What is a play-through requirement or rollover at online casinos?
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Have you wondered if online casino offers promising “free money” are too good to be true? As they say, nothing in life is truly “free.”
In today’s world of online casinos, terms such as play-through requirement, rollover requirement, and wagering requirement are seemingly everywhere. But what do they mean, and how do they impact your user experience?
We’re here to answer any questions and concerns you may have regarding play-through requirements, as they’re not as difficult to understand as you may think.
To start, play-through, rollover, and wagering requirements are all the same thing. Different casinos just prefer to use a different term. For the sake of this piece, the term in focus is “play through.”
The simplest way of describing a play-through requirement is that it’s the amount of money you must wager before you’re able to withdraw your bonus funds in the form of real cash.
If you get a $50 bonus with a 1x play-through, you just need to wager $50 before the bonus becomes cash. If it’s a 2x rollover, you need to wager $100.
Bonus funds cannot be withdrawn on their own after being credited to your account. If they let their customers withdraw their bonus funds instantly after being credited, casinos would be losing money quickly -- and they’re not in the business of losing money.
That’s why practically every mobile casino makes you wager through your funds a certain amount of times before you’re able to withdraw them. How much your play-through requirement is depends on the casino you’re using.
It should also be noted that certain casino deposit match welcome bonuses contain play-through requirements. Some requirements include both your deposit amount as well as the funds your casino matched. That’s why it always pays to read your offer’s terms and conditions when registering.
Play-through requirements can be as low as 1X on certain casinos. Some casinos will have a much higher play-through requirement, such as 20X.
If your casino has a 1X play-through requirement, that means if you have $100 in bonus funds, you have to bet $100 total in order to be able to withdraw whatever amount is left in cash.
If your casino has a 20X play through requirement on a $100 bonus, that means you must wager $2,000 before being able to withdraw anything. And by that time, you’ll probably lose the $100.
Different types of casino games will also have different requirements. You could come across different amounts for slot machines than you do on table games.
Ultimately, it pays to read your welcome offer’s terms and conditions fully before committing to making your initial deposit. You can find out all the specific requirements your casino has to make sure you fully know what you’re getting into when redeeming an online casino bonus code or promotion.
You can also come across wagering requirements on daily fantasy sports platforms such as Underdog Fantasy, as deposit matches are the primary welcome bonus you’ll come across on those types of sites.
The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.
