Bonus terms 2025 vs 2026

Bonus terms 2025 vs 2026: what actually changed

If you last read casino bonus terms in 2025, three things will look different now. The wagering multiple has a ceiling. Welcome offers no longer bundle sports and casino together. And the surrounding account rules, from stake limits to deposit limit prompts, are tighter. Most of these came from the Gambling Commission's package of changes following the 2023 white paper, and most landed in a run between January 2025 and January 2026.

This page compares the two years clause by clause, with dates, so you can tell whether a term you have seen is current. It sits with our other bonus comparisons, and our page on bonus terms after January 2026 covers the current position on its own.

Bonus terms 2025 vs 2026, clause by clause

For a plain-English walk through a full set of terms, see our bonus terms explained guide.

Wagering in 2025 vs 2026: from no ceiling to 10x

The headline change is in LCCP social responsibility code 5.1.1 (opens in a new tab): since 19 January 2026 a licensee can't require a customer to play through bonus funds more than 10 times. In 2025, multiples of 30x or more were still permitted. The difference on a £20 bonus, costed at a 4% house edge (a 96% RTP slot), looks like this.

These are long-run averages, not predictions for any session. The Commission's own announcement on safer and simpler promotions (opens in a new tab) used a £10 bonus at 50x, needing £500 of play, to show the problem. Our 10x wagering cap page and the wagering 10x vs 35x comparison go deeper.

Sports-and-casino combo offers: allowed in 2025, gone in 2026

In 2025 an operator could still say, in effect, "bet £10 on football and get casino spins". From 19 January 2026, an incentive can't include more than one type of gambling product: betting, casino, bingo or lottery. That is why sign-up pages now ask you to pick a sports or a casino welcome offer, and why 10bet's terms say you choose the casino welcome bonus at sign-up. Our pages on the mixed-product promotion ban and the sports or casino welcome offer choice explain the effect.

The same rewrite deleted an older clause saying a benefit's value must not depend on gambling for a pre-determined length of time or frequency, and a proposed replacement about excessive intensity of gambling was dropped. What carried over is the rule that a casino can't alter or increase an incentive because the qualifying spend was reached sooner than the full offer period. See time-based incentive rules for how this is described in the code.

Stake limits that arrived part-way through 2025

Before April 2025, the only cap on your bet during a bonus was the bonus's own max-bet term. Then a legal limit arrived on all online slots: £5 per game cycle for players aged 25 and over from 9 April 2025, and £2 for players aged 18 to 24 from 21 May 2025, as set out in the Commission's stake limit guidance (opens in a new tab). Bonus max-bet rules now sit on top. Casumo's £5 per bet with an active bonus, for example, matches the legal cap for over-25s, but a 22-year-old is held to £2 regardless. Read more on online slot stake limits.

Deposit limits, financial checks and marketing consent

• 28 February 2025: financial vulnerability checks now start when net deposits pass £150 in a rolling 30 days (down from £500). See financial vulnerability checks.
• 1 May 2025: casinos must let you opt in to marketing per product (betting, casino, bingo) and per channel (email, SMS, phone), opt-out by default. See marketing consent rules.
• 31 October 2025: you must be prompted to set a financial limit before your first deposit, with setting a limit as the default, as the Commission explains in its news on deposit limit rules (opens in a new tab). See financial limit prompt.
• 30 September 2026: deadline (extended from 30 June 2026) for operators to offer gross deposit limits; only gross limits may be called deposit limits.

Credit-reference "affordability checks" are not live in either year. The Commission ran a pilot of financial risk assessments and, as of October 2026, has made no decision to bring them in.

What stayed the same between 2025 and 2026

Several protections that matter most when you hold a bonus were already in place before 2025 and carry on unchanged:

• You can withdraw your own deposit balance at any time, even with a bonus active, without meeting wagering first. Our CMA bonus principles page traces this to the 2018 undertakings.
• Significant terms such as wagering, deadlines and eligibility must appear with the offer, not only in the small print.
• Unfair terms are not binding on you under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
• Credit cards can't be used to gamble (since 14 April 2020); see the credit card ban.
• Age and identity must be verified before you deposit or play, including with a bonus.
• Players pay no tax on gambling winnings; see gambling winnings tax.

Timeline of bonus rule changes, January 2025 to October 2026

The duty rise is paid by operators on their profits, not by players; our remote gaming duty page covers it. For changes before 2025, see the full bonus rules timeline.

Checking whether a bonus term is from 2025 or 2026

1. Look for the offer's start date in the terms. Ladbrokes' current offer, for example, runs from 14 November 2025 until further notice; Coral's runs from 1 October 2026 to 1 February 2027.
2. Check the wagering multiple. Anything above 10x on bonus funds at a UK-licensed casino points to pre-2026 terms or a non-UK site.
3. Check whether the offer mixes products. A sports bet that releases casino spins can't be offered to new sign-ups now.
4. Open the operator's live promotion page rather than relying on a screenshot or an old article.
5. If a licensed operator's current terms seem to break the 2026 rules, ask support to explain in writing, then use the complaints route if needed.

Our answer to what happens if a casino changes bonus terms covers changes made after you opt in.

Who gains most from the 2026 bonus terms

Partner offers under the 2026 bonus terms

All five partner welcome offers fit the 2026 rules: each is casino-only, and the two match bonuses use the 10x maximum. The three below carry no wagering on spin winnings. Coral gives 100 spins at 10p after a £10 slots bet, accepted within 48 hours and used within 7 days. Ladbrokes gives up to 500 spins at 10p over 10 days after £10 on slots, claimed by 23:59 each day and valid 7 days. PlayOJO gives 80 spins at 10p on Big Bass Bonanza with a first deposit of £10 or more, winnings paid in cash, Northern Ireland excluded. Casumo (50% up to £100) and 10bet (100% up to £25) both apply 10x wagering. All offers: 18+, new customers, payment exclusions and full terms apply. Our new casino bonuses page tracks what has changed in 2026.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: set a budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.