A wagering requirement is a multiplier, and its cost is arithmetic: required turnover multiplied by the house edge of the games played. Regulators treat the multiplier as the key number. Since 19 January 2026 the UK Gambling Commission has capped wagering requirements on bonuses at 10 times the incentive amount, after finding that some licensees had applied requirements of up to 60 times. Offshore sites serving Australians are not bound by that cap.
- The UK Gambling Commission caps wagering at 10 times the bonus amount from 19 January 2026.
- Before the cap, the Commission found some licensees applied wagering requirements of up to 60 times.
- Expected cost of clearing a bonus is approximately required turnover multiplied by the house edge.
- Game weighting reduces how much each bet counts: the Commission's example counts a $1 bet at 30% weighting as 30 cents.
On this page
- The three numbers that decide what a bonus costs
- Bonus-only versus deposit plus bonus
- Expected cost: turnover times house edge
- A break-even multiplier
- Game weighting: why some bets count for less
- The clauses that change the maths
- How offshore offers compare with the UK cap
- A five-step check before accepting any bonus
- Questions readers ask
- Sources
The three numbers that decide what a bonus costs
Every casino bonus with a playthrough condition comes down to three numbers:
- The base: what the multiplier applies to. It may be the bonus alone, or the deposit plus the bonus.
- The multiplier: the wagering requirement, written as 35x, 40x and so on.
- The house edge of the games used to clear it, which is 100% minus the game's return to player (RTP).
Multiply the base by the multiplier to get the required turnover. Multiply the turnover by the house edge to get the expected cost. Game weighting and maximum bet rules then adjust how quickly turnover accrues and what bets are allowed. Everything else in a bonus offer is detail around those numbers.
Bonus-only versus deposit plus bonus
The single most important word in the terms is the base. The same multiplier can double the turnover depending on it. The worked example below uses round, illustrative numbers.
| Illustrative offer: $100 deposit, 100% match ($100 bonus), 35x | Base | Required turnover |
|---|---|---|
| Wagering on bonus only | $100 | $100 x 35 = $3,500 |
| Wagering on deposit plus bonus | $200 | $200 x 35 = $7,000 |
A "35x (D+B)" clause on a 100% match is therefore the same turnover as a 70x requirement on the bonus alone. When comparing offers, convert everything to a multiple of the bonus amount first. The UK rule now does exactly that: the Commission's wording is that wagering requirements, which require customers to play through bonus funds, must not exceed 10 times the incentive amount.
Expected cost: turnover times house edge
House edge is what the game keeps, on average, from each dollar wagered. A game with an RTP of 96.50%, the figure Pragmatic Play publishes for Gates of Olympus, has a house edge of 3.50%. The expected loss on $3,500 of turnover is therefore $3,500 x 3.50% = $122.50.
That figure is an average over a very large number of attempts, not a forecast of any one attempt. Some players will finish with nothing, and a few with large wins. But it is the right number to compare against the bonus amount.
| Illustrative: $100 bonus, 35x on bonus only ($3,500 turnover) | House edge | Expected cost | Expected value of the bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slot at 96.50% RTP | 3.50% | $122.50 | $100 - $122.50 = minus $22.50 |
| Slot at 96.01% RTP | 3.99% | $139.65 | minus $39.65 |
| Slot at 88.42% RTP | 11.58% | $405.30 | minus $305.30 |
The 96.01% figure is Pragmatic Play's published RTP for Wolf Gold, and 88.42% is the lowest of the four builds Hacksaw Gaming publishes for Wanted Dead or a Wild. The same bonus that is close to break-even on a high-RTP build becomes very expensive on a low one. The article on slot RTP versions explains how to see which build a casino is running.
For a deposit-plus-bonus requirement, double the turnover and double the expected cost: $7,000 at 3.50% is $245, against a $100 bonus.
It also helps to think about what happens to the starting balance. In the illustrative deposit-plus-bonus case, the player starts with $200 in play: $100 of their own money and $100 of bonus. An expected cost of $245 is larger than the entire starting balance, so the typical outcome is that the balance runs out before the $7,000 is reached. Most attempts end at zero; a minority finish with a win large enough to carry them through. The average of all those outcomes is what the expected cost describes. That is why higher-volatility games feel more "successful" on bonuses for a few players while being no cheaper on average: they produce more busts and more big finishes, around the same expected cost.
Turnover per spin
Turnover is also a time cost. At $1 a spin, $3,500 of turnover is 3,500 spins; at $2 it is 1,750. If a bonus expires in a few days, the stake size needed to finish in time can push a player towards the maximum bet allowed, which raises the volatility of the attempt without changing its expected cost.
A break-even multiplier
Rearranging the same arithmetic gives a quick test. A bonus with wagering on the bonus only breaks even, in expectation, when the multiplier equals 1 divided by the house edge.
- At a 3.50% house edge, 1 / 0.035 is about 28.6. A requirement above roughly 28x on the bonus alone has negative expected value at that edge.
