The locked balance is not a delayed payment
When a promotion lands in your account, the cashier often shows two numbers: a real-money balance and a bonus balance. The bonus balance is not money the operator is slowly deciding to release. It is a promotional ledger entry that converts to withdrawable cash only after a set of conditions written into the offer have been met. Until those conditions are satisfied, the operator treats the balance as locked by design, not by accident or delay.
The conditions that matter are almost always the same four: a wagering requirement, game weighting rules, a maximum-cashout cap, and an expiry window. Each one can independently stop a bonus from becoming withdrawable. Reading them together, before you opt in, is the only reliable way to know what you are holding.
What a wagering requirement asks of you
A wagering requirement, also called playthrough, is a multiplier that states how much must be wagered before bonus-related funds can be withdrawn. The arithmetic is simple, but the way it interacts with your balance is not. If a 30x requirement is attached to a 50-unit bonus, the example arithmetic is 1,500 units of wagering. That does not mean you need to deposit 1,500 units. It means the sum of all your qualifying bets must reach that figure.
Two details change how hard that target is to reach. First, the requirement may apply to the bonus amount alone, or to the bonus plus the deposit that triggered it. The offer terms state which. Second, every bet you place moves you toward the target only to the extent the game you are playing counts. A slot spin may count in full toward the requirement, while a table game wager may count at a reduced rate or not at all. That reduction is game weighting, and it can multiply the effective amount you must risk before the balance unlocks.
Game weighting: why the same wager counts differently
Operators weight games because different games carry different house edges and different speeds of play. A wager on a high-return table game exposes the operator to less expected loss per unit wagered than a wager on a high-volatility slot, so the operator may count only a fraction of that table wager toward the requirement. The weighting table is part of the promotion's terms, and it is the first thing to check when a bonus is tied to a game you did not intend to play.
| What changes between games | What it means for the bonus | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Contribution rate | The percentage of each wager that counts toward playthrough. A 50% contribution means only half of each unit wagered advances the target. | Promotion terms, usually under a heading like "game weighting" or "contribution" |
| Excluded games | Wagers on some titles may count as zero. Playing them consumes balance without advancing the requirement. | The same terms list, often as a table of game categories |
| Restricted bet sizes | Some offers void or cap qualifying bets above a stated size. A single large wager may not count at all. | Promotion rules, sometimes in a "maximum bet" clause |
| Bonus balance vs cash balance | Some operators draw from cash first, others from bonus funds first. The order changes how much of your own money is at risk before the bonus is touched. | Cashier display and account terms |
Game weighting does not change the house edge of the game you are playing. It changes how much of your wagering the operator is willing to count toward the promotional condition. A game with a low contribution rate can make a modest-looking requirement considerably larger in practice.
Maximum-cashout caps: the ceiling on the reward
Even after the wagering requirement is met, the amount you can withdraw from the bonus balance may be capped. A maximum-cashout cap states the largest sum that can leave your account as a result of the promotion. Any bonus balance above that cap is removed when you withdraw. The cap applies to the promotional winnings, not to your deposited funds, but the two are often mixed in the same display until the moment of withdrawal.
The cap matters most on no-deposit bonuses and free spins, where the operator has given you something without taking a deposit in return. Those offers frequently carry the tightest caps, the shortest expiry windows, and the highest wagering requirements of any promotion. The operator is not being generous in proportion to the headline number; it is pricing the acquisition of a new account. The real value of the offer is the cap, not the headline credit.
Expiry windows: the clock is part of the price
Every promotional balance has a lifespan. The expiry window is the period within which the wagering requirement must be completed. If the clock runs out first, the bonus balance and any winnings derived from it are removed. The window may be short, and it runs from the moment the bonus is credited, not from the moment you first log in and notice it.
Expiry interacts with game weighting in a way that is easy to underestimate. A requirement that looks achievable at full contribution on slots may be unreachable in the time allowed if the games you want to play contribute at a reduced rate. The practical question is not whether the requirement is mathematically possible, but whether it is possible for you, in the games you will play, within the window.
How loyalty and comp value is built from tracked play
A separate kind of promotional value comes from loyalty programmes and comps, and it is calculated differently from a bonus balance. Where a bonus is a fixed credit with fixed conditions, a comp is a return calculated from your observed play. The operator tracks your average bet, the number of decisions you make per hour, and the house edge of the game you are playing. The theoretical loss is the product of those three numbers.
As a labelled example, suppose a player bets 10 units per hand, plays 60 hands per hour, and the game carries a house edge of 2%. The arithmetic is 10 times 60 times 0.02, which is 12 units of theoretical loss per hour. That is not a bill the player pays. It is an expected-value estimate the operator uses to decide what the player's play is worth. A portion of that theoretical loss may be returned as comps, loyalty points, or tier progress. The return is a fraction, and the fraction is set by the operator's programme rules, not by any universal standard.
Theoretical loss is a long-run average, not a per-session outcome. A player can win on a given night and still generate theoretical loss for the operator's calculation, because the calculation uses the house edge, not the actual result. That is why two players who lose the same amount can earn different comps: one played a game with a higher edge or a faster decision rate, and so generated more theoretical loss per hour.
What you can and cannot control
You cannot change the wagering requirement, the weighting table, the cap, or the expiry window. Those are fixed by the offer. What you can control is whether you opt in at all, and whether the games you would play anyway are the games the offer counts. A promotion that requires you to play games you would not otherwise touch, at a contribution rate that makes the requirement larger than it appears, is a worse offer than a smaller headline number with clean conditions.
You can also control when you stop. A locked bonus is not a commitment to keep wagering until it unlocks. If the conditions are unfavourable, the rational move is often to leave the bonus balance untouched and play only with your deposited funds, or not to play at all. The operator's terms will state what happens to an unused bonus at expiry, but the choice to stop is always available.
Where the specific numbers live
Every figure in this article is structural. The actual wagering multiplier, contribution rates, cap, and expiry window for any given offer are printed in the promotion's own terms, on the page where you claimed it, and often in the account's bonus history screen. The cashier display shows the bonus balance and sometimes the remaining wagering progress. If the terms are not visible before you opt in, that is itself information: an offer whose conditions are hard to find is an offer whose conditions you cannot evaluate.
For a named operator or a specific promotion, the only reliable answer is the one written in that operator's terms at the moment you claim the offer. These conditions change between campaigns, between account states, and between jurisdictions. What applied to one player last month may not apply to you today.
FAQ
Why is my bonus balance still locked after I met the wagering requirement?
Three common causes remain: the wagers you placed were on games that did not contribute at the full rate, the maximum-cashout cap has already been reached and the excess is being removed, or the expiry window closed before the requirement was fully met. Check the promotion's game weighting table and your bonus history screen, which usually shows remaining playthrough.
Do free spins winnings unlock differently from a deposit bonus?
Yes. Free spins are granted at a fixed stake on specified slot titles, and the winnings are commonly credited as bonus funds subject to wagering requirements rather than as withdrawable cash. The wagering requirement, the cap, and the expiry window are often all tighter than on a deposit-matched offer, because the operator has extended credit without taking a deposit.
Can I withdraw my deposit while the bonus is locked?
It depends on the operator's terms. Some operators allow a withdrawal of deposited funds while the bonus balance remains locked, but doing so may forfeit the bonus and any winnings derived from it. Others require the wagering requirement to be completed or the bonus to be declined before any withdrawal. The cashier screen and the promotion terms state which rule applies to your account.
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