When you get free play from casinos, or casino bonuses, attached to them is a playthrough requirement, sometimes known as a wagering requirement. The idea is you have to play through that bonus some number of times. In-person casino free play tends to require that you play through it once, and whatever you have after doing so is cash – you can keep playing, or cash it out.
Online it’s more complicated. Different types of bonuses have different types of requirements against them – deposit bonuses tend to have a higher playthrough requirement than a lossback rebate, for instance. And the terms of offers can differ between casinos, and occasionally even within the same casino.
That leads us to today’s question:
What about sites that have wager requirements before you’re allowed to withdraw your money? I know of online casinos that if you deposit $200 you’re not allowed to withdraw any money until you’ve bet at least $200 others have a 3X wager requirement. Worse is you get a deposit bonus, you can only play certain slots with the bonus, and must wager 40X to convert the bonus to real cash balance including your original deposit. Is this a sign of not being a legit online casino?
Tara K.
The specific terms themselves are probably not enough to evaluate whether an online casino is fair and regulated. But we think they’re fair game to compare and contrast to determine which site is the best for your own play purposes.
The transparency of this information before you accept an offer is a wonderful reason why online slots tend to be a step above physical casinos, where oftentimes you don’t know what it takes to earn a tier credit or comp dollar, or what the payback on a slot is. To the latter, online slots tend to share that information as well, and you can compare the payback of the same game on different online casinos.
As far as fair and regulated goes, the best way to evaluate that is two ways. One is whether the online casino is licensed in the various states in the U.S. that regulates online casinos. The second is to check out trusted third-party review sites like the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot to see the types of issues that are being raised, and also if the online casino is replying and working to resolve the issues.
Issues happen, but the types of issues and the types of responses can help you decide as a consumer if that’s a site you wish to spend your money. That, along with those transparent things like playthrough requirements and slot payback percentages, can help you identify which site you think will be best for you.
And, if you’re new to a site, be sure to look for those online casino bonuses upon sign-up so you can get off on the right foot.
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