• Introduction
• What is playthrough ?
• Example of playthrough

Almost all the bonuses allowed by the online casinos to their players are committed by “playthrough”. This word indicates the minimum number of times that this sum must be played by the customer before he can actually transfer his money bonus from the online casino account to his own credit card, bank account or e-wallet.

Casino bonuses are often the distinguishing factor that makes the user opt for an online casino rather than another. A respectable virtual gaming room must offer facilitations to its new players as well as to old players; otherwise, it would give ground to business rivals. However, “playthrough” is an underestimated aspect of the casino bonuses. Some followers even ignore its existence, or they heard about it but they have never delved into this topic. Others, on the contrary, just ignore the meaning of “playthrough”, and sometimes they complain about some promotions feeling themselves somewhat “robbed”. In the following lines you will find a clear explanation of this fundamental concept.

What is “Playthrough”?

Mostly (though not always), when an online casino pays a bonus it performs this action by linking the bonus to “playthrough” concept. Or rather: the gaming room offers a money bonus, but it must be played a specific number of times before the customer can actually withdraw it. Put thus, it might sound a cheat, but it’s no fraud, it’s just a form of protection.

Let’s make a clarifying example. Suppose that an online casino offers a 100% bonus on the first deposit. The player, evenly captured by this offer, decides to deposit 50 euros; according to the bonus, he would deserve 50 euros more, and the casino actually pays this additional sum. However, if the player could immediately withdraw such money the online casino would go bankrupt in an hour! This way, according to online casino rules, money bonuses must be played again for a specific number of times, thus creating a gaming volume that matches the requirements.

Example of playthrough

Let’s continue with our example of playthrough in a welcome bonus on the first deposit. We said that the player deposited 50 euros and got other 50 euros (the 100%) through this bonus. This money is blocked, it can’t be withdrawn. Suppose that the playthrough commitment is fixed on x100. This means that the player, before withdrawing his money, must play 100 times again his 50 euros, generating a 5000 euro volume.

Warning: it doesn’t mean that the player must have 5000 euros on his account before unblocking actually the welcome bonus. “Playthrough” shouldn’t be applied to winnings, but to the global gaming volume generated. So, if a player plays a round and losts 20 euros, then he plays again and wins 30 euros, the gaming volume generated is not 10 euros, the difference between winnings and losses, but rather 50 euros, the amount of money played and won or lost.