You’ve found a casino that seems to be the best match for you. It has all the games you want, some really exciting features and some of the best bonuses on the market. But before you sign up and deposit your hard-earned money, you’ll want to read the terms and conditions – these often give you a better idea of just how much of a perfect match your chosen casino is for you, especially when it comes to bonuses.
In this guide, the expert team at TopRatedCasinos.co.uk will break down those often lengthy terms and conditions and break down confusing casino jargon so that you can find the right casino for you.
What are terms and conditions?
Terms and conditions are the legal agreements between a service provider and the customer. Pretty much everything you sign up to has terms and conditions, from your phone contract to a social media account. The only problem with them is that they’re often so long, that not many people actually read them.
Casino and casino bonus terms and conditions detail your personal information, deposit and withdrawal procedures, gaming rules, banking options and prohibited activity, amongst other details. They also detail some company information such as contact information, their rights as an organisation and who their affiliated companies may be.
Why do casinos have terms and conditions?
Terms and conditions are a contract between you and the casino that is designed to protect both parties. Ensuring that both the players and casinos obligations are met, you should both benefit.
Ultimately, a casino is a business whose aim is to make money. As such, the terms and conditions will protect them from losing large sums of money, when giving away bonus funds, for example. Features like the house edge and conditions like wagering requirements are there to ensure that the house always has a slight mathematical advantage over players.
Knowing this, it’s even more important to be aware of your casino’s terms and conditions. If you’re playing with real money on terms defined by the casino, you’ll want to choose a casino that gives you the best chance of winning withdrawable cash with funds you’ve gambled.
Where can I find the casino terms and conditions?
They should be easy to find. Most of them will be presented as a link available once you sign up, or in the footer of the website, while other casinos may locate their terms and conditions in the player account section. In the off chance you can’t find them, then your best bet is to get in touch with the customer team.
Know your customer (KYC)
Every licensed casino has to verify that each customer is who they claim to be. This is done by checking each player’s contact and payment information. Casinos who have licenses provided by the UK Gambling Commission are legally required to carry out this by the governing body process for the purposes of preventing underage gambling, limiting fraud. In some instances, casinos may ask for documentation so players can show they have sufficient funds to support their gambling activity.
What does this mean for you, the player? Well, you’ll need to verify your age before:
- depositing any funds into your account
- accessing any free-to-play games the casino may have and
- gambling at the casino with either your own money, a free bet or a bonus
You will also be required, as a minimum, to verify your name, address and date of birth in order to gambe. Casinos will ask the for copies of the following documents in order to run these checks:
- a utility bill or an old bank statement
- a scan of your passport or photo ID
- the front and back of the card used to make your first deposit.
If you don’t provide this information then the casino may take steps to restrict your account until you do.
Ordinarily, you should only need to submit your documents once for each casino. But in some cases, casinos may ask for more information if they spot any suspicious account activity and concerns surrounding the funding of your account.
Deposits and withdrawals
Understanding a casino’s deposit and withdrawal rules is pretty important as you’re trusting them with your money. This includes withdrawal times and fees.
In order to play real money games the vast majority of online casino games you will need to have money deposited in your account. Of course, many casinos will offer no deposit bonuses, which will allow you to play before funding your account. Plus, if you’re simply playing for fun, most casinos allow you to do so without making a deposit.
Of course, this agreement is designed to help the casino uphold its requirement to provide a fair experience for all players. By signing off on the terms and conditions, you are agreeing to two key terms:
- Your money hasn’t been gained illegally
- Your money is coming from a securely funded account
Prohibited activity
Most casinos don’t allow any software programme, robot or external aid endowed with artificial intelligence to help you make your winnings. These aids remove the element of chance out of the gambling experience and give players using them an unfair advantage.
Bonus terms and conditions
Wagering requirements
Wagering requirements are often attached to bonuses like matched deposits. These specify that before you can claim any of your winnings from an offer, you must wager the value of either your stake, bonus, or a combination of the two, a set number of times.
A wagering requirement of 40x is pretty standard. So from a £10 stake, and the £10 matched deposit, you would need to spend a further £800 before you can withdraw any of your bonus winnings.
Time limits
In addition to the bonus wagering requirement, most casinos will set time limits. These usually let you know how long you have to claim your bonus and how long it’s valid for. Some casinos are fairly generous, allowing up to a week for wagering requirements to be met. While others are less liberal, limiting the time to complete some hefty wagering requirements to as little as 48 hours. Reading the terms and conditions will allow you to find a casino with terms that suit you best.
Caps on maximum winnings
You’re also likely to come across maximum winning caps which limit how much you can win from a bonus. This prevents players from winning huge sums of money using bonus funds. So even if you do get lucky and hit the jackpot, you’ll only be able to claim up to a certain amount specified in the terms and conditions.
Game weighting restrictions
When playing through your bonus winnings to satisfy any wagering requirements, you’ll want to be mindful of the type of game you choose to play. The percentage of your stake that contributes to the wagering requirement varies depending on your game of choice. It’s often the case that 100% of your stakes on slot games contribute to fulfilling the wagering requirement. However, the figure for stakes on table games are often as low as 10%. Stakes on some games may not count towards wagering requirements at all.
This is referred to as game weighting. You’ll usually find a table outlining these details for each casino in the terms and conditions.
Enforcing the terms and conditions
Each casino has its own policy but they will all generally fall back on a standard approach to enforcement.
32Red, for example, state that should they discover a customer breaking their rules, they can “lock and/or permanently close a player’s account and without prior notice,” as well as reserving the right “to seize all of the funds in the player’s account (and to reverse any pending withdrawals).”
Similarly, Bet365 also reserves the right to take the same action, as well as making the individual “liable for any and call claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses incurred or suffered” because of fraudulent or illegal activity.
In summary, it’s best not to flout the terms and conditions. Take some time to review them. You will have invested your own time and money to play online casino games, so you wouldn’t want to lose access to your account and any winnings you may have earned due to a breach of the terms you agreed to.