A no sticky bonus (also known as a non‑sticky bonus) is a casino bonus where your deposit and bonus are kept separate. This means your real money is used first, and your deposit can usually be withdrawn at any time.
No sticky bonuses combine flexibility with bonus value, making them a popular choice for players who want more control over withdrawals while still benefiting from casino promotions.
A non sticky bonus keeps your own money and the bonus in separate pots, and lets you withdraw the first without touching the second. You play with your deposit first. Only when that is gone does the bonus activate, and until it does you can walk away with whatever is left.
The short answer: Your deposit stays yours. Win with it before the bonus is ever touched and you can withdraw immediately, wagering requirement untouched, because the requirement never attached to your money in the first place.
The mechanic is simple once you see the order of play, and the order is the whole thing.
| Stage | What you are playing with | What you can withdraw |
|---|---|---|
| You deposit €100 and claim a €100 bonus | Your €100, first | The full €100 of your own money, any time |
| You run the deposit up to €400 | Still your own money | All €400. The bonus was never activated |
| You lose the €100 instead | The bonus now activates | Nothing until the wagering requirement is met |
That middle row is the entire appeal. A good early run and you leave with the winnings and no obligation, because the bonus sat unused the whole time. The alternative structure, where the bonus and your deposit are locked together from the first spin, is the sticky version and what it costs you.
Worth knowing before you treat it as a differentiator, because in some markets it is not one.
Spain requires that a promotion cannot make it impossible to withdraw the balance that came from real money deposits. Britain puts it more bluntly still: players “must be allowed to withdraw their deposit balance at any time, including when a bonus is pending or active on the account”.
So read the claim against the licence: In a market with that rule, an operator advertising a non sticky bonus is advertising the legal minimum. In a market without it, the same words are a real commitment that a competitor down the page has not made. The banner is identical either way.
This is the part worth taking away, because it replaces reading terms with checking behaviour.
Cancel the request either way. You have your answer and you have not spent anything to get it.
Because a non sticky bonus is cheap for the operator most of the time. Most players lose the deposit, at which point the bonus activates and behaves exactly like an ordinary one. The generosity only costs the casino in the minority of sessions that go well early, and those are the sessions that make players come back.
It also removes the single most common complaint in the category, which is a player who won with their own money and discovered they could not take it out. That is worth something to an operator quite apart from the marketing.
These get confused constantly and they solve different problems.
| Non sticky | Wager free | |
|---|---|---|
| What is protected | Your deposit, until the bonus activates | The winnings, which are withdrawable immediately |
| Is there a wagering requirement? | Yes, on the bonus, once it activates | No, that is the entire point |
| Where the catch usually sits | The bonus behaves normally once you lose the deposit | The maximum cashout, which is almost always present |
The two are not exclusive and the best offers are both. If the wagering is what puts you off rather than the lock on your deposit, offers with no wagering at all address that directly, and what a wager free offer actually costs explains where the constraint moves to instead.
One thing that is still true of a non sticky offer: The bonus half is an ordinary bonus. Once your deposit is gone, the wagering requirement, the contribution table, the max bet rule and the cashout cap all apply exactly as they would anywhere. Non sticky protects the start of the session, not the end of it.
Compare the bonus half as you would any offer, because that is what you are actually being given. The non sticky structure is a condition on when it starts, not a discount on what it demands.
So check what the multiplier applies to, what contributes, the cap, and the deadline, using the same four numbers that price any bonus. A non sticky offer with a 45x requirement and a low cap is worse than a sticky one at 20x with none, whatever the label promises.
Players who deposit meaningful amounts and stop when they are ahead. The structure rewards exactly that behaviour and rewards nothing else, because if you play until the deposit is gone you are in an ordinary bonus and the label bought you nothing.
If that is not how you play, the honest answer is that a larger sticky offer at a lower multiplier may serve you better. The non sticky offers currently available in your country carry their terms alongside them, so the comparison can be made on the numbers rather than on the wording.
That your deposit and the bonus are held separately, and you play with your own money first. If you win before the deposit runs out, you can withdraw those winnings without meeting any wagering requirement, because the bonus was never activated.
Test it rather than read about it. Deposit, claim the offer, and request a small withdrawal before placing any bet. If the cashier allows it your deposit is free. If it refuses or warns that the bonus will be forfeited, it is sticky whatever the promotion called it. Cancel the request either way.
Yes, that is the defining feature. In Spain and Britain it is also a legal requirement rather than a courtesy: a promotion may not make a real money deposit unwithdrawable, and players must be able to withdraw the deposit balance at any time even with a bonus active.
At the same size and multiplier, yes, clearly. Across different offers, not automatically. A sticky bonus is often larger with lower wagering, and a non sticky offer with a 45x requirement and a low cashout cap is the worse instrument despite the label.
Non sticky protects your deposit until the bonus activates, and the bonus still carries a wagering requirement. Wager free removes the requirement entirely but almost always replaces it with a maximum cashout. They solve different problems and the best offers do both.
No. It applies to the bonus half exactly as it would anywhere, once your own deposit is gone. What non sticky changes is whether the requirement ever becomes relevant, not what it demands when it does.
Because most players lose the deposit, at which point the offer behaves like an ordinary bonus. It costs the operator only in the minority of sessions that go well early, and it removes the most common complaint in the category, which is a player unable to withdraw money they won with their own funds.
It depends how you play. The structure rewards depositing a meaningful amount and stopping when ahead, and rewards nothing else. If you tend to play until the balance is gone, you end up in the bonus half regardless and a larger offer at a lower multiplier would have served you better.
