How bonus funds and cash are used

How bonus funds and cash are used: the short answer

When you take a deposit match, the casino runs two pots side by side. Your cash balance holds the money you paid in plus anything it has won. Your bonus balance holds the promotional money, which is locked until you meet the wagering requirements. From there, the way your money moves comes down to three things written in the offer terms: which pot pays for each bet, where winnings are credited, and what happens to the bonus if you take money out early.

UK rules put firm edges around this. The Gambling Commission's guidance on restrictions on withdrawing deposits and deposit winnings (opens in a new tab) says the two balances must be shown separately and clearly, that you must be able to withdraw your deposit balance at any time, and that wagering requirements can't be applied to your own money. What the guidance does not do is set an order of use, so one casino may stake your cash first while another uses bonus money first. That single detail changes how a session plays out, which is why it gets its own section below.

This page sits in our casino bonus guides and goes deeper than the bonus balance glossary entry. It uses the real numbers from two partner offers, Casumo's 50% match and 10bet's 100% match, to show the mechanics. Everything here is for adults aged 18 or over, and every offer mentioned carries its own terms.

Cash balance vs bonus balance: what each pot holds

Think of the two balances as two wallets with different rules attached. The cash wallet belongs to you outright. The bonus wallet is a conditional credit: it can be staked, it can win, but it can't be taken out until the conditions are met, and it can be removed if you break the rules or withdraw early. Some sites label the second wallet "bonus funds", others "locked funds" or "pending bonus".

The requirement to keep them apart matters more than it sounds. Before the Competition and Markets Authority's online gambling case (opens in a new tab), which ran from 2016 to 2019, some sites showed a single total and treated the whole lot as locked. The undertakings that came out of that case, and the Commission guidance that followed, mean you should always be able to see exactly how much of what's on screen is yours.

Which is used first, cash or bonus funds?

There are three common ways UK terms handle the order. None is required by law, and the offer terms will tell you which one applies. If they don't say, ask live chat before you opt in and keep a copy of the answer.

The Commission's glossary of terms (opens in a new tab) defines a mixed wager as one drawn from both the deposit balance and the bonus balance. Where terms use that model, the guidance says wagering requirements must not apply to the deposit part, so only the bonus share of each stake can be held back.

Under a cash-first model, a player who loses the whole deposit before reaching the bonus may find the bonus still sitting there to be played. Under a bonus-first model, a quick early win on bonus money stays locked until wagering is done, even though the deposit is untouched. Neither is better in every case. The point is to know which you're on so that the numbers on screen make sense, and so that a decision to withdraw is an informed one.

Worked example: a 50% match at 10x wagering

Casumo's welcome offer is a 50% bonus up to £100 on the first deposit, minimum deposit £20, with the bonus to be wagered 10 times within 7 days and a £5 maximum bet while a bonus is active (18+, new customers, opt-in required, game, play and payment restrictions apply). Its terms set the order of use, so the two paths below are an illustration of how each model behaves, not a statement of Casumo's own rule.

Say you deposit £100. The 50% match adds £50 of bonus funds, so you see £100 cash and £50 bonus. Ten times the bonus is £500 of wagering. At a typical slot house edge of about 4%, that much play costs about £20 on average, so the bonus has an expected value of roughly £30 before any variance. The expected value of a casino bonus guide works through that sum in full.

Path A: cash staked first

• Your first £100 of spins comes from cash. Wins go back into cash and stay withdrawable.
• Once cash hits £0, spins start drawing on the £50 bonus. Wagering progress usually starts counting from here.
• If you're £30 up on cash after an hour, you can withdraw that £130; under most terms the £50 bonus is then removed.

Path B: bonus staked first

• Your first £50 of spins comes from the bonus. Winnings land in the bonus pot and stay locked.
• If the bonus pot reaches £0 before wagering is done, the offer ends and you carry on with your £100 cash, untouched.
• If you finish £500 of wagering with £70 left in the bonus pot, that £70 converts to cash, subject to any cap in the terms.

Where winnings land: cash winnings vs bonus winnings

The pot a stake came from usually decides the pot its winnings go to. A spin paid from cash pays back into cash; a spin paid from the bonus pays into the bonus. With a mixed wager, the win can be split. The Commission's guidance lets operators require wagering on bonus winnings, but not on what you win with your own deposit.

Once wagering is complete, the bonus pot goes through bonus conversion: whatever is left moves into cash. Two limits can trim that figure. One is a cap on bonus winnings, such as 10bet's £1,000 maximum bonus winnings on its welcome bonus. The other is a maximum cashout on certain promotions. Our casino bonus max win page explains how those caps are worded.

Withdrawing your cash while a bonus is active

You can always ask for your own money back. The Commission's guidance says players must be told they can withdraw the deposit balance at any time, including while a bonus is pending or active, and that operators must allow it even when the deposit has been allocated to a bonus. The consumer page on free offers and bonuses (opens in a new tab) puts it simply: you should be able to walk away whenever you like and keep what's left of your deposit and its winnings.

What usually goes is the bonus. Most UK terms say that withdrawing cash before wagering is complete cancels the bonus and any bonus winnings. That's allowed, provided the term is clear and shown up front. Our bonus withdrawal rules page covers the detail, and the question can I withdraw my deposit with a bonus active? answers the common edge cases.

