By the BonusWithoutDeposit editorial team · Last updated October 2026 · How we review
The "welcome bonus" is among the most attractive features of online casinos, and it is also the one that generates the most misunderstandings, because the old maxim "nothing is free" applies here as everywhere else. Every bonus has a counterpart, which the casino writes into its "terms and conditions" and which goes under the name of "wagering" (or "playthrough", which means the same thing): a volume of bets that the player must place before the bonus, and what has been won with it, can be withdrawn.
This guide explains how that counterpart is calculated (with figures you can check yourself), which games count towards it and which do not, how the different kinds of bonus behave, and how to work out, with a few figures, whether a bonus is worth more than it costs. Reading the terms is tedious, we know it well; it is also the only way of avoiding the disappointment of a withdrawal refused, and when something is unclear the casino's support should be asked before depositing, not afterwards.
The wagering is expressed as a "multiple", and the first thing to establish is what the multiple applies to: the bonus alone, or the deposit and the bonus together (the so-called "D+B" formula, which doubles the effort for the same headline). A player who deposits one hundred and receives a bonus of one hundred, with a wagering of thirty-five times on the bonus alone, must place three thousand five hundred in bets (thirty-five times one hundred), while with the same thirty-five times applied to deposit and bonus together, the bets required become seven thousand!
The multiples vary a great deal from one "operator" to another, and from one market to another. In the United Kingdom, since 19 January 2026, the operators licensed by the Gambling Commission may not ask for more than ten times the bonus, so that the one hundred of our example requires one thousand in bets; elsewhere multiples of thirty, forty or fifty times are still common, and the difference between a bonus that can be converted and one that remains on paper lies almost entirely in this figure.
The bets do not all count in the same way towards the wagering, and this is where most of the mistakes are made. Slots normally count in full, while "table games" count for a small fraction of the stake (ten or twenty per cent is a frequent figure) or are excluded altogether, together with the "live" tables and, at many casinos, the "video poker", so that a wagering of three thousand five hundred cleared on blackjack at ten per cent would therefore require thirty-five thousand in bets, which is not a realistic undertaking for anybody.
The "hypothetical player" we have in mind (and whom you may recognise) knows this story well. Encouraged by the bonus, and with the enthusiasm of the first time, he plays a little of everything (roulette, then blackjack, then a few hands of video poker) and, after a lucky evening, asks for a withdrawal that the casino refuses. He will think that online casinos are not "serious", and he will say so to anyone who listens. In reality the inconvenience was caused by his own behaviour, for two reasons, since he had not read the conditions of the bonus and had spent his time on games that did not count, or that the terms excluded outright.
The second question to ask concerns the relationship between the deposit and the bonus, and the answer changes the whole value of the offer. Some casinos keep the two "balances" separate (the real one and the bonus one): the player plays first with his or her own money, which can be withdrawn at any moment (giving up the bonus), and only afterwards with the bonus money, which becomes withdrawable once the wagering is complete. Other casinos merge the two into a single balance, so that the deposit itself remains "locked" until the wagering has been cleared; and some bonuses are "sticky" (or "non-cashable"), which means that the bonus amount is deducted at the moment of the withdrawal and only the winnings above it can be taken out.
In our experience the separate balance is the fairest formula for the player, and the one we prefer to point out to our readers. For years the casinos running on some platforms tended to keep the bonus apart, while others credited it automatically, "stuck" to the deposit (and the expression, as you can see, is not ours). Today the formula is written in the terms of each offer, and it deserves a careful reading before the first deposit, since afterwards it can no longer be changed.
Beyond the wagering, the terms contain a series of limits that can cancel a bonus without the player noticing. The most frequent is the "maximum bet" allowed while the wagering is in progress (five units per spin is a common figure), whose violation authorises the casino to void the winnings. Then come the ceiling on winnings, the so-called "max cashout" (applied above all to very large bonuses and to the free ones), the deadline within which the wagering must be completed, and the list of "excluded games", which sometimes includes entire studios (the companies that make the games).
