Wagering, worked through

The arithmetic

A wagering requirement is a turnover target. The bonus amount is multiplied by the stated multiple, and the result is the amount that must pass through bets before any part of the bonus balance becomes withdrawable. One hundred at forty times is four thousand. Two hundred at sixty times is twelve thousand.

That product is the only number that makes two offers comparable. Headline amounts cannot be compared at all, because a larger headline with a larger multiple is strictly more work for the same outcome.

The clause that doubles it quietly

Whether the multiple applies to the bonus alone or to deposit plus bonus. The same headline multiple produces double the turnover requirement under the second form, and the two are written in almost identical language. This is the single most common way a player misjudges an offer.

Three clauses that change the answer

• Game weighting. Slots typically count in full towards the target; live tables often count at a fraction, meaning the same turnover clears far less of it.
• Maximum stake while a bonus is active. Usually a small figure, and exceeding it can void the bonus and everything won with it.
• Expiry. A target that cannot be reached inside the window is a target that does not exist, and the window is often shorter than the size of the target implies.

What turnover actually costs

Passing money through bets is not free, because each pass meets the house edge. A turnover target therefore has an expected cost even when the play is entirely ordinary, and that cost is what makes a large multiple worse than a small headline difference suggests.

The alternative

A rebate. A fixed fraction of turnover returned without conditions has no multiple, no cap and no expiry, so its value is computable before accepting it. For a player who plays regularly it is almost always the better arithmetic.

More on how any of this works

The rest of how any of this works is below, each page built around one question rather than around a template. The reasoning behind the order of every list here is on the method page, the twelve entries are in the casino index, and the arithmetic that all of it rests on is in the learn section.