- At a 4% house edge, the break-even is 25x.
- At 11.58%, it is about 8.6x.
This ignores caps on winnings, maximum bet rules and expiry dates, all of which reduce the value further. It also ignores the player's own deposit, which is at risk on the same games. It is a ceiling, not a target.
Game weighting: why some bets count for less
Most bonus terms count slot bets at 100% towards wagering and table games at a lower rate, or not at all. The UK Gambling Commission gives a simple example: with a £100 bonus and a 10x requirement, a £1 bet on roulette at 30% weighting counts as 30p towards the requirement. The Commission's 2026 rule caps the multiplier but does not change how weighting works.
Weighting interacts with house edge. European roulette, with a single zero, has 37 pockets, so its house edge on standard bets is 1/37, about 2.70%. That is lower than most slots, which is precisely why casinos weight it down. A worked example with illustrative numbers:
| Illustrative: $3,500 of counted turnover required | Weighting | Actual stakes needed | House edge | Expected cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slot at 96.50% RTP | 100% | $3,500 | 3.50% | $122.50 |
| European roulette | 30% | $3,500 / 0.30 = $11,667 | 2.70% | about $315 |
| Game weighted at 0% | 0% | Cannot clear the requirement | n/a | n/a |
A lower house edge does not help if the weighting forces more than three times the stakes. The comparison that matters is house edge divided by weighting.
The clauses that change the maths
- Maximum bet rules. Many terms cap the stake per spin while a bonus is active, and breaching the cap can void winnings. The sibling article on the max bet rule covers this.
- Maximum cashout. A cap on what can be withdrawn from bonus winnings reduces the upside without reducing the expected cost.
- Expiry. A short deadline forces higher stakes or longer sessions to reach the turnover.
- Mixed-product offers. The UK Commission now prohibits incentives that mix products, giving "Bet £5 to get 20 free spins" as a non-compliant example where the bet is on one product and the spins on another. Offshore terms are not bound by that rule.
How offshore offers compare with the UK cap
When it consulted on the change, the UK Commission considered caps of 1x, 5x and 10x, and settled on 10x. It reported that some licensees applied requirements of up to 60 times the bonus, while one operator said 75% of its offers were already between 1x and 10x. The cap took effect on 19 January 2026, a later date than the 19 December 2025 originally announced.
Offshore casinos that accept Australian players are not covered by that rule or by any Australian equivalent. Under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 it is prohibited to offer online casino services to people in Australia; the Act does not make it an offence for an individual to play, but the ACMA warns that Australians using these services are not protected by Australian law if winnings are withheld. Nothing limits the multiplier or requires it to be calculated on the bonus alone. Using the arithmetic above, a player can convert any such offer into an expected cost before accepting it. The welcome bonus guide explains the other terms that usually come attached.
A five-step check before accepting any bonus
- Find the base: bonus only, or deposit plus bonus. Convert to a multiple of the bonus.
- Calculate the required turnover in dollars.
- Find the RTP of the game you would play in the game's info screen, and compute the house edge.
- Divide the house edge by the weighting for that game and multiply by the turnover. That is the expected cost.
- Compare the expected cost with the bonus amount, then check maximum bet, maximum cashout and expiry.
If the expected cost exceeds the bonus, declining it is a perfectly reasonable choice. A bonus is never a way to make money in expectation once the wagering exceeds the break-even multiplier.
If gambling is becoming hard to control, Gambling Help Online offers free, confidential support on 1800 858 858, and BetStop is the national self-exclusion register for licensed Australian wagering providers.
Questions readers ask
What does 35x wagering mean?
It means the base amount must be wagered 35 times before bonus winnings can be withdrawn. On a $100 bonus with wagering on the bonus only, that is $3,500 of bets.
How do I estimate the cost of a wagering requirement?
Multiply the required turnover by the game's house edge, which is 100% minus its RTP. For example, $3,500 at a 3.5% house edge has an expected cost of $122.50.
What is game weighting?
It is the share of each bet that counts towards the requirement. The UK Gambling Commission's example counts a £1 roulette bet at 30% weighting as 30p.
Is there a legal cap on wagering requirements?
In Great Britain, the Gambling Commission caps wagering at 10 times the bonus amount from 19 January 2026. No equivalent cap applies to offshore casinos serving Australians.
Sources
Every figure and date in this article comes from the documents below; we re-check them when a source changes.
- UK Gambling Commission: Gambling promotions to be safer and simpler
- UK Gambling Commission: Proposal 1, ban or limit the use of wagering requirements
- UK Gambling Commission: Socially responsible incentives, what operators need to know
- UK Gambling Commission: RTS 3, rules, game descriptions and the likelihood of winning
- Pragmatic Play: Gates of Olympus
- Pragmatic Play: Wolf Gold
- Hacksaw Gaming: Wanted Dead or a Wild
- ACMA: Latest illegal online gambling websites blocked
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