Understanding Casino Games and Slots Bonus Playthrough Amounts
Every online casino will provide players with bonuses, and it's all part and parcel of their marketing efforts to bring you through their virtual doors. From your welcome bonus through to the many slots reload bonuses, ad-hoc bonuses and special new slots bonus offers, each bonus available is designed to extend your play and enhance your casino experience, and the majority of these bonuses will come along with playthrough requirements.
Understanding playthrough requirements is important for many reasons. Firstly, a look at the playthrough requirements can tell you whether it's a good deal or not, and secondly it's also important to have an idea of how much you'll need to wager to make the playthrough requirements. These playthrough amounts are in place to stop bonus abuse that would put casinos out of business, for example, if a casino offered a 100% match deposit bonus with no playthrough requirements or other terms and conditions then there's nothing stopping players depositing $100 and taking the bonus that turns it into $200, and then simply withdrawing the cash...the casino wouldn't be around for very long if they allowed that to happen!
Playthrough requirements essentially, ensure that you actually play and use the cash that you've deposited, stopping you from simply depositing and withdrawing bonus money as real cash...so how do they work? Using the same example of a 100% match bonus and a $100 deposit, however adding a x15 playthrough requirement to the bonus, it means that to work out the wagering requirements or the playthrough, you need to add together your deposit and your bonus, which in this case is $200, then times that by the requirements, in this case 15. A quick bit of math tells us that $200 x 15 is $3,000. This means that on that particular bonus you'll need to wager $3,000 to clear all bonus funds and have the cash in your balance as real money.
That sounds like a whole lot of playing to meet the requirements, however in reality it's not all that much and a few wins along the way gets you over the line, however what you want to look out for are bonuses with high playthrough requirements as they'll be much harder for you to turn the bonus money into real withdrawable cash. The general rule of thumb is that the bigger the bonus, the more is the playthrough requirement, and sometimes it's worth taking a smaller bonus with a lower wagering amount so that you can clear the bonus funds faster, and make your withdrawal. Very occasionally you'll get no playthrough bonuses, and these are excellent deals, however always check the T´s and C´s to see if there's anything else that may stop you from clearing the bonus amounts.
All slots bonuses are good, however lower wagering requirement bonuses are better, and most respectable US online casinos will place relevant requirements in place, making it fair for both you the player, and the casino.