What is game weighting?
Put in a single sentence, game weighting is the percentage of each bet that will count towards meeting a wagering requirement. It might sound like a mathematical nightmare, but it’s actually pretty straightforward once you understand what it means.
Essentially, the higher the percentage weighting assigned, the bigger the contribution to your wagering requirement (this is a good thing). The lower the game weighting, the slower you inch along the wagering progress bar (this is a bad thing).
Casinos generally increase the weight associated with games that give the player a better edge. For example, your chances of winning at blackjack are higher than hitting it big on a slot game. Therefore a 2D Blackjack game is always weighted heavier than a slot game.
Every online casino has the right to assign game weighting as they please. Despite this perceived anarchy, most online casinos follow a similar set of rules – all of which we’ll explore in this article.
Example: A $1 spin on a slot with a 100% weighting percentage, contributes $1 towards your wagering requirement. But a $1 hand on a game of blackjack with a 50% weighting percentage, contributes just $0.50 towards your wagering requirement.
Why do online casinos apply game weighting?
Never forget that an online casino’s main focus is to remain profitable. They’re running a business after all, not a charitable arcade. This means that when it comes to bonus cash, you’re required to jump through a few hoops before you can transform it into real cash. Unfortunately, some players don’t make the cut, which is exactly the point.
Game weighting is one such obstacle, and it’s designed to pull back the edge afforded to players on their journey towards turning over wagering requirements. The casino chooses to ensure that the wins that work away at that wagering multiplier come down to pure luck, and not any kind of skill on the player’s part.
How Are Game Weighting Percentages Assigned?
As we already mentioned, online casinos are free to assign game weighting percentages as they please. And so long as they place these restrictions in their terms and conditions, you’ll have no choice but to work around them.
Casinos decide on a game’s weighting by considering a number of factors, including:
- House Edge – Games with a house edge that favors the casino more than the player are lavished with 100% weighting.
- Game Volatility – The higher the volatility, the larger the payouts. Casinos counteract this by applying a heavier weighting to highly volatile games.
- Game Mechanics – Games that allow an element of skill or tactics, like Blackjack and Roulette, are excluded or heavily weighed down.
- Trending Games – If a game is particularly popular, a casino might make game weighting more favorable to the player to entice them into signing up.
Examples of Game Weighting Percentages
The game weighting percentages assigned to games can be anything, there are no rules or standards. However, some common game weighting percentages you’ll come across are 100%, 10%, 50%, and 0%.
For example, if your chosen game is weighted at 100%, it means that for every $1 bet, you’ll make a $1 dent in your wagering contribution. However, if the game is weighted at 10%, a $1 bet will only contribute a pitiful $0.10. That means recreational players without highroller budgets are unlikely to be successful.
Here are the rules most online casinos apply:
- 100% game weighting – This is the ideal game weighting, but it’s generally reserved for slot games and instant games like scratch cards and Keno. Every bet you place and spin you make on these games contributes to your wagering requirement in its entirety.
- 10-50% game weighting – Table games like blackjack, roulette and baccarat are usually assigned a measly 10% weighting. This also goes for live dealer/live casino games (but sometimes the latter are completely excluded altogether).
- 0% game weighting – these are games which are completely excluded from the bonus. You should also take the time to examine the restricted games term, as these are also weighted at 0%, even if they’re in the slots category.
You might also come across a more generous online casino that allows you to play table games like blackjack, roulette and baccarat at 50% weighting. We’d consider this a pretty good deal.
Game Weighting Terms and Conditions
Let’s take a look at some real examples of game weighting requirements as found in online casino terms and conditions. Read all the way through this section for an analysis and key takeaways.
Please note that different games contribute a different percentage towards the wagering requirements:
- All Casino Slots – 100%
- All table and Live Casino games – 50%.
- All Video Poker Games – 0%
Some games cannot be played with Bonus Money, and you will receive an error message when trying to place bets or open a game that is excluded from bonus play.
The wagering requirements here are as follows:
- Slots* – 100%
- Video Poker -10%
- Poker games (All Live Casino & RNG) – 10%
- Roulette (All Live Casino & RNG) – 10%
- Baccarat (All Live Casino & RNG) – 10%
- Blackjack (All Live Casino & RNG) – 10%
- All wheel game variants (Live Casino & RNG) – 50%
*Slots with a Return To Player (RTP) of 96.8% or higher contribute 30% towards the wagering.
How Game Weighting Applies to Different Casino Games
There are no hard and fast rules as to what weighting applies to which games. That’s why we like to stress the importance of checking out the terms before signing up for a bonus cash offer. Here are some broad guidelines to help you manage your expectations.
Slots usually form the majority of games that contribute 100% towards wagering requirements. However, online casinos often single out a list of very high RTP games by name (or sometimes by game provider), excluding them entirely from contribution.
While jackpots resemble slot games, they’re almost always excluded from contribution to wagering requirements, and hold a 0% game weighting. This is particularly true of progressive jackpot slots. The reason comes down to their due to the enormous win potential.
