One of the biggest advantages of playing at online casinos is the availability of numerous bingo and slot bonuses to claim. These bonuses serve as cash for you to play slots and other games without having to deposit your own money. And more interesting is that you can win real money while playing with these bonuses.
However, online slots sites make use of their terms and conditions to ensure that they don’t make losses after giving you bonuses. One of the terms they implore is the playthrough requirement or simply playthrough. It helps keep the player committed to the site even after using the bonus.
How does playthrough work?
Also called wagering requirement, the playthrough is an amount of money you must play slots with before you can cash out whatever you win from the bonus. You must “play through” that amount of money before you can withdraw.
It can also be defined as how many times you must wager the bonus, the deposit amount, or both before you can withdraw.
The playthrough usually comes as a multiple of the bonus amount. For example, the playthrough of a casino bonus could be set as 30x. If you get a bonus of £20 on a site, you must wager £600 (30 x £20). This is when the playthrough does not include the deposit amount.
When it includes the deposit amount, you will have to multiply the playthrough by the bonus amount and deposit amount. Let’s say the deposit amount in the previous example is £10. You will have to wager 30 x (£20 + £10) = £900.
Other conditions related to Playthrough
Even though the playthrough can be taken as the most important requirement in the bonus terms and conditions, there are other terms to look out for. Here they are:
- Minimum qualifying deposit amount
- The maximum and minimum bet
- The maximum winnings
- Bonus expiry date
- Wagering contribution
The most related terms to the playthrough are the bonus expiry date and the wagering contribution of games. When it comes to slot bonuses, the expiry date matters more. It does not only determine how long your bonus will be valid for but also how convenient it will be for you to meet the playthrough requirement.
Some bonuses may even have huge playthroughs with very close expiry dates. In these situations, it could be almost impossible to fulfil the playthrough requirement.
On the other hand, the wagering contribution is the bet percentage a game contributes towards the wagering requirement. However, as we have earlier stated, the wagering contribution is quite negligible when it comes to slot bonuses. This is because, with many casino bonuses, all the slots usually contribute the same percentage to the playthrough. And in most cases, they contribute 100%. Nevertheless, it pays to check the terms and conditions and see if they contribute lesser
Last thoughts
It doesn’t matter whether you choose to call it playthrough or wagering requirement. What matters is understanding it so that you can choose bonuses rightly. Generally, it is advisable to always go for slot bonuses with low playthroughs. This will always make it easier to meet the requirement within the bonus validity period.
