Read bonus terms before you play

A casino bonus is a headline number with conditions attached, and the conditions decide what the number is worth. This guide explains the terms that do most of the work, with the arithmetic shown, and uses real offers we have read in full to show how far apart two bonuses with similar headlines can be.

Two sets of rules apply, depending on the licence behind the site. Since 19 January 2026, a casino licensed by the Gambling Commission cannot set wagering above 10 times the bonus. Sites licensed elsewhere are not bound by that limit, and the offshore offers we examined in September 2026 asked for 30 to 40 times the deposit plus the bonus.

How wagering works

A wagering requirement is the total you must stake before bonus money, or the winnings from it, can be withdrawn. The Gambling Commission defines it as any requirement to make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable, whether expressed as a fixed sum or as a multiple of the deposit or the bonus.

The multiple is only half of the term. The other half is what it multiplies, and the terms state it in a phrase such as "bonus amount" or "deposit plus bonus". The same multiplier on a different base can double the total.

Stakes are not losses. The table shows how much money has to pass through the games, and the cost of that play depends on the house edge. At a 4% edge, £3,500 of slot play costs about £140 on average, which is more than the bonus is worth. That arithmetic is the reason high wagering matters even when the headline looks generous.

The 10x rule for British-licensed sites

The Gambling Commission announced the cap on 26 March 2025, and it took effect on 19 January 2026. Its licence conditions now say a licensee must not apply wagering requirements "which requires a customer to play through bonus funds, over a maximum of 10 times". The consultation response puts it more plainly: wagering "must not exceed 10 times the incentive amount".

The Commission gave its reasons in the same announcement. It said high multiples could confuse players and lead them to gamble for longer and faster than they are used to, and that some licensees had applied up to 60 times. Its own worked example is a £10 bonus at 50 times, which means £500 of play before the winnings can be withdrawn.

The same rule change banned mixed-product offers. A British-licensed site can no longer make a bonus depend on using two types of gambling, such as a casino bonus that unlocks only after a sports bet. The Commission's published examples are specific: "Bet £5 and get 20 free spins" is not allowed, while "Spend £5 on casino products and get 20 free spins" is.

Your deposit stays your money

At a British-licensed site, the deposit and the bonus are two separate balances. The Commission's guidance on fair terms, which adopts the Competition and Markets Authority's principles, says players must be told they can withdraw their deposit balance at any time, including when a bonus is active. It adds that the two balances must always be displayed separately and never shown as a single pot.

Those rules come from enforcement. In February 2018 the CMA secured formal commitments from Ladbrokes, William Hill and PT Entertainment that players would not have to play multiple times before withdrawing their own money, and the Gambling Commission told every licensee to make the same changes. The CMA said at the time that people could be made to play for longer than they had bargained for before being able to withdraw their own money.

What happens to the bonus when you withdraw is a separate question. Withdrawing cash while a bonus is active usually cancels the bonus and anything won with it, so the terms explain which balance each bet uses first.

The terms that matter most

Beyond wagering, 5 conditions decide how realistic a bonus is. Each one appears in the full terms rather than on the banner.

Game weighting multiplies the requirement quietly. The Commission's consultation response gives the example of roulette weighted at 30%, where each £1 staked counts as 30p. At that rate, £500 of wagering needs about £1,667 on the roulette table, and at a 10% weighting it needs £5,000. The Commission decided not to change the rules on weighting and said it expects the terms to be clear.

The maximum bet is the term most likely to cost a player a completed bonus. Velobet, Cosmobet and MyStake set it at €5 a spin in the offers we reviewed, and breaking it once is usually enough for the operator to void the bonus. At British-licensed sites, the online slots stake limit also applies to every spin: £5 from 9 April 2025, and £2 for players aged 18 to 24 from 21 May 2025.

What real offers look like

We read the full welcome terms of 6 offshore casinos in September 2026 for our sister site guides. None of them holds a Gambling Commission licence, so the 10x cap does not apply, and the comparison shows how much the terms below the headline change the value of an offer.

Rolletto shows what a short deadline does. A €100 first deposit earns a €150 bonus, and 40 times the €250 total means €10,000 in bets within 5 days, or about €2,000 a day. Velobet pays the same €150 on the same deposit, but at 30 times over 30 days the total is €7,500, or €250 a day. The first offer has the larger headline; the second is the one a normal player can complete.

Zizobet shows what a headline percentage hides. Its 550% applies only across 4 deposits in set bands, and the full €5,300 needs €3,800 in deposits. Four deposits of €100 earn €310 in bonus, and neither its offer pages nor its general terms stated a wagering multiplier when we read them. A missing figure is a finding in itself: you cannot work out the cost of a bonus whose wagering is not published.

Win caps and free spins

A win cap limits what a bonus can pay out, whatever the balance shows. The terms of Velobet, Rolletto, Cosmobet and Zizobet all cap withdrawable winnings from a deposit bonus at 10 times the deposit that activated it, so a €20 deposit can release at most €200 from its bonus. We found no rule from the Gambling Commission or the CMA that limits caps of this kind, which makes it a term to read at any site.

Free spins carry terms of their own. Check the value of each spin, which games they can be used on, when they expire, and whether winnings arrive as cash or as bonus money with wagering attached. Cosmobet's welcome spins, for example, are worth $0.10 each on 1 game and expire 24 hours after they are credited, and its full 1,000 spins need 4 deposits of €200 or more. MyStake's terms cap winnings from free spins and no-deposit offers at €100.

Before you accept an offer

1. Open the full terms
   The banner is a summary. At a British-licensed site the significant conditions must sit alongside the headline, and the full terms must be available before you sign up.
2. Find the base and the multiplier
   Multiply the right base by the multiplier to get the total stake, then divide by the days allowed to see what it asks of you each day.
3. Check weighting, the maximum bet and the win cap
   These three decide whether a completed bonus pays out, and they are the terms most often broken by accident.
4. Check who licenses the site
   A British licence brings the 10x cap and the deposit rules above. An offshore licence brings neither, and our licence guide shows how to check.
5. Decide whether you want it at all
   Bonuses are optional. Playing without one keeps your whole balance free to withdraw at any time.

Worth remembering

A bonus should never be the reason to deposit more than you planned. Set a budget first, then decide whether an offer fits it. If gambling stops feeling like entertainment, free and confidential support is on our safer play page.