Put any offer into the calculator, then read how the numbers are built and which clauses change them.
Plug in any offer. We work out the playthrough and what it costs on average at the RTP you choose.
Wagering requirements tell you how many times a bonus (sometimes the bonus plus your deposit) has to be bet before anything it produces can be withdrawn. A 35× requirement on a C$100 bonus means C$3,500 in bets. On its own that number says very little. What you want to know is how much of your money the casino expects to keep while you place those bets, and that is what the calculator at the top of this page works out.
Fill in the offer, pick a game, read the bottom line. Below is how it gets there, so you can check it yourself or redo it on the back of a receipt.
Four steps. None of them needs more than the calculator on your phone.
Expected value is then the bonus minus the expected cost. Positive means the free money outweighs what clearing it should cost you. Negative means you are paying for the privilege. That's fine if you were going to play anyway. It just isn't a gift.
The fields open on a very common offer: C$100 deposit, 100% match, 35× on the bonus, a 96% slot. Result: C$3,500 turnover, C$140 expected cost, expected value of minus C$40. A lot of welcome deals aimed at Canadians land close to that.
A 100% match up to C$200, and you deposit C$200. Casino A asks 35× the bonus. Casino B asks 35× deposit plus bonus. In the banner they look identical.
| 35× bonus | 35× deposit + bonus | |
|---|---|---|
| Base | C$200 | C$400 |
| Turnover | C$7,000 | C$14,000 |
| Expected cost at 96% | C$280 | C$560 |
| Expected value | −C$80 | −C$360 |
Twice the turnover, and the expected loss goes from C$80 to C$360. If a site only says "35x" without naming the base, assume the worse version until the full terms prove otherwise. Our welcome bonus page notes which casinos use which.
Blackjack with decent rules returns about 99.5%, so it feels like the smart way to clear a bonus. Try it: C$100 bonus, 35×, RTP 99.5, contribution 10. Turnover jumps to C$35,000, because each dollar you bet only counts as ten cents. Expected cost is C$35,000 × 0.005 = C$175, so expected value is minus C$75. The same bonus on a 96% slot costs C$140. The weighting eats the low house edge, and that's before the casino's list of banned strategies. More on that on the blackjack bonus page.
Some reloads and cashback deals carry 1× wagering. Deposit C$50, get C$50, bet it once on a 96% slot: turnover C$50, expected cost C$2, expected value plus C$48. Nearly the whole bonus survives. These offers are smaller and rarer, but per dollar they beat a big 40× package without trying. The no-wager page collects them next to true zero-wager spins.
Same assumptions in every row: bonus-only wagering, 96% RTP, 100% contribution. Expected cost is simply C$100 × multiple × 0.04.
| Wagering | Turnover | Expected cost | Expected value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1× | C$100 | C$4 | +C$96 |
| 10× | C$1,000 | C$40 | +C$60 |
| 20× | C$2,000 | C$80 | +C$20 |
| 30× | C$3,000 | C$120 | −C$20 |
| 35× | C$3,500 | C$140 | −C$40 |
| 40× | C$4,000 | C$160 | −C$60 |
| 50× | C$5,000 | C$200 | −C$100 |
| 60× | C$6,000 | C$240 | −C$140 |
Break-even sits at 25×. Below it, the average player keeps something. Above it, the average player loses money on the deal. Don't treat 25× as a law, though: drop the RTP to 94% and the cost becomes C$100 × X × 0.06, which moves break-even down to roughly 17×.
Contribution is the share of each bet that counts toward the requirement. A typical split looks like this: most slots 100%, a handful of high-RTP or low-volatility slots cut to 10–50%, table games 5–20%, live dealer 0–10%, video poker anywhere from zero to 20%. The exact figures differ by casino and sit in the bonus terms, usually as a small table near the bottom.
Excluded games count for nothing, and some terms go further: playing them while bonus funds are active can void the bonus outright. The usual suspects are progressive jackpots, a named list of high-RTP slots, games with a feature-buy option, and sometimes every live table. We'd read that list before the first spin, not after a winning one. Live games get their own page: live casino bonuses.
A sticky bonus can be played with but never withdrawn. When you cash out, the bonus amount is removed and you keep whatever sits above it. Finish wagering a C$100 sticky bonus with a C$250 balance and you withdraw C$150.
A non-sticky bonus (also sold as "cashable" or "hybrid") keeps your deposit separate. You play with real money first, and the bonus only comes into play once the real balance hits zero. If your deposit grows to C$400 before that happens, you can usually withdraw it and forfeit the untouched bonus. That's a free second chance, which is why we rate a non-sticky offer above a sticky one with the same headline.
The order of funds matters for the maths too. If bonus money is spent first, or both balances are locked together, your deposit is trapped by the wagering until you finish or give up. Terms usually settle this in one line, something like "real money balance is used first" or "funds are restricted until wagering is complete". Find that line.
Almost every bonus caps your stake while it's active, often at C$5 per spin or hand, sometimes lower. Go over it once and the casino can void the bonus and whatever you won with it. The cap also sets your pace: C$3,500 at C$5 a spin is 700 spins at the very least.
Expiry turns turnover into a schedule. A C$7,000 requirement with a 7-day limit is C$1,000 a day. On C$1 spins that's a thousand spins daily, several hours of play. With 30 days it's a different offer, even if every other number matches.
Then there's the abuse clause, usually titled "irregular play". It covers multiple accounts, betting both red and black at roulette, dropping your stake sharply after a big win and raising it again later, playing excluded games, and sometimes claiming a bonus and withdrawing the deposit straight away. The wording is often loose enough to let the casino decide after the fact. Play normally and keep a screenshot of the terms you accepted.
Most casinos let you drop an active bonus from the account page or through support. Cancelling removes the bonus and any winnings tied to it. What happens to your deposit depends on the order of funds: with non-sticky terms the remaining real balance is yours to withdraw, with locked funds you may lose part of it.
So when does it make sense? When you've had a good run on real money before the bonus kicked in. Or when finishing costs more than you're holding: C$1,500 left to wager at 96% costs C$60 on average, and if your bonus balance is C$45, carrying on is a losing trade.
RTP drives the expected cost. On C$3,500 of turnover, each point of RTP is worth C$35, so a 97% slot instead of a 94% one saves about C$105 on average. Check the figure in the game's info screen. Some titles exist in several RTP versions and the casino chooses which one you get.
Variance decides what actually happens to you. Expected value is an average over thousands of attempts, and you get one. On a high-variance slot most attempts bust early and a few finish big. A low-variance game hugs the average, so with a positive offer you're more likely to really collect, and with a negative one the damage stays modest.
The calculator can't price your time, or the urge to top up so you beat a deadline. If clearing a bonus starts to feel like a shift at work, have a look at our responsible gambling page and step away.
Usually, yes. The spins themselves are free, but what they win is credited as bonus money with its own multiple, often 30× to 40× the winnings, plus a cap on how much can be cashed out. Wager-free spins exist and are labelled as such.
Not always. A cap only bites if you win big, while the wagering multiple affects every player. A 10× offer with a C$500 cashout cap will cost the average player far less than a 50× offer without one.
For recreational players in Canada, gambling winnings are generally not taxed. That changes if gambling is treated as a business, which is rare and depends on your situation.
