A wagering requirement is the total you must stake with bonus money before that bonus, and anything it wins, can be withdrawn as cash. It is set as a multiple of the bonus, and at casinos licensed by the Gambling Commission the multiple stops at 10x, which means a £25 bonus asks for no more than £250 of bets.
The cap limits the multiple, not how much each game counts towards it. At a 10% game weighting the same £250 takes £2,500 of real stakes, and on a slot that returns 96.71% to players, £250 of wagering costs £8.23 on average.
How Wagering Requirements Work
A wagering requirement works as a countdown: each qualifying stake placed from your bonus balance comes off a target, and the bonus converts to withdrawable cash when the target reaches zero. The target is the multiple times the amount it applies to, so 10x on a £25 bonus starts the count at £250.
Stakes count whether they win or lose. William Hill‘s help centre gives the example of a £5 bonus at 10x: a £1 stake leaves £49 of the £50 target, whatever that spin returns. Winnings made on the way stay in the bonus balance until the target is met, then move to your main balance.
If the bonus balance runs dry before the target is met, nothing is left to convert, which means the offer ends at £0 rather than at a withdrawal.
Bonus, Spin Winnings or Deposit: What the Multiple Applies To
On a match bonus, the multiple applies to the bonus funds. When free spins carry wagering, the terms name the base, and where it is the winnings credited as bonus funds, the stake value of the spins does not count: 50 spins at 10p carry £5 of stake value, and if they return £8 of bonus funds with 10x wagering, the target is £80, 10 times the £8. Spins that return nothing leave nothing to wager.
Your own deposit sits outside the requirement. The Gambling Commission’s guidance on fair terms says wagering requirements must not apply to play with your deposit balance, that the deposit and bonus balances must be shown separately, and that you can withdraw your deposit balance at any time, even while a bonus is active.
Measured against the cap, a deposit plus bonus formula overshoots. On a £25 deposit and a £25 bonus, 10x of both is £500 of wagering, 20 times the bonus and twice the ceiling in the Commission’s consultation response, which limits wagering to 10 times the incentive amount.
The 10x Wagering Cap: What Changed on 19 January 2026
Since 19 January 2026, casinos licensed by the Gambling Commission cannot set a wagering requirement above 10 times the bonus. The rule sits in Social Responsibility Code 5.1.1 of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), and its start date moved back a month, from 19 December 2025, before it took effect.
The Commission announced the cap on 26 March 2025, after a consultation that tested caps of 1x, 5x and 10x against a full ban. Its response noted that some licensees applied up to 60 times, which means a £25 bonus could have carried £1,500 of wagering. At 10x the same bonus carries £250, a sixth of that old maximum.
The ban on mixed-product offers started on the same day: one offer can no longer mix two or more of betting, casino, bingo and lottery, although a bonus you can spend freely on any product type is still allowed. A Commission blog for operators in December 2025 marks “Bet £5 to get 20 free spins” as non-compliant and “Spend £5 on casino products and get 20 free spins” as compliant. SR code 5.1.1 also bars a casino from altering or increasing a reward because you reach the qualifying spend in less time than the full offer period.
| Term | What the GB rules say |
|---|---|
| Wagering multiple | 10 times the bonus at most (SR code 5.1.1, from 19 January 2026) |
| Two or more of betting, casino, bingo and lottery in one offer | Banned, except credit you can spend on any product type (SR code 5.1.1, from 19 January 2026) |
| Bonus terms | Clear, transparent, fair and readily accessible (SR code 5.1.1) |
| Your deposit balance | Withdrawable at any time, and no wagering on play with it (Commission guidance on fair terms) |
| Stake per game cycle on online slots | £5 from age 25, £2 from 18 to 24 (licence condition, from 9 April and 21 May 2025) |
| Game weighting | Not fixed: in March 2025 the Commission saw no need to review weighting rules at that time |
| Expiry period | Not fixed in SR code 5.1.1: each offer sets its own |
| Cap on bonus winnings | Not fixed in SR code 5.1.1: each offer sets its own |
What a 10x Wagering Requirement Costs on Average
On average, 10x wagering on a £25 bonus costs £8.23 on Big Bass Bonanza, a third of the bonus. Pragmatic Play publishes the slot’s return to player (RTP) as 96.71%, which means its house edge is 3.29%: the game keeps 3.29p of every £1 staked over the long run, and £250 × 3.29% is £8.23.
| Multiple | Wagering on a £25 bonus | Average lost while wagering (96.71% RTP) | Share of the bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10x, the cap since 19 January 2026 | £250 | £8.23 | 33% |
| 40x | £1,000 | £32.90 | 132% |
| 50x, the multiple in the Commission’s £10 example | £1,250 | £41.13 | 165% |
| 60x, the highest the Commission found in use | £1,500 | £49.35 | 197% |
The crossover is 1 divided by the house edge: 1 ÷ 3.29% is about 30x for a 96.71% slot. Below that multiple, the average cost of wagering is smaller than the bonus; above it, larger. At 60x, the wagering cost almost £2 on average for every £1 of bonus. The 10x cap sits below the crossover on any slot that returns more than 90%.
How RTP Changes the Cost of 10x Wagering
RTP moves the cost as much as the multiple does. At the 10x cap, on a £25 bonus:
| Slot RTP | Average lost on £250 of wagering | Share of the £25 bonus | Crossover multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97% | £7.50 | 30% | 33.3x |
| 96% | £10.00 | 40% | 25x |
| 94% | £15.00 | 60% | 16.7x |
| 92% | £20.00 | 80% | 12.5x |
| 90% | £25.00 | 100% | 10x |
A 90% slot takes the whole £25 on average, even at the cap, so check the RTP in the game’s information screen at your casino before you count on a figure. These are long-run averages, not forecasts: a single bonus can run out long before the target or finish it above £25, and a cap on bonus winnings trims the top end.