If you ask to withdraw before the wagering is complete, you normally give up the bonus and whatever has been won with it, which is the price of the freedom to change one's mind. None of these limits is unfair in itself, provided that it is written clearly; what makes them dangerous is that they are read, as a rule, after the problem has occurred.
A simple calculation answers the question better than any opinion (ours included), and it is worth doing once to understand the logic of the whole system. Every casino game has a "house edge" (the share of each bet that the casino keeps on average), which for a slot with an RTP of 96 per cent is four per cent. The expected cost of a wagering is therefore the volume of bets required multiplied by that four per cent. A bonus of one hundred with a wagering of thirty-five times requires three thousand five hundred in bets, whose "expected cost" is one hundred and forty: more than the bonus itself, so that on average the offer costs the player forty! The arithmetic is merciless.
The same bonus with a wagering of ten times (the British maximum) requires one thousand in bets (ten times one hundred), whose expected cost is forty, and leaves the player an average advantage of sixty. This is the real reason why the British regulator capped the multiples, and it is also the reason why, in some cases, declining a bonus is the wiser choice: whoever plays without a bonus keeps the freedom to withdraw at any moment, and an offer with an impossible wagering is worth less than no offer at all.
Some operators have chosen the opposite road, and offer "free spins" or "cashback" whose winnings are paid directly as cash, without any wagering (often with a ceiling on the amount). They are the most transparent offers available, and the easiest for you to evaluate, since what is won is simply withdrawable. When we find them, we point them out on our pages of no-deposit free spins and of casino welcome bonuses.
The regulated markets have intervened on bonuses in different ways, and a few examples show how wide the range is. Besides capping the wagering at ten times, the United Kingdom has prohibited since January 2026 the promotions that require playing different products (betting and casino together, for example), while Ontario forbids the public advertising of bonuses, which the operators may show only inside their own sites, and Ireland allows offers only when they are made to the general public, and not to selected players (the British rules on gambling adverts on television have changed just as much).
Elsewhere the operators set the conditions with a freedom that the regulated markets no longer allow. The operators listed on our pages address the international, non-regulated market, and it is the player's responsibility to check what the law of the country in which he or she is located allows; the rules described here are informative, and serve only as examples.
The mistakes are always the same (we have seen them for twenty years), and they are concentrated at the beginning. They can all be avoided. The "bonus code", where one is required, must be entered during registration or at the moment of the deposit, since almost no casino will add it afterwards. The games must be chosen among those that count towards the wagering, the maximum bet must be respected for as long as the wagering lasts, and the deadline must be kept in mind from the first day.
The identity check (the so-called "KYC"), finally, is better done immediately, by sending the document and the proof of address right after registering. A withdrawal held up by a missing document is the most common complaint we receive, and it is also the easiest one to avoid.
The volume of bets that must be placed before a bonus, and the winnings made with it, can be withdrawn. It is expressed as a multiple of the bonus, or of deposit and bonus together.
No, the two words mean the same thing: the multiple of the bonus (or of deposit and bonus) that must be wagered before withdrawing.
No: slots normally count in full, while table games count for a fraction of the stake or are excluded, and the list is written in the terms of each offer.
A bonus that cannot be withdrawn: its amount is deducted at the moment of the withdrawal, and only the winnings above it can be taken out.
In the United Kingdom no more than ten times the bonus since 19 January 2026. Elsewhere the operator sets the multiple, and thirty, forty or fifty times are still common.
Sometimes it is: when the wagering makes the expected cost of the bets higher than the bonus itself, playing without a bonus keeps the freedom to withdraw at any moment.
Bonuses are an opportunity and a useful tool, and like every tool they have to be known before they are used. If you know the conditions, you can choose the offers that suit your way of playing, decline those that cost more than they give, and play the others with the right games and the right stakes, while whoever ignores them will sooner or later meet a refused withdrawal, and will blame the casino for a mistake that was, in truth, his or her own. 18+, and gambling should remain entertainment.