus funds will work.
This guide covers the definition, how the maths works, what the UK's new 10x cap means in practice, and the part that applies most directly to this site: the majority of the offers here do not have wagering requirements at all.
What are casino wagering requirements?
Casino wagering requirements (also called playthrough requirements) are conditions attached to a bonus that specify how much you need to bet before any winnings from that bonus can be withdrawn. They are expressed as a multiplier of the bonus amount. A 5x wagering requirement on a £10 bonus means placing £50 in total bets before the balance is withdrawable.
The multiplier applies to the bonus amount, not your deposit. Some offers apply wagering to both the deposit and the bonus combined, which the offer terms will state. Where that is the case, the total amount you need to wager is higher, and it is worth running the numbers before committing.
Casinos do occasionally offer no-wager bonuses, but they are rare across the wider market. In most cases, wagering requirements are attached because they ensure players use the bonus to play rather than withdraw it straight away. That is the mechanic behind them. Whether a specific requirement leaves the offer worth doing depends on the numbers.
How they work in practice
Say you claim a bonus of £20 with a 5x wagering requirement. You need to wager £100 in total before the balance becomes withdrawable. That does not mean you lose £100. It means you place £100 worth of bets, and across those bets you win some back.
The expected return on each bet depends on the RTP of the game you play. At a 97% RTP slot, every £1 wagered returns 97p on average. The expected cost of wagering £100 is around £3, not £100. So on a £20 bonus with 5x wagering at a 97% RTP slot, the expected cost of clearing that requirement is roughly £3, leaving around £17 of expected value on average. That is the theory. In practice, variance means your actual session result could land above or below that figure. The free EV calculator gives you the expected return for any offer, and the offer simulator Premium lets you model the spread of likely outcomes so you can see the realistic range, not just the average.
The slot you choose for wagering matters. At a 94% RTP slot the expected cost of the same £100 in wagering is around £6, double the cost compared to a 97% RTP slot. That difference compounds across a year of offers. The RTP guide covers why this matters, and the free RTP slot list ranks the highest-RTP slots currently available at UK casinos.
Game contribution rates
Not every game counts equally toward a wagering requirement. Slots typically contribute 100%, meaning every pound you wager on slots counts in full. Table games and live casino usually contribute at a much lower rate.
| Game type | Typical contribution | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Slots | 100% | Standard across most operators. |
| Live casino | 10% | Varies by operator. Check the offer terms. |
| Table games (RNG) | 10% | Some operators exclude them entirely. |
| Poker / Bingo | 0% | Excluded at most operators. |
A 10% contribution rate means it takes ten times longer to clear a wagering requirement on roulette than on a slot. If you are trying to clear a wagering requirement efficiently, slots are almost always the right game.
The UK's 10x cap on wagering requirements
In January 2026, the UK Gambling Commission introduced a maximum wagering requirement of 10x across all licensed casino bonuses. Before this change, wagering requirements UK players faced were often 30x, 40x, and higher across most operators. A £20 bonus at 35x wagering meant placing £700 in bets before anything became withdrawable.
The cap changes things in a concrete way. The maximum you now need to wager on any UK-licensed bonus is 10 times the bonus value. On a £20 bonus, that is £200. On a 97% RTP slot the expected cost of clearing that is around £6. The pre-reform equivalent at 35x would have had an expected cost of around £21 on the same slot. The offers available since January 2026 look very different from what came before.
The 10x cap applies to casinos holding a UK Gambling Commission licence. Offshore operators not licensed in the UK are not subject to these rules. This site covers UK-licensed operators only.
Most low-risk offers do not have wagering requirements
This is the part that applies most directly to what this site is about.
Risk-free offers and many low-risk casino sign-up offers carry no wagering requirements at all. What you win, you keep. There is no playthrough condition, no game contribution calculation, no time window to clear. The casino is giving you real exposure to a return without attaching conditions that reduce what you can take out.
That is a deliberate part of how these offers work. The expected value on a no-wager offer is simpler to calculate: it is the probability of winning multiplied by the potential return, with no wagering cost eating into the figure. The risk-free offers page and low-risk offers page each note the wagering terms (or absence of them) on every offer listed.
Some low-risk offers do carry light wagering requirements, typically between 1x and 5x given the UK cap. Where that is the case, the EV on the offer page already accounts for it. But the majority of what you will find here has no wagering at all, which means none of the calculation above applies.
When wagering requirements do apply: what to check
On any offer that does carry wagering requirements, three terms matter beyond the headline multiplier.
Game contribution rates. Covered above, but worth checking in the specific offer terms rather than assuming. Contribution rates vary by operator even within the same game type.
Time limits. Most offers give you between 7 and 30 days to meet the wagering requirement. If you do not clear it within that window, the bonus and any associated winnings expire. This is rarely an issue on low wagering requirements, but it is worth knowing the window before you start.
Maximum win caps. Some bonuses cap how much you can withdraw even after clearing the wagering requirement. If a bonus carries a £50 maximum win, any balance above £50 is forfeited regardless of what the spins returned. Not all offers have these caps, but those that do will state it in the terms. It is the most overlooked condition in bonus terms and the one most likely to catch people out.
The offer simulator Premium lets you model different combinations of these variables before committing to an offer. Run a few scenarios, especially on higher-volatility slots where the spread of outcomes is wider.
FAQ
What is a 10x wagering requirement?
A 10x wagering requirement means you need to place bets totalling 10 times the bonus amount before any winnings become withdrawable. On a £20 bonus, that is £200 in total bets. Since January 2026, 10x is the maximum any UK-licensed casino can apply to a bonus.
Do all casino bonuses have wagering requirements?
No. Risk-free offers and many low-risk casino offers carry no wagering requirements. Winnings from these offers are withdrawable without any playthrough condition. This site focuses on offers where the terms are as clean as possible, and the offers pages note wagering terms for every offer listed.
What games count toward wagering requirements?
Slots typically contribute 100%, meaning every pound you wager on slots counts in full toward the requirement. Table games and live casino usually contribute 10% or less. The specific rates are in the offer terms. For clearing a requirement efficiently, slots are almost always the right choice.
How do I work out what a wagering bonus is actually worth?
The expected value depends on the bonus amount, the wagering requirement, and the RTP of the slot you play through it. At a 97% RTP slot, the expected cost of each £100 in wagering is around £3. The free EV calculator does the full calculation for any specific offer. Enter the bonus amount, wagering requirement, and slot RTP, and it returns the expected value.
The question is never just "what is the wagering requirement?" It is "what is the offer actually worth after accounting for it?" For most of what is on this site, the answer is simpler: no wagering at all.
Wagering requirements are not a reason to avoid casino bonuses. They are a variable in the expected value calculation, and one that is now capped at a level that keeps most offers in positive territory on a 97% RTP slot. The offers on this site are selected partly on this basis. Where wagering does apply, the EV is already calculated. Where it does not, the return is what the offer says it is.