Wagering requirements calculator

Wagering multiplier × bonus = real turnover you have to put through the slots before any winnings cash out. Game contribution can quietly stretch that requirement — blackjack at 10% contribution means you need to wager 10× more to clear the same bonus. Numbers below are expected play time at ~600 spins per hour (industry-typical autoplay pace).

Effective turnover required—

Spins needed—

Estimated play time—

Enter your bonus, wagering multiplier and bet size to see the turnover.

How the wagering calculator works

Wagering requirements are the single most-abused number in Canadian online casino marketing. A "C$1,000 welcome bonus" with 40× wagering is C$40,000 of turnover you have to put through the slots — and depending on game contribution rates, that can balloon to C$400,000 if you try to clear it on blackjack instead. Hudson Casino's wagering calculator turns the four inputs that matter (bonus amount, multiplier, contribution, average bet) into the two numbers you actually need: total turnover required and how many hours of play it represents at typical pace.

The formula

Effective turnover  = (Bonus × Wagering) ÷ (Contribution%)
Spins needed        = Effective turnover ÷ Average bet
Estimated play time = Spins needed ÷ 600 spins/hr

The 600 spins-per-hour figure is the autoplay industry standard — that's roughly one spin every six seconds, which is the default on Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, and Hacksaw Gaming titles when autoplay is enabled. Live dealer and table-game play is much slower (60–80 hands per hour for blackjack), which is one reason the contribution rate is set so low — the operator does not want bonus play-through happening at that pace.

What each input means

Bonus amount (CAD): What the operator credited, not what they advertised. If you deposited C$50 against a 100% match capped at C$200, your bonus is C$50, not C$200 — the cap is irrelevant if your deposit didn't trigger it.
Wagering multiplier (×): The hardest constraint in the terms. Multiply this by the bonus to get raw turnover before contribution adjustment.
Game contribution %: The percentage of your wagered amount that counts toward the wagering requirement. Slots usually count at 100%. Live blackjack typically counts at 10%. Live roulette is often 25–50%. Video poker is usually excluded entirely. Always verify the contribution table in the operator's T&Cs — they are not posted prominently.
Average bet per spin (CAD): What you actually plan to wager per spin. Bonus terms almost always include a max-bet rule during wagering (typically C$5 per spin, sometimes C$2). Exceeding it can void the bonus. Don't set this above your operator's max-bet limit.

Reading the three output cells

Effective turnover required: The total dollar amount you have to wager (after the contribution adjustment) before bonus and any associated winnings cash out.
Spins needed: Effective turnover divided by your average bet — how many individual spins or hands you'll click through.
Estimated play time: Spins divided by 600/hr, which is the autoplay slot pace. For blackjack or table games, multiply this by 6–10× — those games are much slower per round.

The three verdicts

Manageable (under 5 hours): Single long evening or weekend session. Real Canadian players will complete this play-through at a normal pace.
Heavy (5–20 hours): Multiple sessions across a week. This is where most players abandon mid-clearance and forfeit the bonus.
Marathon (over 20 hours): Sticky bonus territory. Approach with skepticism — operators write 50×+ wagering precisely because they know most players won't clear it.

Worked example: a "standard" 100% match up to C$500

Deposit C$500, take the 100% match, hit the C$500 bonus, 35× wagering, 100% contribution (slots), C$1 average bet.

Effective turnover: C$500 × 35 = C$17,500
Spins needed: 17,500 ÷ 1 = 17,500 spins
Estimated play time: 17,500 ÷ 600 = 29.2 hours

29 hours of slot play at C$1 per spin to clear a C$500 bonus. The math is unambiguous: this is not a casual offer. Hudson Casino's "best wagering terms" pick (PlayOJO, no-wagering) requires zero of this — which is why it scores at the top of the Bonus Terms criterion in our methodology.

Worked example: trying to clear on blackjack

Same bonus (C$500, 35×), but you decide to clear it on live blackjack (10% contribution) with a C$5 average bet.

Effective turnover: (C$500 × 35) ÷ 0.10 = C$175,000
Spins needed: 175,000 ÷ 5 = 35,000 hands
At 60 hands/hour for live blackjack: 583 hours

This is mathematically infeasible. The operator wrote the contribution rate at 10% specifically so blackjack cannot be used as a low-house-edge clearance path. If you tried this, you would either burn through your bankroll long before clearing the wagering, or you would abandon the play-through and forfeit the bonus.

Caveats

Some operators measure wagering against deposit + bonus, not bonus alone. If yours does, multiply the result by (deposit + bonus) / bonus.
"Sticky" bonuses lock the bonus itself (only winnings cash out) — the calculator still applies, but realized cash-out is different. Most Canadian welcome offers are cashable bonuses, which is what we model by default.
Max-bet rules during wagering aren't shown here. If your operator caps bets at C$2 during wagering and you set the calculator to C$5, the real play time is longer than estimated.
Time-to-clear deadlines (typically 30 days, sometimes 14) aren't modeled. If the calculator estimates 35 hours and the bonus expires in 14 days, that's 2.5 hours/day for two weeks — workable, but not without discipline.

Where to use this

Embedded on our wagering requirements guide and our casino bonuses explained guide, where it pairs with the bonus-EV calculator for full math. The standalone tool here is what we link readers to from operator review pages when they ask "how long will it take me to clear this?"

For the full economic picture of whether the offer is worth taking at all, run the numbers through our bonus EV calculator. For head-to-head comparison of wagering across our ranked operators, use the casino comparator.