How casino wagering requirements are calculated

A wagering requirement is the amount of betting you have to put through an account before money that originated as a bonus becomes yours to withdraw. The multiplier is printed in the terms. What it multiplies is not always obvious, and that second detail changes the answer by a factor of two or more.

What a wagering multiplier measures

The requirement is measured in stakes placed, not in money lost and not in money held. If a requirement comes to €3,500, you need €3,500 of accepted bets to pass through the account. A €1 spin that returns €0.90 has still contributed a full €1 of turnover, which is why a modest balance can satisfy a requirement many times its own size: the same money is wagered repeatedly, shrinking as it goes.

That is also why the house edge, not the multiplier, is what ultimately costs you. Pushing €3,500 of turnover through a slot returning 96% of stakes will, on expectation, consume about €140 of value along the way. Nothing about the requirement is a trick; it is a volume condition with a predictable price attached.

The two bases, and why one is twice the work

Here is the clause detail that decides more offers than any other. A multiplier is applied either to the bonus on its own, or to the deposit and the bonus added together. The headline number can be identical in both cases.

Same deposit, same match, same advertised multiplier, double the work. This is the trap I see most often in bonus clauses, because the base is usually stated once in a sentence that reads as housekeeping while the multiplier gets a bold number on the promotions page. A x30 requirement on deposit plus bonus is harsher than a x50 requirement on the bonus alone at a 100% match, and most players would pick the x30 without hesitating.

Lizaro’s published terms use the deposit-plus-bonus base at x35 for casino deposit bonuses, which is the more demanding of the two structures. No-deposit credits run at x40, applied to the bonus alone because there is no deposit in the base.

Match size changes the base as well

When the base includes the deposit, a larger match percentage inflates the base along with the bonus. The table below holds the deposit and the multiplier constant and varies only the match, which isolates what the percentage really does.

Reading across, a 350% match on €40 asks three times the turnover of a 50% match on the same deposit and offers seven times the ceiling. Large match percentages are not automatically bad value on this structure; they are simply bigger commitments in both directions, and the shorthand that treats a high percentage as generosity and a high multiplier as a catch gets the relationship backwards.

Worked examples at five deposit sizes

Now hold the match and the multiplier steady at a plain 100% offer cleared at x35 on deposit plus bonus, and vary the money. The last column divides the requirement across a ten-day window, which is the figure that tells you whether the offer is realistic for the way you actually play.

At twenty-cent spins, €70 of daily turnover is 350 spins, or roughly fifteen minutes. At the €250 row it is 8,750 spins a day across ten straight days, which is a different hobby altogether. The requirement scales linearly with the deposit while the time available does not scale at all, so offers get less practical as the stake rises even though the percentages look identical.

Game weighting, and why “100%” applies to less than you think

Not every bet counts in full. Most operators publish a contribution schedule stating what proportion of a stake on each category is credited toward the requirement. The weightings below are the ranges commonly seen across the sector rather than any one operator’s figures, and they differ enough between casinos that the schedule is worth locating before the first spin.

Some operators skip percentages entirely and bar a named list of titles outright while a bonus is active, which is cleaner to administer but offers no partial credit. Lizaro takes that second route: its terms name a prohibited-games list and publish no contribution table, so the weighting of a roulette or blackjack stake there is unknown rather than reduced. Where a schedule is not published, assume nothing and ask support in writing before relying on a category.

What weighting does to the real figure

Contribution percentages are where a requirement quietly multiplies. Take the €3,500 figure from the €50 row above and play it on categories at different weightings.

This is the mechanism behind the complaint that a bonus “would not clear”. A player who prefers blackjack, reads x35 as the whole story and spends a week on tables weighted at 10% has been working against a €35,000 requirement without being told. The multiplier was never the problem.

Maximum-withdrawal caps: the second multiplier

Clearing a requirement does not mean the balance pays out in full. Most offshore bonus terms carry a separate ceiling pegged to the size of the bonus, and anything above it is removed when the withdrawal is processed rather than refused at the point of winning.

Lizaro’s figures are stated plainly, which is better disclosure than much of the sector offers: x10 of the bonus on deposit offers and x5 of the bonus on no-deposit credits. Its own illustration uses a €10 deposit bonus capping withdrawals at €100, and a €20 no-deposit bonus capping at €100. In practice a lucky run on bonus money has a hard ceiling: hit €4,000 from a €50 bonus and €3,500 of it disappears at the cashier.

Two habits follow from that. Check the cap before the multiplier, because the cap sets the maximum possible value of the entire offer. And treat the ceiling as the realistic target rather than an unlikely edge case, since high-volatility slots are exactly the games weighted at 100%.

Turnover bought per unit of payout

Combining the two multipliers gives the single most useful number for comparing offers: how much betting the requirement demands for every euro the bonus could ultimately release.

Two things stand out. On a deposit-plus-bonus base, a larger match improves this ratio because the deposit becomes a smaller share of the base, which is the opposite of the usual intuition. And no-deposit credits are the least efficient structure per unit of payout, despite costing nothing to take, which is the trade every free bonus makes.

Clearing windows and the pace they force

A requirement without a deadline is an inconvenience. A requirement with a deadline is a schedule. Windows across the sector usually run from seven to thirty days, and Lizaro’s terms set 10 days for casino bonuses and 30 days for sports bonuses, after which the credit expires along with any balance built on it.

A €7,000 requirement looks very different depending on the clock attached to it:

• Over 7 days: €1,000 of stakes a day.
• Over 10 days: €700 a day, every day, with no allowance for a weekend away.
• Over 14 days: €500 a day.
• Over 30 days: €233 a day, which most regular players reach without changing anything.

