Wagering Requirements Explained: How They Work and What They Cost

The figures are averages over many bets. A single session can end well above or well below them, and nothing in the calculator predicts your result. Its job is to turn an offer’s terms into pounds, so you can see what you are being asked to do before you accept.

The cost estimate multiplies the amount you stake by the house edge, which is 100% minus the game’s return to player (RTP). Each slot publishes its own RTP in its information screen; our guide to how slot machines work explains what that figure means.

Casinos attach wagering requirements so that a bonus cannot simply be deposited and withdrawn. The money has to be played through first. The higher the multiple, the more you have to bet, and the longer you are likely to keep playing.

That is exactly the concern the Gambling Commission raised. Its example was a £10 bonus with a 50 times wagering requirement, which requires £500 of play.^{1 (source)} The Commission said such high requirements could confuse consumers and keep them gambling for longer than they planned, which led to the cap described below.

A bonus is never free money. It is a discount with conditions, and the conditions have a cost. Reading them before accepting an offer, and declining an offer whose terms do not suit you, are both perfectly sensible choices.

The base makes a big difference. A requirement of 10x deposit plus bonus on a £50 deposit with a £50 bonus means £1,000 of bets, twice as much as 10x the bonus alone. Under the current British rule the cap is measured against the incentive amount,^{2 (source)} so an offer to players in Great Britain should state its requirement in terms of the bonus.

Deadlines matter too. £500 of wagering over 30 days is about £17 a day; over 7 days it is about £71 a day. If the daily figure is more than you would normally stake, the offer is pushing you to play more than you planned.

The Commission announced both changes on 26 March 2025, after consulting on caps of 1x, 5x and 10x.^{2 (source)} The changes were first due on 19 December 2025 and came into force on 19 January 2026.^{1 (source)} They apply to all Commission licences, including ancillary remote licences, except gaming machine technical and software licences.^{2 (source)}

The mixed-product ban rests on the Commission’s evidence that people are more at risk of harm when they gamble on several products rather than one.^{3 (source)} An offer that gives you general credit to spend on whatever you choose, such as £10 of credit, is still permitted, and so is a bonus that includes more than one product of the same type.^{3 (source)}

The cap applies to operators licensed by the Gambling Commission. An offer with 35x or 50x wagering aimed at players in Great Britain is a sign that the site may not be licensed here; our guide on how to check a UK gambling licence shows how to confirm it.

Operators weight games because the house edge differs from game to game. Blackjack played to basic strategy has an edge of around half a percent, while many slots keep several percent. If every game counted in full, a player could clear wagering on the lowest-edge game at very little cost. Our house edge guide compares the games.

Weighting changes the amount you need to stake, not the requirement itself. At 10x on a £20 bonus you owe £200 of wagering; on a game that counts 10%, that takes £2,000 of bets. Always check the weighting table for the game you actually intend to play.

Many offers also cap the stake you can place while a bonus is active, and some cap how much you can win from it. Those terms sit alongside the wagering figure and are just as important. If an offer’s key terms are not visible before you accept, that is a reason to walk away.

This is why the 10x cap matters. Under the old 50x example, a £10 bonus needed £500 of bets, which costs about £20 on average at 96% RTP: twice the value of the bonus. At 10x, the same bonus needs £100 of bets and costs about £4 on average, leaving some of the bonus value intact.

Averages hide the swings. A short session might end with nothing left, or with a win much larger than the bonus. The average only tells you which way the maths leans over a large number of bets. Our safer gambling page has tools for setting limits before you play.

Wager-free offers are simpler to judge, but they still have terms. Common ones include a qualifying deposit and stake, a limited choice of games, an expiry date for the spins and a cap on how much the spins can win. A maximum win of £30 on 200 spins, for example, limits the offer’s value however lucky the spins are.

When you compare offers, convert each one into the same terms: what you must deposit, what you must stake, by when, and what you can take out at most. The headline number of spins or the size of the match tells you very little on its own.

To see current UK offers in these terms, our UK casino comparison lists the licensed UK sites. 18+