This category of games includes classics like non-live Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat. They’re always weighted heavier at anything ranging from 50% to 5%, or even 0%. This is due to the high volatility algorithm that these games run on.
Game weighting with live casino games goes one of two ways, neither of which are ideal. You’ll either be barred entirely from accessing these games with bonus cash, or you’ll find that they’re heavily weighted at 5% or 10% – requiring huge bet spend.
This section catches all games that fall out of scope of the major categories. Games like video poker, bingo, keno tend to land in this bucket. Weighting for these kinds of games ranges from 0% up to 30%, depending on the casino’s perception of risk.
- Slots and Scratchcards are always awarded 100% weighting.
- Watch out for restricted slots, which are excluded from weighting entirely.
- The higher the RTP, the lower the game weighting.
- Many online casinos prohibit (meaning 0%) games like Baccarat, Bingo, Craps, Roulette, Pai-Gow Poker, Poker, and Sic Bo from contributing to wagering.
- The game weighting applied to table games is particularly volatile, ranging from 0% to 50%.
Pro Tips For Game Weighting
While online casinos hold all the power when it comes to allocating game weighting, there are still things you can do to sway the odds a little further in your favor. In this section we dive into wagering requirements, return to player (RTP) and volatility, to help you make the best decisions possible.
Game Weighting and Wagering Requirements
Game weighting is a symptom of wagering requirements. By this we mean that how a game is weighted directly impacts how quickly you can convert your bonus into real cash. This applies to match deposit bonuses, no deposit bonuses, and any other bonus in the book.
Wagering requirements dictate how many times the bonus must be turned over, and game weighting determines what percentage of each bet goes towards that multiplier. They’re the two halves of the bonus wagering mathematical model.
Top Tip
Pro Tip for Wagering Requirements
Steer clear of unrealistic wagering requirements. We understand the temptation of a $1,000 bonus, but if it comes attached to wagering requirements of 50x or higher, you’re unlikely to ever get your hands on a dime.
If you need to study up, take our crash course on wagering requirements.
Game Weighting and Return To Player (RTP)
RTP is another one of those casino game features that unnecessarily throws players off. It’s simply a mathematical percentage (do not confuse this with the game weighting percentage) that sets out how much of your bet will be returned to you over time.
E.g. If a slot RTP is 96%, it means the machine will pay out $96 for every $100 bet.
Keep in mind that this is entirely theoretical. It demonstrates a situation that will eventually play out over an extended period of time, and you should expect to see it replicated every 100 spins.
Top Tip
Pro Tip for RTP
Games with the highest RTP tend to be table games like Blackjack, Video Poker and Roulette. If these come with low game weighting – go for it! We recommend avoiding slots with RTP percentages lower than 96%.
Game Weighting and Volatility
Volatility is a term associated specifically with slot machines. It’s generally ranked on a score of one to five, or simply as ‘very high’, ‘high’, ‘medium’, or ‘low’. Volatility relates to the frequency and size of wins paid out by slots.
Higher volatility slots offer fewer winning combinations but what they do offer is the potential for big wins. On the other hand, you’ll hit wins more frequently the lower the volatility of the game, but the payouts are lower.
Top Tip
Pro Tip for Volatility
Change up the game volatility based on your payouts. When you get close to clearing the wagering requirements, scale back to a low volatility game to protect your balance and maximize the amount you convert to real cash.
Convert Your Casino Bonus
Game weighting and related information is always buried in the small print. Much as you might not want to trouble yourself with lengthy terms, performing a quick scan of the general and bonus T&Cs could mean the difference between success and failure to convert a bonus.
You can check out our full wagering requirements guide for a deeper look.
But if you’d rather keep things brief, here are our primary tips:
- Shoot for 100 – 100% game weighting is best but table games with 50% weighting are still worthwhile if you don’t fancy spinning reels. It goes without saying, the higher the better.
- Dig deeper – when faced with games with equal game weighting, check out other features like opting for the game with a better RTP.
- Switch things up – If your balance is getting dangerously low, it’s better to switch to a game like blackjack where you have a better chance of an immediate win. Once you build up your balance again you can return to 100% weighted slots.
- Balance budget and risk – Larger bonuses can afford to ride the wave of medium to high volatility slots. Smaller budgets require frequent small wins to keep them in the game longer.
Game Weighting in Practice
If you understood all the concepts and read all the terms, you probably feel like you’re ready to rock and roll. But whoa there, cowboy.
We firmly believe that reality trumps theory every time, so let’s look at a real world example.
- Bonus Cash: $100
- Wagering Requirement (WR): 30 x
- Total Wagering Required: $3,000
Let’s see how this plays out on different game types:
- 96% RTP (average)
- Game weighting 100%
- Bet $3,000 to meet WR
- Translates to 300 $10 spins
- 99.54% RTP (can vary)
- Game weighting 10%
- Bet $30,000 to meet WR
- Translates to 3,000 $10 hands