Terms and Conditions
Even the best UK casino bonuses come with potentially restrictive terms and conditions attached. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the main stipulations so you’ll know what to look out for when claiming an offer. That way, you’ll avoid being surprised by restrictions on your winnings once you’ve started.
Check out some of the most common conditions attached to casino offers below.
Wagering Requirements
One of the main conditions applied to casino offers are wagering requirements, sometimes known as playthrough requirements. Before you can withdraw any bonus cash, you’ll usually have to wager the value of your bonus, and sometimes the bonus plus the value of your initial deposit, a certain number of times. The concept can be a little tricky to get your head around at first, so let’s go through it.
Let’s say that you take up a £100 casino offer with a 30x wagering requirement. To meet the terms of the bonus, you’ll have to place £3,000 in wagers in order to withdraw anything you win with the bonus funds.
Wagering requirements are applied differently to free spins. Instead of using the value of the bonus credit, the wagering requirements are multiplied by your free spins winnings. For example, if you won £10 with your free spins at 35x wagering, you would need to wager £350 to make a withdrawal of your bonus cash.
Fulfilling steeper wagering terms is out of reach of most players, so it’s worth looking out for lower requirements. That said, casino offers are still a great opportunity to try out new sites and games, even if you don’t end up withdrawing any bonus cash.
Time Limits
Most casino offers are only valid for a certain amount of time, so when claiming rewards you’ll need to use them up within the stated period. Time limits also apply to wagering requirements — if you don’t wager enough within the time period, you’ll forfeit any winnings from your bonus and won’t be able to withdraw them.
Fulfilling wagering requirements is already costly and time-consuming, but time limits make the process more challenging still. Nevertheless, many online casinos give players a good amount of time — such as 30 days — to play through the bonus at their own speed.
Game Restrictions
Online casino bonuses are typically aimed at specific games across the site. Welcome offers are a good example: casinos may offer players a certain number of free spins that can only be used on selected titles. Often, there will only be one or two eligible slots included in the promotion, but casinos will generally choose high-ranking, popular games that will attract new players, such as NetEnt’s Starburst or Play’n GO’s Book of Dead.
Matched deposit bonuses are generally a little more flexible than free spins when it comes to game restrictions. For example, you may be able to use your bonus credit on any table games, slots, or bingo games. If you’re lucky, the offer may be valid for use on any game across the site.
Game restrictions apply to wagering requirements in a slightly different way. While slots wagers will usually contribute 100% to the requirements, table games with a low house edge like blackjack and roulette often only contribute 10% or less.
Win Limits
Another common condition that applies to online casino offers is a limit on how much you can win. These terms can seriously hamper the value of a bonus, so it’s important to keep an eye out for them.
Win limits vary considerably across different casino offers. A maximum win can be applied per free spin, or to the total amount won using the bonus. Some offers may not include win limits at all, but will instead restrict your returns with wagering requirements and limits on how much you can stake at a time. Either way, if you’re aware of how things work from the get go, you can have plenty of fun with the best UK casino bonuses.
Payment Restrictions
Casino offers that are activated by making a deposit are often subject to certain payment restrictions. Essentially, you may need to add funds to your account using a particular payment method in order to be eligible for a deposit bonus.
Some banking methods are more likely to be eligible for unlocking casino deals than others. Generally, debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard are a safe bet — they’re readily available to use and virtually always accepted for the best casino offers. Conversely, e-wallets such as PayPal, Neteller, and Skrill are often excluded. This is due to the fact that players could easily create multiple accounts and claim welcome bonuses more than once, which is usually against a promotion’s terms and conditions.
It must be said that payment restrictions vary across different online casino offers, which is why it’s so important to read the full terms and conditions before you get started. That way, you’ll avoid the disappointment of missing out on a bonus due to depositing funds via an excluded service.
Another stipulation to be aware of is that many online casinos require players to withdraw funds using the same payment method they deposited with. Therefore, this is something to consider when making your initial deposit. If you decide to deposit with a debit card so you can unlock a bonus, you may have to make your first withdrawal using the same card before you can switch to e-wallet transactions.
Casino Offers with the Best Terms
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll know by now that terms and conditions can make or break the value of a bonus. Here’s a quick rundown of what preferable terms might look like when you’re hunting for casino offers.
Low Wagering Requirements
If you want the best chance of converting your bonus funds into cold hard cash, you should look for online casino offers with low wagering requirements — we consider low anything around 20x and under, but the closer to zero, the friendlier the bonus.
One of the best casino offers in this category comes from PlayOJO, a site which breaks the mould with its policy of ‘no wagering requirements on anything, ever’. When you sign up and make your first deposit of at least £10, you’ll net 50 free spins on Play’n GO’s Book of Dead with the option to claim another 30. With no wagering requirements on this bonus, any winnings are yours to keep!
Lowest Minimum Deposits
Not everybody wants to play with a large bankroll. A low minimum deposit requirement puts a bonus within reach of those on a smaller budget. While many UK casino offers require a deposit of at least £10 or even £20 to qualify, some deals feature minimums of £5. Better yet is a no deposit bonus, which you can activate as soon as you sign up.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the bonus is often proportional to your deposit size, such as with a matched deposit. No deposit deals are usually on the smaller side too, often constituting just a handful of free spins. Wink Slots is one of our favourite sites with a no deposit bonus, where players can net a respectable 30 free spins just for signing up.
PayPal-friendly Bonuses
You might be aware that some payment methods are excluded from claiming casino offers. e-Wallets like PayPal often find themselves left out, so if you want to deposit using this method, remember to check the T&Cs to make sure it’s eligible.
888casino’s 100% up to £100 deposit match is one such offer where PayPal is accepted, although fellow e-Wallets Skrill and Neteller are still excluded.