Bonus terms are written to be technically complete and practically unread. Twelve thousand words, most of it boilerplate, with six clauses buried in it that decide everything.
Learn those six and every offer you see afterwards takes two minutes to evaluate. Here they are, in the order they'll cost you money, applicable at levelupcasino.io or anywhere else.
1. The wagering requirement, and its base
The headline clause. It states how much turnover is needed before bonus funds and their winnings can be withdrawn.
The multiplier alone isn't the whole story. What matters is what it applies to.
Bonus only: a $100 bonus at 40x is $4,000 of turnover.
Deposit plus bonus: a $100 deposit matched with $100, at 40x on the combined amount, is $8,000.
Identical headline, double the obligation. The base is stated in the terms, usually in a single sentence that's very easy to skim past.
For context, 30x to 40x on the bonus alone is fairly standard. Anything much above that deserves a hard look at what's being offered in exchange.
2. Maximum bet while a bonus is active
This clause voids more bonuses than all the others combined.
Most offers cap the stake per round while wagering is in progress, often somewhere around $5 to $7. Exceed it, even once, even accidentally through an autoplay setting you forgot about, and the bonus plus any winnings from it can be voided.
Find the number. Set your stake below it. Don't touch it until wagering is done.
Also check whether bonus buys are permitted, because many terms exclude them entirely and using one can void everything.
3. Game weighting
Not every game contributes equally towards wagering.
- Pokies: usually 100%
- Table games (blackjack, roulette): often 10%, sometimes 0%
- Live dealer: frequently 0%
- Video poker and low-edge titles: heavily reduced or excluded
If blackjack counts at 10%, every $100 wagered reduces the requirement by $10. An entire evening can pass without moving the total meaningfully, which is a genuinely miserable way to learn this.
Some terms also exclude specific titles outright, usually high-RTP or high-volatility ones. That list is worth a glance.
4. Expiry
Two separate clocks, usually. One for the wagering period, commonly 7 to 30 days. Another, often shorter, for free spins.
The useful thing to do is a feasibility check. Take the required turnover, divide by the maximum permitted bet, and work out how many rounds that is. Then ask whether you'd realistically play that many inside the window.
If a $4,000 requirement has a 7-day expiry and a $5 max bet, that's at least 800 rounds at the maximum stake, realistically several thousand at a normal one. For a lot of players that offer isn't available, it just looks like it is.
5. Maximum conversion
A cap on how much of the winnings you can actually withdraw.
Very common on no-deposit offers and free spins, where a $50 or $100 ceiling turns an impressive win into a modest credit. Less common on deposit bonuses, but not rare.
This is the clause most likely to produce a genuine sense of unfairness later, purely because nobody looks for it in advance.
6. Sticky or non-sticky
Rarely labelled with those words, so look for the operative sentence: what happens to your balance if you withdraw before wagering is complete.
Non-sticky keeps your deposit and the bonus in separate balances. You play your own cash first, and if you win enough to withdraw before touching the bonus, you can decline it and take the money clean. Player-friendly.
Sticky merges them. Everything is locked until the requirement is met, and withdrawing early usually forfeits the bonus and often part of the winnings.
The two-minute routine
- Find the multiplier and its base. Multiply it out.
- Find the max bet. Note the number.
- Check weighting for the games you actually play.
- Check both expiry clocks and do the feasibility sum.
- Find the maximum conversion.
- Work out whether it's sticky.
If any of those can't be found in the terms, that's an answer in itself.
Two clauses that aren't in the six
Country restrictions. Some offers exclude specific countries, and a bonus claimed from a restricted region can be voided later even though the cashier accepted it at the time.
One bonus per household. Shared IP addresses and shared payment methods trigger this, which occasionally catches out two people playing separately at the same address.
The option nobody advertises
Decline the bonus.
Deposit without it and your balance is cash. No wagering, no max bet cap, no expiry, no conversion ceiling, and you can withdraw whenever you like. Plenty of experienced players do exactly this.
Most cashiers offer an opt-out, but only if you notice it before confirming the deposit. Look for it.