Divide before you accept, not after. The arithmetic takes seconds and it is the difference between an offer that fits your normal play and one that requires you to play differently for a week and a half.

No-deposit bonuses follow different rules

Free credits are a separate instrument and the numbers attached to them are consistently stricter: a higher multiplier, a lower ceiling, and frequently a tighter window. Because there is no deposit, the base is the bonus alone, so the multiplier is the whole calculation. At x40 on a €20 credit the requirement is €800, and a x5 ceiling means that whole effort can release at most €100.

That is not a scandal, it is the price of a product given away. The error is treating a no-deposit credit as a smaller version of a deposit match; it has worse terms by design, and the figure most people get wrong is the ceiling rather than the multiplier.

Free spins and where their winnings land

Spins bundled with a welcome package rarely pay in cash. Winnings from them normally convert into bonus balance, which means they inherit whatever requirement and ceiling the parent bonus carries instead of arriving withdrawable. A strong spin round can therefore produce a satisfying screen total that is still locked and still capped.

Three details are worth checking in the terms: the notional stake value per spin, whether the spins are granted in one block or drip-fed across days, and whether their winnings are capped separately from the deposit bonus. Operators vary on all three, and the spin count in the headline tells you none of them. For the per-deposit distribution of a specific package, the operator’s bonus page is the only authority, and the breakdown of how one large welcome offer divides its figures shows what that looks like in practice.

Excluded games, max-bet clauses and other voiders

Alongside the arithmetic sit the conditions that cancel a bonus outright. The common ones:

• Maximum bet while a bonus is active. Typically €5 per spin or round across the sector. Exceed it once and the bonus and its winnings can be voided retroactively. Lizaro publishes no maximum-bet figure at all, which removes a known trap but leaves the position unclear.
• Excluded or prohibited titles. Either weighted at zero or barred entirely. The lists lean towards high-volatility and bonus-buy slots.
• Early withdrawal. Requesting a payout before the requirement is met usually forfeits the credit and every euro built on it.
• One bonus per person or household. Shared addresses, devices and IP addresses are treated as one player at most operators.
• Balance order. Where real money is wagered before bonus money, early losses come out of your own funds while the requirement barely moves.

Of those, the max-bet clause causes the most avoidable losses, because it is breached accidentally by someone raising their stake after a dry spell rather than deliberately.

Five checks before accepting any offer

1. Find the base. Bonus only, or deposit plus bonus. Nothing else matters as much.
2. Multiply it out. Base times multiplier, written down, before the deposit.
3. Find the ceiling. If the maximum payout is less than you would want from a good run, the requirement is academic.
4. Divide by the window. Convert the requirement into stakes per day and compare it with how you actually play.
5. Locate the weighting schedule and the max bet. If neither is published, assume slots at full weight and keep stakes modest.

If any one of the five produces a number you are uncomfortable with, declining the offer and depositing plain cash leaves the money free to withdraw and the stakes unrestricted. That is an entirely normal way to use a casino account, and alongside the external limits set out on our page about staying in control, it is the cheapest form of control available.

Sources

• UK Gambling Commission: the licensing conditions and codes of practice require bonus terms to be fair and transparent, and its guidance on significant conditions sets the benchmark for what has to be disclosed before a player opts in.
• Competition and Markets Authority: its consumer-protection work on online gambling established that play-through conditions restricting withdrawal of a player’s own deposit can be unfair terms, and produced formal undertakings from major operators.
• Malta Gaming Authority: the player-protection directive obliges licensees to state wagering requirements, contribution rates and expiry periods in the bonus terms, and its register allows a licence claim to be verified against a primary record.
• Advertising Standards Authority: advertising rulings on gambling promotions show how often headline bonus figures have been found misleading when the wagering condition was not presented with equal prominence.
• Lizaro’s General Terms and Conditions v1.12, dated 19 August 2026 and read end to end: the source of the x35 and x40 multipliers, the x10 and x5 payout ceilings, the ten-day casino window and the prohibited-games provision quoted above.

Questions readers ask about rollover maths

What does a 35x wagering requirement mean in practice?

You must place 35 times the qualifying base in accepted bets. On a €200 base that is €7,000 of stakes before bonus-derived money can be withdrawn.

Is the requirement calculated on the bonus or on my deposit too?

Both structures exist. Check the clause wording: a deposit-plus-bonus base roughly doubles the turnover compared with the same multiplier on the bonus alone.

Does losing money count toward the requirement?

Yes. Turnover counts stakes placed, not outcomes. A losing session still clears the requirement, which is how balances shrink while the counter advances.

Why did my blackjack play not reduce the requirement?

Table games are usually weighted at 10% or excluded outright. Check the contribution schedule; at 10%, €1,000 of stakes credits only €100.

Can I withdraw my own deposit before wagering is complete?

Usually yes, but it forfeits the bonus and anything won from it. Regulators have challenged terms that lock a player’s own deposit outright.

What is a maximum cash-out limit?

A ceiling on bonus winnings, pegged to the bonus size. Anything above the ceiling is stripped out at the cashier when the payout is processed.

Do free spin winnings come as cash?

Rarely. They normally convert to bonus balance and inherit the parent bonus’s wagering requirement and payout ceiling rather than being withdrawable.

What happens when the clearing window expires?

The credit and anything won with it are cancelled. Your own remaining real-money balance is untouched and still available to withdraw.

Is a lower multiplier always the better offer?

No. Compare turnover against the payout ceiling. A low multiplier with a tight cap can be worth less than a higher one with no ceiling.

Why do bonuses exclude certain slots?

Those titles tend to carry bonus-buy features or extreme volatility that let a requirement be cleared with unusually low expected cost to the player.