Game Weighting: How 10x Wagering Becomes £2,500 of Stakes
Game weighting sets the share of each stake that counts towards the target, which means £250 of wagering takes £250 of real stakes at 100%, £500 at 50% and £2,500 at 10%. A game weighted at 0% never moves the target.
William Hill’s help centre shows how far weighting splits inside one game type. Its Stake and Get promotions count slots and all live roulette at 100%, and live blackjack, live baccarat and live craps at 50%. We counted 13 named games at 10% and 37 at 0%.
| Weighting | Games (William Hill Stake and Get, November 2026) | Real stakes for £250 of wagering |
|---|---|---|
| 100% | Slots and all live roulette | £250 |
| 50% | Live blackjack, live baccarat and live craps | £500 |
| 10% | 13 named games, including Multihand Blackjack, Casino Hold ‘Em and First Person Craps | £2,500 |
| 0% | 37 named games, including Roulette (RNG), Classic Roulette and Baccarat | Never counts |
Weighting follows the version, not the game. Live roulette counts in full, while 35 of the 37 zero-weighted titles are roulette games, Roulette (RNG) and Classic Roulette among them. The same page excludes low-risk chip coverage: covering 25 or more numbers on roulette (26 or more on American roulette), or both sides on baccarat, Dragon Tiger or Football Studio, adds nothing to the target.
When it set the cap, the Gambling Commission chose not to add weighting rules. Its March 2025 response said it saw no need to review weighting rules at that time, that it would keep the impact under review, and that it could act if weightings changed in a way that had a considerable impact on customers. At the same RTP, halving the weighting doubles the stakes and so doubles the average cost: a 96.71% game counted at 50% costs £16.45 on average to clear £250, against £8.23 at 100%.
How to Calculate a Wagering Requirement Before You Opt In
Multiply the bonus by the multiple, divide by your game’s weighting, then divide by your stake to see how many bets the target takes. On a £25 bonus at 10x, played on a 100% slot at 20p a spin, that is £250 and 1,250 spins.
- Read the multiple and its base in the offer’s terms: the bonus amount, or the spin winnings.
- Multiply them: £25 × 10 = £250 of wagering.
- Divide by the weighting of the game you plan to play. On a 100% slot the real stakes stay at £250; on a game counted at 50% they double to £500.
- Divide the real stakes by your bet size: £250 ÷ 20p = 1,250 spins on the 100% slot.
- Set the count against the expiry. GB technical standards require at least 2.5 seconds per slot game cycle, so 1,250 spins take at least 52 minutes.
- Price it: real stakes × house edge. £250 × 3.29% = £8.23 on Big Bass Bonanza at 100% weighting, as a long-run average.
Even a 10x requirement is easy to misjudge. In a Swansea University study of 585 people who had gambled in the past year, reported by SBC News in April 2026, more than 90% underestimated what a 150% match on a £50 deposit with 10x wagering required. The answer is £750, 10 times the £75 bonus. The median answer was £500, which is the multiple applied to the deposit instead.
If the stakes or the time do not fit your budget, leave the bonus unclaimed. Your deposit balance carries no wagering either way.
Bonus Terms That Decide What You Can Withdraw
The multiple sets the target, and five other terms decide what a bonus leaves you. Each example below comes from William Hill’s help centre, to show how the terms read in practice.
| Term | What it does to your money | How William Hill words it |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus period | Bonus funds left when the period ends are lost | The target must be met within the bonus period, or the bonus funds are deleted automatically |
| Payment order | Only the part of a stake paid from bonus funds counts | Stakes come from any buy-in balance first, then the bonus balance, then the main balance; main-balance stakes do not reduce the target |
| Cap on bonus funds | Limits what converts to cash | Bonus funds transfer subject to any maximum withdrawal amount in the promotion terms |
| Balance floor | Deletes a small leftover balance | With a 20p floor, a 50p balance staked on one spin that returns 15p leaves 15p, which is deleted |
| Cashing in early | Ends the bonus | Using Cash in my Bonus before the target is met cancels the bonus funds |
Two GB rules sit on top of any offer’s terms. Online slots have a legal maximum stake of £5 per game cycle from age 25 and £2 from 18 to 24, and the licence condition makes no exception for bonus play. And the Commission’s guidance requires every restricted type of play under a promotion to be listed specifically in the terms, with no clause that leaves the decision to the casino’s sole discretion.
Can You Beat Wagering Requirements?
No: the average cost of wagering is the amount wagered times the game’s house edge, so no staking pattern lowers it. Bigger or smaller stakes change the swings, not the average.
What you can compare is the target before you opt in: the multiple, the weightings and RTPs of the games you play, and the expiry. Offers paid as cash remove the target entirely, and our no wagering casinos page compares them. The casino welcome bonuses page covers sign-up offers that carry wagering.
If a bonus asks for more play than you planned, skip it and keep to your own limits.
Wagering Requirements FAQs
It means bets totalling 40 times the bonus before it becomes cash: £1,000 on a £25 bonus. Gambling Commission licensees have not been able to set it since 19 January 2026, when the 10x cap began. On a 96.71% RTP slot, £1,000 of wagering costs £32.90 on average, more than the bonus itself.
Only when the cashback arrives as bonus funds. William Hill’s help centre says percentage-back offers credit either cash or bonus funds, as each promotion’s terms specify, and that a bonus credit will usually have wagering attached. Cashback paid as cash lands in your main balance with no requirement; our cashback casinos page compares UK offers.
18+. Gamble responsibly. For free, confidential support, contact GamCare (National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133, 24/7), read the NHS guide to gambling addiction or see the Gambling Commission’s list of organisations that can help.