It’s boring, it’s annoying, but when you sign up for a gambling bonus, whether it’s a bonus bet, a free bet, or free spins on slots, you need to always read the full bonus offer.
Because what can stop you from withdrawing bonus bet winnings?
More often than not, it’s failing to adhere to one or more of these conditions:
- You’ve not cleared the wagering requirements
- You’ve broken a max bet
- You’ve broken a game rule
- There’s a maximum withdrawal limit
- Your casino account details aren’t correct
We examine each potential infraction and explain how to overcome the obstacles to withdrawing your casino bonus wins.
When can bonus money be withdrawn?
You can withdraw bonus money when you’ve fulfilled the necessary qualified terms for the bonus. Online casino bonuses are never without some restrictions: after all, casinos rarely give out free cash. If that’s what you want, you’ll need to head to a cash point.
We look at some of the T&Cs that could be stopping you from withdrawing winnings from a bonus bet in order of the most likely to cause a problem to the least likely.
1. You clear the Wagering Requirements
What is a wagering requirement? It’s an amount the casino sets against the bonus to ensure that you play the bonus money back into the casino.
For example. Say you get a free bet of £€$10 with a wagering requirement of 30x. You’ll have to play the £€$10 x 30, or £€$300 in bets. Once you do, whatever is left over is how much you can withdraw in bonus bet winnings.
You generally get the wagering requirement on the bonus only or the total bonus and deposit amount. The first is best as it generally is a lower amount to play through.
What you want to try and find is a casino bonus, like the Casumo Casino UK bonus, that allows you to withdraw your winnings if you’ve only played with the deposit amount only.
If you are in doubt, use our casino wagering calculator to figure out how many bets you’ll need to make to clear the wagering of any casino bonus online.
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2. You don’t go over the Max Cashout Amount
This is a sneaky T&Cs, more often than not associated with no deposit bonuses and freBest Mobile Casino Free Spins Bonusese spins. Why? Because you get something for nothing, so if you win something, the casino doesn’t want to end up with nothing.
Get it?
A max cashout rule is the maximum amount you cash out from a bonus, even if you do clear the wagering requirements.
In other words, say you play £€$300 worth of bets but win big and have £€$350 in winnings. If the max cashout is only £€$100, the casino won’t let you withdraw your winnings. You’ll have to lower your cashout amount and forfeit the remaining wins.
This term is rare, especially if you play on a deposit bonus, but it could easily stop you from withdrawing winnings from a free bet.
3. You play the correct bet amount
So here is something online casinos don’t want you to know: if you want to clear the wagering requirements (there’s that word again), the bigger your bet, the higher your chances.
Now, this isn’t always the best strategy. It’s also a quick way to burn through a bonus quickly.
Let’s take our original example. If you place a $1 bet and win $100, you can use that $100 to clear the $300 wagering far more easily than you could if you had only won $10 from a $0.10 bet.
It’s why some casinos put max bet amounts; for example, a max amount of $5 or 0.50 a line bet on a video slot or a $10 bet on table games. If you bet over, those bets won’t count to clearing the wagering
This should only affect the high-risk, volatile-slot-loving gamblers, but it is good to know about.
4. You play the right casino games to clear the wagering
We weren’t kidding when we said the wagering requirements are 90% of the problem. And part of that problem is that not all casino games are created equally.
Always check which games you can play with the casino bonus to clear the wagering. Some video slots may be excluded; you often can’t clear it using table games at all.
Ask yourself, how much does each game I play contribute to the wagering requirements? Every casino is different, but for the most part, it will look something like this:
- Slots or Scratchcards (unless stated otherwise): 100%
- Video Poker and Online Table Games: 10%
- Live Table Games: Excluded or 10%
- All-wheel game variants: 50%
- All other Instant Win Games: 100%
Again, if you can’t withdraw your winnings from a bonus bet, you may not have cleared the wagering because you were playing Video Poker or Table Games.
Why? Because a £1 bet on a video slot will clear £1 of the wagering, but the same £1 on live table game will only clear 0.10 of the wagering.
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5. Your account information is correct on the casino account
You are sure you’ve cleared the wagering and followed all the rules. You press the withdraw button, and you somehow still wonder why you can’t withdraw bonus winnings from an online casino.
Maybe the question isn’t “Can you withdraw bonus winnings?” but can you withdraw anything at all?
The problem may not be with the bonus or the casino but with the information you’ve given them. Maybe you’ve created multiple accounts and used up multiple bonuses. Maybe your credit card information doesn’t match the address you gave when you registered.
If you are wondering why, take a look at our top 5 reasons why you can’t withdraw from online casinos rather than focus on the bonus.
Play with a casino bonus that gives you a fair chance
Look, there will always be some terms and conditions for all casino bonuses online. The trick is to look beyond the welcome bonus and what you get for sticking around the casino.
For example, the All British Casino Bonus comes with a fairly high 35x wagering requirement. But afterwards, you get 10% cash back on all your lost bets with no wagering requirements. Ever. That’s actual free cash back.
Or Rizk casino, who does the fairly controversial thing of not always giving you a welcome bonus (depending on where in the world you play), but afterwards, as you play, you level up and get no wagering free spins and bonuses in their loyalty program.
And with no wagering requirements comes very few withdrawal problems.
You know what to do.