UK withdrawals can't be reversed once requested. The reverse-withdrawal ban has applied since 31 October 2021, so a cashout request is final; the money doesn't drift back into your balance to be played.

How bonus funds count towards wagering

Wagering is measured in the total of stakes, not losses. Each £1 spin on an eligible slot adds £1 to the running total, win or lose. Under the 10x cap in LCCP social responsibility code 5.1.1 (opens in a new tab), in force since 19 January 2026, a £50 bonus can require at most £500 of play and a £25 bonus at most £250. The 10x wagering cap page covers the rule and its history.

Which stakes count depends on the terms. A bet paid from cash may or may not move the counter; most terms only count stakes once bonus money is in play, but some count every eligible bet from the moment you opt in. Games can also count at different rates: slots often count in full while table games count at a fraction or not at all. Our guide to game weighting shows how a 10% contribution turns £500 of wagering into £5,000 of play on the games it applies to.

You can track the counter in the account area; how do I check bonus wagering progress? shows where it usually sits, and the wagering calculator does the sums for any bonus size.

Max bet, games and expiry while bonus funds are in play

Bonus money comes with rules that cash doesn't. The most common are a maximum stake per spin, a list of eligible or excluded games, and a deadline. On Casumo's offer the max bet is £5 with an active bonus and the deadline is 7 days; on 10bet's, wagering must be on slots within 3 days. A breach can cost you the bonus and its winnings, which is why our casino bonus max bet page is worth reading before you play.

Those offer rules sit on top of the law. Online slots in Great Britain are capped at £5 a spin for players aged 25 and over (since 9 April 2025) and £2 a spin for 18 to 24-year-olds (since 21 May 2025). So a 22-year-old with a Casumo bonus is limited to £2 a spin by the online slot stake limits, not £5.

Because the time limit runs on the clock, not on your play, it's worth working out the pace before opting in. £250 of wagering at 50p a spin is 500 spins. With the 2.5-second minimum spin time that's at least 21 minutes of play, and in practice much more. The bonus expiry guide explains what happens to a part-wagered bonus when time runs out: usually it, and anything won from it, is removed.

How free spins winnings are paid: cash or bonus?

Free spins follow the same two-pot logic. Spins with wagering pay their winnings into the bonus balance, where they must be played through before withdrawal. Spins without wagering pay into cash. All three of our free spins partners use the second model:

• Coral: deposit (certain types excluded) and bet £10 or more on slots to get 100 free spins at 10p each on selected games; 48 hours to accept, valid for 7 days, no wagering on free spin winnings. 18+, new players, terms apply.
• Ladbrokes: deposit and spend £10 or more on slots to get 50 free spins a day for the first 10 days, up to 500, at 10p each on selected games, claimed by 23:59 each day and valid for 7 days, no wagering. 18+, new customers, terms apply.
• PlayOJO: a first deposit of £10 or more brings 80 free spins on Big Bass Bonanza at 10p each, with winnings paid in cash and no wagering. 18+, new UK customers excluding Northern Ireland, terms apply.

The page do free spins winnings count as cash? covers the wagered case in more depth, and no wagering free spins compares the cash-paid offers.

Checking how bonus funds and cash are used on your account

The quickest way to understand how bonus funds and cash are used on your own account is to look before you play. These steps take a couple of minutes.

1. Read the significant terms next to the offer before opting in, looking for the words "cash first", "bonus first" or "proportionally".
2. After depositing and opting in, open the account or wallet page and note the cash figure and the bonus figure separately.
3. Open the bonus or promotions tab and note the wagering target, the progress counter, the max bet and the expiry time.
4. Place one small spin on an eligible slot and check which figure has changed.
5. If anything is unclear, ask live chat which balance is being used and save the reply.
6. Before withdrawing, check whether the request will cancel the bonus, and decide whether you're happy with that.

If you'd rather not deal with two pots at all, you can usually decline the bonus. How to opt out of bonuses explains the usual routes, and how do I see my bonus balance? covers where the figure lives.

Common misunderstandings about bonus funds and cash

The biggest misreading is that bonus money changes the cost of gambling. It doesn't. Every £1 staked, from either pot, carries the game's house edge, and losses are likely over time. A bonus is extra credit with conditions, nothing more. If keeping track of the two balances becomes stressful, that's a good moment to stop; setting deposit limits is one of the simplest ways to keep spending where you want it.

Partner offers and how their funds are used

Two partner offers put money into a separate bonus balance. Casumo's casino bonus is a 50% match up to £100 on a first deposit of at least £20, wagered 10x within 7 days with a £5 max bet. 10bet's casino bonus is a 100% match up to £25, wagered 10x on slots within 3 days, with maximum bonus winnings of £1,000 and Skrill and Neteller deposits excluded. Both are for new customers aged 18 or over and terms apply; check each one's terms for the order of use.

If you'd rather keep everything in one cash pot, PlayOJO's 80 no-wagering spins on Big Bass Bonanza pay winnings straight to cash after a first deposit of £10 or more (18+, new UK customers excluding Northern Ireland, terms apply). Coral and Ladbrokes also pay free spins winnings without wagering after a £10 slots bet. Whichever you choose, set a budget first and treat any bonus as entertainment value, not a way to make money.

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.