By Samantha Williams
There are three considerations to be taken into account when taking advantage of online casinos bonuses. Terms and conditions for these bonuses include more than just the fact that wagering requirements must be met. It is important to calculate the cost in order to know what the player is in for when they make their first deposit or take advantage of no-deposit bonuses. These considerations are:
- Wagering requirements
- Game contributing percentage
- The house edge of a particular game.
Wagering Requirements – These are the requirements that all depositors must meet and this is generally expressed in terms of 20 x, 30 x, 40 x or even more on turnover. For example William Hill Casino asks for 20 x turnover, while Bodog asks for 40x. The wagering requirements on turnover may be different for sign up bonus and reload amounts, and VIP’s who have been using online casino bonuses may be offered better terms than a noobie. The average is 20 – 40 x, but some of the less reliable casino websites may even ask for more. These can work out to be rather costly if the player does not take care.
Game Contributing Percentage – this is an amount which each game played contributes to the wagering requirement overall, different games have different values and some have no value toward these requirements at all. It pays to think of it sort of like a multiplier, so, if a game has a 50% contribution regarding wagering, twice as much needs to be spent to meet the full wagering requirements.
Some games are covered 100%, and it pays to find out at the site what games to play to meet full turnover as cost effectively as possible. Top casinos online will provide lists of what values belong with each game. For example – in the most part – slots games contributing percentage is 100%, so the wagering requirement is simple to calculate. It becomes more complicated with games such as roulette, baccarat, blackjack and others – you are looking at mostly contributing percentages of 50% or less. A good example would be Microgaming blackjack where the contributing percentage towards wagering requirements is only 8%. It gets complex as it varies from game to game, as well as casino to casino.
House Edge – this has an effect, but is a slightly different concept. House edge is how the online casino makes their long term profit, it factors into calculating the cost of bonuses in relatively simple terms. The house will take for example 2% on roulette, and make an overall profit of 2%, which is also factored into wagering requirements. In blackjack the house edge can be less than 1%, but in some of the worst wager cases, house edge can be more than 50%.
