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United Kingdom (EN) Understanding Casino Bonus Game Weighting
After you’ve claimed a casino bonus, you’ll have to meet any wagering requirements before you can withdraw any accumulated winnings. During this step, something referred to as game weighting can be applied to your bets. This important term influences your chances of effectively converting your bonus into real cash. In this article, we’ll go over the relevance of game weighting and how it affects your chances of winning real money with a bonus.
Why Do Online Casinos Have Game Weighting
In a nutshell, game weighting describes the percentage of each bet that contributes toward a wagering requirement. Its purpose is to minimize high odds in particular games.
When it comes to casino bonuses, there are a few compelling reasons to give some games more weight than others. This stems down to finding a middle ground between maintaining player satisfaction and minimizing the casino’s risk exposure.
- Ensures Low-Risk: Game weighting helps casinos be safer and have less risk. When online casinos give less importance to games that can pay out a lot, it ensures financial stability while still providing maximum fun and game diversity.
- Prevents Bonus Misuse: The use of game weighting deters players from exploiting the bonus system by only playing low-risk games. This ensures a more even distribution of player activity and promotes a fair playing field.
Not All Games Contribute Equally
Online casinos apply game weighting to different categories rather than individual games.
Due to their randomness, online slots, for example, are routinely distributed at 100% weighting. The same is true for instant-win games such as scratch cards.
Table games with a reduced house edge, such as Blackjack and Baccarat, can give a player a higher advantage when playing strategically. Therefore, casinos balance the scales by giving these games significantly lower weighting percentages, ranging from 10% to 20%.
Below, you will find different game weighting percentages. Still, keep in mind that this is merely an example, and game weightings vary from casino to casino.
| Game Examples | Game Types | Weighting Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Slots | Progressive Jackpots and Video Slots | 100% |
| Video Poker | Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker | 20% |
| Table Games | Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Poker | 20% |
| Live Dealer Games | Live Blackjack, Live Roulette, Live Baccarat, Live Poker | 5% |
| Other Games | Scratch Cards, Keno, Bingo | 100% |
Game weighting is a term that is typically buried deep inside the bonus terms and conditions of each promotion, so expect to put in some extra work to try and find it.
Game Weighting Strategies
Game weighting should have an impact on the approach you take for the types of games you want to play, as well as the bonuses you decide to collect.
Below are two main strategies used by online casino players when dealing with game weighting:
Strategy 1: Quick Completion
Trying to meet the wagering requirement quickly is a bright idea. Here’s the basic concept: the more you bet with your bonus, the higher the chance you’ll use up your bonus funds before cashing it out.
Ensure you play games that count 100% towards the wagering requirement. This way, you fulfil the requirement as fast as possible with the least amount of betting.
For example, let’s say you bet £100 on a 100% weighted game like slots or scratchcards. In this case, the entire £100 will count towards the wagering requirement.
Strategy 2: Low-Risk Gameplay
Another way to meet the wagering requirement is to play it safe. You can do this by choosing games with lower risk and lower potential for winning big. The idea here is to win smaller amounts more often to reach the wagering goal.
Play games with a very low chance of losing when you use the best strategy. With skill and intelligent choices, you can win enough small amounts to end up with more money even after meeting the wagering requirement.
For example, let’s say you bet £100 on roulette, and it has a 20% weighting. Since it only counts as one-fifth of the wagering requirement, only £20 will count.
This means you need to play this kind of game five times more than slots to meet the requirement.
Understanding the Purpose of Game Weighting
Since some games have a better payout mechanism than others, casinos could exclude them entirely from bonus wagering. A typical example is live casino tables, which are popular due to their excellent return on investment.
However, to remain competitive and attract new players, some casinos will allow these types of games but restrict them to protect themselves.
Understandably, this extra layer of protection helps ensure that the casino does not suffer large losses in the long run.
Here are four main reasons why game weighting is used at online casinos:
- Game Mechanics: Games where you can use strategies, like covering multiple numbers in roulette, might have a higher weighting to prevent skilled players from taking advantage of the system.
- Game Volatility: Games like slots that can give you big wins but not very often may have their weighting adjusted to make sure winnings are balanced.
- Game Popularity: Sometimes, the weighting for the casino’s most popular games is reduced to encourage new players to try different games.
- House Edge: Games with a low house edge usually have a high weighted percentage.
Game Weighting Examples
Although the precise game weighting varies in every casino, they use comparable percentage figures across the same game categories, for instance:
- Slots: 100%
- Scratchcards, Keno: 100%
- Table Games: 20% – 50%
- Live Casino Games: 5% – 10%
As shown above, any bet on slots or scratchcards will contribute the entire amount toward the wagering requirements.
