While much of a casino bonus may be considered free, an online casino will make customers work for their free bonus. The wagering requirements are basically the rules of casino bonuses in Canada and set out the requirements to complete the casino bonus. To complete a casino bonus, including sign up bonuses, players will usually have to wager their bonus amount a certain number of times, before it can be considered real money.
Another very important point of wagering requirements of welcome bonuses in Canada is the game weighting. Game weighting is how much of your wager will be considered towards the wagering requirement. This is to prevent players from abusing certain live dealer strategies to easily complete the wagering requirement of a sign up bonus.
Game weighting works like the following: More often than not, standard slots are weighted at 100%. That means that if you placed a $2.00 wager, then $2.00 would count towards the wagering requirement.
However, not all casino games are weighted so well. Live dealer table games, for example, are usually weighted around 2 - 10%. So, if a table game is weighted at 5% and you placed the same wager, only $0.10 would count towards the wagering requirement. As you can see, playing live dealer table games would make completing the wagering requirement a very long task indeed.
Let's take a look at some wagering requirements of casino welcome bonuses.
Free Spins Wagering Requirements
The free spins wagering requirement will affect your winnings. Any money won from a free spins bonus will be considered 'bonus money' and must be wagered a set number of times before it is considered real money that you can withdraw. Of course, you don't have to withdraw it either - any bonus completed and turned into real money is yours to do whatever you wish.
So, let's say a 100 free spins bonus has a wagering requirement of 20x. That would mean any winnings won from your 100 free spins must be wagered a further 20x. If you won $20 from the 100 free spins, you would need to wager the bonus money to an amount of $400.
So, to complete this bonus, players would need to wager the $20 winnings to a further $400 before it is considered real money. If players fail to complete the bonus, they will forfeit the bonus amount.
Deposit Wagering Requirements
Deposit wagering requirements are a little different from free spins, as it has more to do with the amount of the bonus and deposit, rather than how much you actually win. The wagering requirements of a deposit bonus are either imposed on the bonus amount or the bonus amount and the initial deposit amount too. For example, let's look at a deposit bonus of 100% up to $50 with an initial deposit of the full $50. With a wagering requirement of 35x, the math would look like the following:
- $50 (bonus) x 35 (wagering requirement) = $1750
- If the wagering requirement included the deposit amount too it would look like this:
- $50 (bonus) + $50 x 35 (wagering requirement) = $3500
As you can see, this kind of wagering requirement makes quite a significant difference. It may seem daunting to try and meet this kind of wagering requirement, but there are some strategies to increase your chances.
Take note of the size of the wagering requirement. It is generally considered that any wagering requirement over 35x is too high, and you certainly can see requirements as high as 40, 50 or even 60x. Any wagering requirement below 20x is regarded as low and preferential if you can get it!