Quick guide to wagering requirements
In online bingo, wagering requirements can be hard to get your head around, though once you understand how they work, there really is no cause for concern!
Fundamentally, a wagering requirement in online bingo details the terms of signing up to a welcome bonus (or other bonuses) and refers to the minimum that you have to wager upon receiving the bonus. Although some bingo sites allow players to make wagers on slots, in the majority of instances, it has to be used on bingo tickets, where of course you may win!
Why bingo sites have wagering requirements
One of the priorities of bingo sites is to ensure that their players keep coming back and they find that by offering substantial welcome bonuses it means that the wagering requirements that are attached to them gives players long enough to build trust with the site. This is because, typically wagering requirements can take a while to play through.
Perhaps the most important reason why wagering requirements are used though, is because it helps to prevent criminal activity such as money laundering which is a stipulation that the UKGC set out very clearly in their legislation. Without having wagering requirements attached to bonuses, it would be really easy for criminals to launder money, by effectively exchanging it for the bonus that is on offer.
Winning with wagering requirements
One of the concerns that online bingo players have is that they will play through their wagering requirements and not win anything. While there is obviously a risk attached to this, players do invariably find that they at least win a percentage back.
Due to the fact that bingo is a game that is easy to understand, the lucky nature of it as well as the fact that there are multiple prizes on offer in most games, it is certainly possible to build up winnings along the way.
Your odds of winning also increase if you are playing a game that has very few players (and if it has a big jackpot, this is also a bonus!), which means that you can be strategic about the time of day that you play, in order to maximise your chances of accumulating winnings. For example, there might not be many people taking part in a game if it is late at night.
How to understand a wagering requirement in online bingo
Typically the most popular wagering requirement in bingo is 4x the bonus that you receive which means that if you made a £20 deposit and there is a 300 percent bonus attached to it, you would get an initial £80 to play with. As a result, if you apply these wagering requirements it would then mean that you would need to purchase £320 worth of bingo tickets with the initial deposit and bonus making up part of this as well.
Furthermore, some welcome bonuses in online bingo also have reload bonuses that you can take advantage of which also have wagering requirements attached to them, though it is worth noting that these can add onto the time that it would take to play through. However, with the potential to build up a substantial winning pot, some players see the value in this!
What if I don’t want wagering requirements?
Sometimes, players can get disillusioned with wagering requirements in online bingo, especially for those who just want to enjoy a quick, fun game. This is perfectly fine and all it means is that you can still sign up to a bingo site without registering for the welcome bonus and some players prefer to do this.
If you are a beginner, this could well be the best approach for you, until you become familiar with how online bingo works!