However, if you wager on any game in the live casino section, your £1 bet will now only count as £0.05 and £0.10, respectively.
When playing video poker, you will notice that the amount contributed is set to 0% at most online casinos.
In most cases, this means that not only is video poker ineligible for bonus wagering, but it is also an excluded game.
Key Takeaways
- Game weighting is an essential aspect of meeting the wagering requirements of a casino bonus.
- All slots typically count as 100%. However, table games, live casinos, and video poker are likely to be weighted down.
- During bonus wagering, not all bets will contribute the same amount, mainly to offset the huge reward possibilities of specific games.
- Make sure to read the terms and conditions or contact customer service to confirm the game weighting.
How to Convert Your Bonus Into Real Cash
Online casinos have the freedom to apply game weighting percentages as they see fit as long as they are mentioned in their terms and conditions.
A quick study of the T&Cs could mean the difference between successfully capitalizing on a bonus and eventually falling short.
Once you’ve found the right online casino, it’s time to put it into action.
Here are some expert pointers to help you get started:
- Choose 100% weighted games: Naturally, in order to meet the wagering requirements quickly, you’ll want every last fraction of your bet to contribute.
- Look for flexible weighting: If you can discover live casino or table games that are weighted at 50% or higher, you’ll be able to keep your balance and efficiently chip away at the wagering requirements.
- Find higher RTP games: If you intend to keep playing with slots, look for ones with a higher return-to-player rating.
- Look for lower volatility slots: Lower volatility games are excellent for keeping your balance as they have a higher ratio of winning bets at lower stakes.
- Diversify your gameplay: If not expressly prohibited by the restrictions, you could play table games to increase your bonus balance despite the high weighting.
Slots VS Table Game Example
The table that follows shows what will be required when comparing slots to table games to help you visualize how bonus wagering will work on different categories. The wagering requirement target is set at £1,000 in both cases.
| Online Slots | Table Games |
|---|---|
| 100% weighting – You must bet a total of £1,000 to meet the wagering requirements. This means 500 spins at £2 each. | 20% weighting -You must bet a total of £5,000 to meet the wagering requirements. This means 2,500 rounds at £2 each. |
As you can see, playing solely table games like roulette, baccarat, or blackjack, with a strict 20% weighting contribution, makes converting your bonus more difficult.
If you keep the same bet level on both, you’ll need to place five times as many bets on roulette as you would on slots.
Get Familiar with Wagering Requirements
Since game weighting is really important when it comes to meeting wagering requirements, we suggest checking out our complete guide on wagering rules. It will help you understand this crucial bonus term better.
Return-to-Player (RTP) Explained
Now that you’ve brushed up your knowledge about game weighting, it’s time for you to dig deeper into what Return to Player percentages are and how it all works.
Game RTP is the average amount of cash that online slots pay back to the player over a long period of time. This term is the opposite of the casino’s house edge, which is the numerical advantage of a casino game.
If you want to use your bonus on slots, RTP percentages are extremely important in determining your ability to fulfil the wagering requirements. As a rule of thumb, you should always play slots that have an RTP percentage of 96% or higher.
How does RTP work?
RTP is calculated across long-term sessions to provide a realistic indication of a game’s potential payouts. The percentage is calculated by dividing turnover by overall win/loss figures, and it is then published for each game.
Understanding RTP is critical since it informs about their chances of winning in a specific game. This knowledge is instrumental if you’ve received a large bonus and want to make use of it for an extended period of time.
Understand The RTP of a Slot Game
When you play £100 on a slot machine with a 95% RTP, it doesn’t mean you’ll definitely get back at least £95. Instead, RTP is established by lengthy practice spanning millions of free spins and taking into account all those who have played the game. So, your individual game session can fluctuate from the claimed RTP percentage.
Final Thoughts on Game Weighting
Casinos use game weighting to deter players from only gambling on favorable games while attempting to unlock a bonus.
For example, games like roulette have a larger chance of keeping your balance than slots, resulting in a weighting shift.
It’s critical to comprehend these terms in the bonus terms and conditions, especially when combined with an awareness of RTP and volatility.
This understanding will considerably improve your chances of meeting bonus wagering requirements and winning real money.
Key Takeaways
- Understand that game weighting rates might differ not only depending on the type of game but also on its variety. Standard slots, for example, often have a weighted ratio of 100%, but progressive jackpot slots generally only contribute 50%.
- Look for a slot that combines a high RTP with a reasonable game-weighting percentage. This strategy will increase your chances of meeting the wagering requirements without incurring significant losses.
- Read the bonus terms and conditions to find out the game weighting percentages. Prioritize 100% contributing games, which generally tend to be online slots.
