Casino bonuses and what they cost in turnover

The multiple is the whole offer

Every bonus has a wagering requirement expressed as a multiple, and that multiple is the offer. A hundred dollars with a thirty times requirement means three thousand dollars has to be staked before the balance can leave, and whether the multiple applies to the bonus alone or to the bonus plus the deposit changes the figure substantially. The arithmetic is worth doing on paper rather than in your head, because the result is usually larger than it feels. The headline number on the advertisement describes what arrives. The multiple describes what you have to do with it, and only the second one tells you anything useful.

The window, the cap and the maximum stake

Three further clauses decide whether a requirement is achievable at all. The first is the window: the number of days available to complete the turnover, after which the bonus and anything attached to it is forfeited. The second is the cap on withdrawals from bonus funds, which can mean that a large win on bonus money is paid only up to a stated figure. The third is the maximum stake permitted while a bonus is active, which exists to stop the requirement being cleared quickly and can void the balance if it is breached. Any one of the three can make an attractive multiple irrelevant.

• Find the completion window in days and check it against how often you actually play.
• Find the maximum that can be withdrawn from bonus winnings, which may be a flat figure.
• Find the maximum stake allowed while a bonus is active, and the penalty for exceeding it.
• Check whether a withdrawal request cancels the bonus and any winnings from it.
• Check whether the bonus is forfeited if you deposit again before clearing it.

Nobody in Australia is reading these terms for you

With a licensed Australian wagering operator there is a regulator behind the licence, and the operator's conduct is subject to obligations somebody else enforces. Online casino bonuses sit outside that entirely. No online casino holds an Australian licence, the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits offering those games here while leaving play outside the offence, and the Gaming and Wagering Commission of Western Australia regulates gambling in this state rather than a website run from elsewhere. The consequence is specific rather than rhetorical: if a bonus clause is applied in a way you consider unfair, the document is the only authority, and reading it beforehand is the only remedy.

• No Australian licence means no Australian conduct standard applies to the bonus terms.
• The Western Australian regulator has no remit over an offshore casino's promotions.
• BetStop covers licensed Australian online wagering and does not reach online casinos.
• Save a dated copy of the terms you relied on, because they can be revised later.
• Treat the operator's own dispute clause as the only process available.

A short way to price any offer

A bonus can be reduced to one question: how much turnover does this credit require, and would I have staked that much anyway. If the answer is yes, the bonus is worth having on its conditions. If the answer is no, accepting it converts a decision about how much to gamble into an obligation to gamble more, which is the opposite of what the advertisement suggests. The calculation takes a minute and needs no expertise: multiply, compare against your own figure for the month, and decline anything that would push the second number up to satisfy the first.

1. Write down the credit, the multiple and whether the deposit is included.
2. Multiply to get the turnover required, in dollars, on paper.
3. Compare that figure against the amount you had already decided to spend.
4. If the requirement is larger, decline the offer rather than raising your own figure.
5. If you accept, note the deadline on a calendar rather than trusting memory.

Promotions on the licensed side, briefly

Promotions from bookmakers licensed in an Australian state or territory are a different category with its own rules, and they are not the subject of this page, but the distinction is worth stating so the two are not merged. Those operators are licensed, their promotional conduct is regulated by the authority that issued the licence, their terms carry a complaint path, and they are covered by BetStop. A reader comparing a casino bonus with a wagering promotion is comparing an unregulated offer with a regulated one, and the difference is not in the headline figure.