Gambling Terms – Playthrough and Rollover

Two terms you often hear associated with online casino bonuses are playthrough and rollover. This refers to how much you have to play your bonus before you can cash it out. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Today, we will go over these important terms and all of the caveats you need to watch for when dealing with rollover at online casinos.

What is Playthrough or Rollover?

So a casino is offering you a 200% match bonus and 200 free spins to make your first deposit. That offer sounds amazing on paper, but have you checked the terms and conditions? The first thing you need to check when looking at a deposit is the playthrough requirement, also known as the rollover.

The playthrough is the number of times you have to wager a bonus before you’re allowed to cash out. For example, the aforementioned Welcome Bonus may offer a 40x rollover. This means you have to wager that bonus 40 times before you can cash it out.

Let’s look at it another way. You deposit $100 and get a $200 match bonus. You must then deposit that bonus 40 times. Simple math of $200 x 40 = $8,000. No, we aren’t kidding.

Furthermore, the free spins will also have a rollover. Often, the free spins rollover is lower, ranging from 10x to 25x. Sometimes it is the same as the bonus.

You need to read the terms and conditions carefully regarding the rollover. Some casinos will require that you roller both your deposit and your bonus before you can cash out. In our previous example, that would require you to wager $12,000 before you can cash out the $200 bonus.

Unfortunately, that’s not all you need to know regarding rollover. We haven’t even talked about the Wagering Requirements.

What Are Wagering Requirements?

The wagering requirement at Aussie online casinos is how much of each bet goes towards the playthrough. For example, if you bet $1 on pokies, then $1 is contributed toward the rollover. However, most games do not contribute 100%.

For example, blackjack may only contribute 15% toward the wagering requirement. Other tables games may not contribute anything whatsoever. Spin Samurai is a great example of this. Pokies generally contribute 100%, while all other games contribute nothing.

An example of wagering requirements at an online casino:

• The wagering requirement of 10x (ten times) the bonus must be met to convert the bonus funds or winnings to cash.
• The requirements specified above means that players have to wager 10x (ten times) the amount of the bonus before they can withdraw any funds or winnings, which will be noted under the player’s balance.
• Wagering requirements refer to the amount of money that is placed at stake during the betting process, relative to the amount of the bonus. This is also known as the amount of money “turned over”.
• Games will contribute differently to the wagering requirements:
  • Any Slot game 100%
  • Table Games: 25%, Roulette: 25%, Blackjack: 25%, and Video Poker: 25%.

Notice we say real money pokies generally contribute 100%. That’s because the site has an exclusion list for games that don’t contribute. Other sites have similar lists or they have lists of pokies that contribute at a reduced rate.

Be aware that when you go to pick a game, you will not receive a warning that it does not contribute to the wagering requirement. You’re expected to know this already. The only place to find this information is to read through the terms and conditions of the website, and sometimes that information is buried deep.

Next, all online casinos have a limit on how much you can bet per spin to clear your bonus. The maximum you can expect to bet on any spin is $5. However, some online casinos set the limit a lot lower, sometimes as low as $1.

What Happens If I Don’t Meet the Playthrough Requirements?

If you plan to play with a casino bonus, it is important that you meet the terms of the wagering requirement before you cash out. If you fail to do so, you will lose your bonus money and any winnings associated with that bonus.

There are various ways you can fail to meet the playthrough. The most common is trying to cash out before meeting the rollover. If this happens, in most cases your bonus is automatically voided. Some casinos will warn you, but most will just void your bonus.

Next, you can violate your playthrough by playing above the stated max wager. If the wagering requirement is set at $1 and you play a single spin at $1.50, you could void your entire bonus.

Also, there are some casinos that require that you only play certain games, or game types while you’re playing on a bonus. For example, if your bonus is for pokies only and you decide to play a few hands of online blackjack, you could void your bonus. Some casinos will simply not contribute anything toward the wagering requirement.

Finally, the second most common way to void your bonus is inactivity. All bonuses have a time limit and if you fail to complete the rollover before that time limit expires, your bonus is voided. Time limits vary based on the casino and the rollover type. For example, free spins may have a time limit of 24 hours to 3 days. Match bonuses will have a time limit from 7 to 30 days.