Your bonus has a progress bar, and not every game fills it at the same speed
When a casino grants a bonus, the credit rarely starts as withdrawable cash. It starts as a balance with conditions attached, and the main condition is that you must wager through it first. The question is not just how much you must wager, but where. A spin on one slot may count in full toward that requirement, while a hand of blackjack may count as a small fraction of the same stake, or not at all. The difference is not a technical glitch. It is the operator pricing the promotion, because different games lose money for the player at different expected rates.
The screen that answers your question is the bonus terms page, usually linked from the promotion itself. It will contain a table or list titled something like "game contribution" or "wagering weighting". Before you opt in, read that table. The rest of this article explains what the table means and why the numbers are arranged the way they are.
What a wagering requirement asks of you
A wagering requirement is a multiplier applied to the bonus amount, and sometimes to the deposit plus bonus, that states how much total stake must pass through the account before bonus-related funds become withdrawable. The multiplier alone does not tell you how long that will take or how much it will cost, because the cost depends on which games you play while clearing it.
As an example, suppose a bonus of 50 units carries a 30x requirement. That means 1,500 units of total wagers must be placed. If every game counted at full weight, you could reach that total with 1,500 units of spins or hands. But if a game counts at a reduced weight, you must stake more through it to produce the same 1,500 units of credited wagering. A game that counts at zero weight produces no progress at all, no matter how much you stake on it.
The contribution weight is not a comment on whether a game is good or bad. It is a reflection of the house edge built into that game. The operator sets the weighting so that the expected cost of clearing the bonus stays inside a range the promotion can afford.
Why slots usually count more than table games
Slots are the workhorse of bonus clearing because their outcomes are resolved quickly and their house edge is built into the game's return percentage. A slot with a lower return to player percentage loses the player's stake at a faster expected rate than a blackjack hand played with basic strategy under a favourable rule set. The operator can therefore afford to let slot wagers count at full weight, because the expected loss on those wagers is predictable and sufficient.
Table games sit at the other end of the scale for two reasons. First, some table bets carry a much lower house edge than the average slot, so the operator earns less expected revenue from the same amount of wagering. Second, a player who understands basic strategy can reduce the house edge on certain table games further, which makes the promotion more expensive for the operator if those games count fully. The result is a weighting table that looks something like this, though the exact figures are set per promotion and per operator:
| Game type | Typical weighting pattern | What it means for clearing |
|---|---|---|
| Slots | Full weight in most promotions | Every unit wagered counts as one unit toward the requirement |
| Table games | Reduced weight or excluded | Only a fraction of each wager counts, or nothing counts |
| Live dealer games | Often reduced or excluded | Slower clearing, or no progress at all |
| Video poker | Varies widely by title | Some titles count fully, others at a fraction, others not at all |
| Specialty games | Usually excluded | Scratch cards and similar titles often carry zero weight |
The table above describes a pattern, not a rule. The only weighting that matters is the one printed in the terms of the specific bonus you are considering. Two promotions from the same operator can carry different weighting tables, and the same game can count fully in one promotion and at a fraction in another.
Where the weighting table hides the real cost
Reduced weighting does not reduce your expected loss. It increases the amount you must stake to reach the same credited progress. If a game counts at half weight, you must wager twice as much through it to produce the same contribution. That means the expected loss from clearing the bonus on that game is higher, because expected loss is the product of total stake and house edge, and total stake has gone up.
This is the calculation most players skip. They see a bonus amount and a multiplier and assume the requirement is the same everywhere. It is not. A bonus cleared entirely on full-weight slots costs a different expected amount than the same bonus cleared on half-weight table games, even if the wagering requirement number is identical.
To compare two bonuses honestly, you need three pieces of information from the terms page: the wagering multiplier, the game weighting table, and any maximum-cashout cap. The multiplier tells you the raw volume. The weighting table tells you which games can produce that volume and at what staking cost. The cashout cap tells you whether the amount you could withdraw at the end is capped below the headline bonus figure.
Expiry windows turn slow clearing into a deadline
Every bonus carries an expiry window, and the window is part of the cost structure. A requirement that is mathematically clearable in a week of casual play becomes a different proposition when the window is shorter, because the only way to clear it in time is to stake more per session, which raises the expected loss over that period.
The expiry is stated in the bonus terms, usually as a number of days from crediting. It applies to the bonus balance and often to any winnings derived from it. When the window closes, the un-cleared bonus and its associated winnings are removed. This is not a penalty imposed on you; it is the operator closing a promotion whose conditions were not met. But it means the practical question is not only "which games count", but "which games can I clear inside the window at a staking pace I am comfortable with".
Free spins add a second clock. The spins themselves usually expire quickly, and the winnings from them are credited as bonus funds with their own separate wagering requirement and expiry. A batch of free spins can therefore carry two deadlines: one for using the spins, and one for clearing whatever they produce.
Loyalty value is built on a different arithmetic
Comps and loyalty points are not bonuses in the promotional sense, but they are priced on the same underlying idea: the operator knows approximately how much your play is worth to it, and it returns a fraction of that value to you as points, free play, or other benefits.
The concept that drives this is theoretical loss. It is not a bill and not a prediction of any single session. It is an estimate built from three inputs: your average bet size, the number of decisions or spins you make per hour, and the house edge on the games you play. As an example, suppose a player averages 5 units per spin on a slot, plays 200 spins in an hour, and the game's house edge is a particular percentage. The theoretical loss for that hour is the product of those three numbers. The venue's loyalty programme then returns some fraction of that theoretical loss as comp value.
What matters for your question is that tracked play, not bonus play, is what feeds a loyalty balance. Bonus wagering may or may not earn loyalty points depending on the operator's rules, and the terms will state this. When it does not, clearing a bonus and earning comps are two separate tracks running in parallel, each with its own arithmetic.
What you control and what you do not
You do not control the house edge on the games you play. You do not control the weighting table, the multiplier, the cashout cap, or the expiry window. Those are set by the operator before the promotion is published, and they are the same for every player who opts in.
What you control is the choice to opt in at all, and the choice of which games to play while the bonus is active. That second choice is where the weighting table becomes a decision tool. A game that counts fully clears the requirement with less total stake, which means less expected loss from clearing, all else equal. A game that counts at a fraction clears it with more total stake. A game that counts at zero clears nothing and simply consumes the expiry window.
None of this changes the built-in edge of the games themselves. A lower-weighting game is not a worse game, and a full-weight slot is not a better one. The weighting is a pricing decision by the operator, and your job is to read it before you commit, not to outsmart it after.
FAQ
Do live dealer games ever count toward a bonus?
Some promotions assign live dealer games a reduced contribution, while others exclude them entirely. The only reliable answer is the game contribution table printed in the terms of the specific bonus, because the same operator can treat live dealer games differently across promotions.
What happens if I play a game that is excluded from the bonus?
Your wagers on that game produce no progress toward the wagering requirement. The bonus balance remains unchanged, and the expiry clock keeps running. In some cases, playing excluded games while a bonus is active can be treated as a breach of the promotion terms, so the terms page is the place to check before you start.
Why does the same slot count fully in one bonus but not in another?
Each promotion is priced separately. The operator may set a more generous weighting on a bonus with a higher multiplier or a lower maximum cashout, and a stricter weighting on a bonus with different economics. The weighting table is part of the promotion's overall cost structure, not a fixed property of the game itself.
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