Game weighting is the percentage of each stake that counts toward a bonus’s wagering requirement. Paddy Power’s help centre states that a £100 bet on Craps counts as £5 and a £100 bet on Blackjack as £10. At those rates, a requirement that a full-weight game clears with £100 of stakes takes £2,000 on craps and £1,000 on blackjack.
This is an evergreen explainer, not news. The question of what is game weighting in casino bonuses is answered in operators’ terms, and the terms are what this desk read. On 17 October 2026 we read Paddy Power’s help-centre page on standard game weightings, William Hill’s page on Stake and Get promotions, and the Gambling Commission’s text of SR Code 5.1.1 together with its announcement of the 10x cap. Neither operator page carries a date, and terms change; everything below is what the pages said that day.
What is game weighting in casino bonuses, in the operators’ own words?
Paddy Power’s page opens with the definition: stakes on some of its games “might not count in full” toward the bonus wagering requirement and instead “have a percentage contribution”. It adds that most bonuses carry standard game weightings, but tells the reader to check the terms of each promotion. The scope line is the one that matters: the Game Weighting Table applies to all standard Paddy Power Casino bonuses “unless otherwise stated” in the promotion’s own terms and conditions.
William Hill’s page uses a different label, “stake contribution”, and defines it as the percentage of the total stake on promotion games that must come from the bonus balance and so go toward the wagering requirement. That page is about Stake and Get promotions specifically, and nothing here extends it to William Hill’s other offers. It says some promotion games have different stake contributions, set out in a table, and that low-risk chip coverage will not contribute toward the staking or wagering requirement of the promotion.
One scoping note. On both pages, as this desk read them, the tables themselves did not come back as text. The percentages in this post are therefore derived from the figures Paddy Power states in its worked examples, and no other percentage is attributed to either operator.
How does game weighting affect wagering requirements?
It changes how much money has to move to clear the same number. Paddy Power works two examples against a £2,000 requirement: a £100 bet on Craps is calculated as £5, so the requirement falls to £1,995; a £100 bet on Blackjack is calculated as £10, so it falls to £1,990. Those are 5 percent and 10 percent, by this desk’s division of the operator’s own figures.
The table below runs those two rates through two requirements: a £10 bonus at the British maximum of 10x, which is £100 of wagering, and Paddy Power’s own £2,000 example. The full-weight row is illustration, not a Paddy Power figure.
| Game | Paddy Power’s example | Weighting | Stakes to clear £100 | Stakes to clear £2,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craps | £100 counts as £5 | 5% | £2,000 | £40,000 |
| Blackjack | £100 counts as £10 | 10% | £1,000 | £20,000 |
| A game counting in full (illustration) | £100 counts as £100 | 100% | £100 | £2,000 |
The headline multiple is the same in every row. The money staked differs twentyfold between the first row and the last.
Does the UK’s 10x cap change game weighting?
Not directly. SR Code 5.1.1 says the Commission’s licensees must not apply wagering requirements over a maximum of 10 times, and defines a wagering requirement as wagers totalling a particular value before funds become withdrawable. That paragraph, as read on 17 October, sets the multiple; it does not mention weighting. The Commission’s announcement priced the old position with a £10 bonus at 50 times needing £500 of play, and the cap has applied since 19 January 2026, as set out in what is the maximum wagering requirement in the UK.
So in Great Britain the multiple is capped and the weighting decides the rest. On Paddy Power’s craps figure, a capped £10 bonus still asks for £2,000 of stakes, four times the £500 the Commission used to illustrate the old regime. The cap is a British rule; Ontario’s AGCO Standards, as read for that post, set no number, as is there a cap on wagering requirements in Ontario explains, and other markets were not checked here.
For how weighting sits beside the match percentage, the expiry clock and the rest of a standard offer, see the welcome match bonus, audited.
Questions readers ask
What is game weighting in casino bonuses?
It is the percentage of a stake that counts toward a bonus wagering requirement. Paddy Power’s help centre calls it a percentage contribution: a £100 bet on Craps counts as £5, a £100 bet on Blackjack as £10. The lower the weighting, the more money has to be staked to clear the same requirement. The promotion’s own terms decide which table applies.
Why do casinos use game weighting?
Neither operator help page this desk read on 17 October 2026 gives a reason, so this post does not supply one. What weighting does is mechanical: it raises the stake needed to clear a requirement on the games it discounts. Paddy Power’s page adds that, according to its table, slots are the most efficient way to complete wagering requirements.
Which games count 100% towards wagering requirements?
That depends on the operator’s table and the promotion’s terms. Paddy Power’s help page, as read, says slots are the most efficient way to complete wagering, but the percentages in its table did not come back as text, so no slots figure is printed here. The full-weight row in this post’s table is an illustration, not Paddy Power data.
Does blackjack count towards wagering requirements?
At Paddy Power, partly. Its help centre states that a £100 bet on Blackjack is calculated as £10 for wagering requirements, which is a 10 percent contribution. On a £10 bonus at the British maximum of 10x, that means £1,000 of blackjack stakes to clear £100 of wagering. Another operator, or another promotion, can set a different figure or exclude the game.
The multiple is the number on the banner; the weighting is the number that sets the bill, and it sits in the promotion’s terms, which can override the standard table. Read the current ones before opting in. Bonus Wire publishes no bonus codes and runs no sign-up funnels. 18+; gamble responsibly, and if play has stopped being a leisure expense, begambleaware.org.