What a wagering requirement actually costs you
Across the 51 welcome offers we have recorded, the median wagering requirement is 20x, ranging from 0x to 60x. That number is the one every casino puts in its terms, and on its own it tells you remarkably little. Two things decide what a bonus really costs, and neither appears in the headline: what the multiple is applied to, and which games are allowed to count toward it. Both are measured below.
What the multiplier means
A wagering requirement is how much you must bet before bonus money can be withdrawn. At 20x on a 100 bonus, you must place 2,000 in total bets before any of it becomes yours. Not lose that much. Bet it, win or lose, until the total reaches the target.
Here is how the 47 offers with a stated requirement are distributed:
| Requirement | Offers |
|---|---|
| 20x or lower | 24 |
| 21x to 35x | 11 |
| 36x to 50x | 11 |
| Above 50x | 1 |
The base matters more than the multiple
This is the part that gets missed. A requirement can apply to the bonus alone, or to your deposit plus the bonus. The second doubles the real cost while leaving the advertised number untouched.
Of the 47 offers we hold, 37 apply the multiple to the bonus only and 7 apply it to deposit plus bonus, with 3 not stating which. Take a deposit of 100 matched by a bonus of the same size, at 20x. The figures below are in whatever currency the offer is denominated in:
| Requirement applies to | You must bet |
|---|---|
| Bonus only | 2,000 |
| Deposit plus bonus | 4,000 |
Same advertised 20x, twice the obligation. When comparing two offers, the base is the first thing to check, before the multiple.
Which games are allowed to count
Bets do not all count equally. Slots usually count in full. Table games often count for a fraction, or nothing. That matters because table games are exactly where the house edge is lowest, so the games that would let you clear a bonus most cheaply are the ones the terms discount.
We could read the game weightings for 26 of these offers. 19 of them count table games, roulette or blackjack at under 20%. On those terms, 100 wagered at blackjack moves you 20 or less toward the target, so the advertised multiple understates the real one by a factor of five.
The cashout cap
17 of the 51 offers state a maximum you can withdraw from bonus winnings. A cap means the upside is bounded no matter how the bonus performs, while the wagering obligation is not. An uncapped offer with a higher multiple can be worth more than a capped one with a lower multiple, which is another reason the headline number ranks offers badly.
Why none of this changes a trust score
We do not let bonus terms move any safety number on this site. A bonus tells you what a casino spends to acquire you, not how it treats you once it has. We publish these figures because you will be offered them and the terms are hard to compare, not because a generous offer makes an operator safer. Our reasoning is on the scoring page, and the offers themselves are ranked by market, separately, because terms differ by jurisdiction.
How these numbers were produced
Every figure above is counted from the 54 casinos we have finished researching, recomputed on each build. They describe our sample rather than the whole market, and the sample grows every week, so the figures move. If you cite one, cite the date with it. Each brand's own terms and the source we read them in are on its profile.
Computed from 54 researched casinos, 2026-07-18. Recomputed every build.