A sticky bonus is a casino bonus that increases your playing balance but cannot itself be withdrawn. The bonus remains attached to your account throughout the wagering process and is removed when you make an eligible withdrawal.
Because the bonus helps increase your bankroll during play without becoming withdrawable cash, sticky bonuses are sometimes referred to as phantom bonuses.
While they are less flexible than no sticky bonuses, sticky bonuses often come with larger bonus percentages and bigger starting balances.
Marcus Lindahl writes and edits the guides and casino listings on EZCasinoBonus. He works from primary sources rather than from other affiliate sites: where a page states a rule it names the instrument, from Article 29(1) of Malta's Player Protection Directive on payout times to the Kansspelautoriteit's own requirements on bonuses, so any claim can be checked in a click. He covers international markets rather than one country, and the pages say so when a rule applies in only one place. Where a figure cannot be sourced, the pages say so rather than estimating one, and they are updated when the rules change, which in gambling regulation is often.
A sticky bonus is one you can play with but never withdraw. The bonus amount stays attached to your account as playable credit, and when you cash out, it is removed. Only what you won on top comes with you.
The short answer: Sticky means the bonus itself is never yours. You keep the winnings it produced, subject to the wagering requirement and any cap, and the bonus is deducted at withdrawal. The word describes what happens to the bonus, and the important question is whether it also happens to your deposit.
Where the Term Gets Dangerous
There are two structures wearing the same name, and they are not equally acceptable.
In the first, the bonus is sticky and your deposit is not. You can withdraw your own money whenever you like; only the bonus credit is non withdrawable. That is a legitimate and common offer type.
In the second, accepting the bonus locks your deposit too, so nothing at all can leave the account until the wagering is cleared. That version is the one two regulators have moved against.
What Two Regulators Actually Say
Spain’s Royal Decree 958/2020 requires that a promotion cannot make it impossible to withdraw the balance that came from real money deposits. Britain’s Gambling Commission puts the same principle in blunter words: “Players must be allowed to withdraw their deposit balance at any time, including when a bonus is pending or active on the account.” And more directly still, “players must not be made to meet wagering requirements before they can withdraw money from their deposit balance.”
It goes further and publishes examples of terms it treats as prohibited. One of them reads like a definition of the deposit locking version: “Before making any withdrawals from your deposit account, you must first wager the value of this 5 times.”
Read that carefully: It is not the bonus being sticky that the regulator objects to. It is your own deposit being caught by the same lock. In Great Britain, the only compliant version of this offer is one where your deposit stays free to leave at any moment.
Two regulators, different legal traditions, the same answer. Neither of them objects to a bonus being non withdrawable. Both object to your deposit being caught by the same lock.
What You Actually Keep
You deposit
Bonus
Balance after wagering
You withdraw
€100
€100 sticky
€400
€300, because the €100 bonus is removed
€100
€100 sticky
€150
€50, since the bonus comes off first
€100
€100 sticky
€80
Nothing. The balance is below the bonus amount
That third row is the one people do not expect. If the balance falls below the bonus value, there is nothing left to take once the bonus is deducted, including the part that came from your own deposit. Understanding which pot the money is sitting in is what telling bonus funds from your own money is for.
Why Casinos Offer Them at All
Because a sticky bonus is credit rather than a gift, and credit that can never be withdrawn costs the operator far less than cash. The trade is real: sticky offers are often larger and carry lower multipliers than a bonus you could actually cash, because the operator knows it gets the headline amount back.
Whether that trade is good depends on what you want. If you are chasing a big multiple of your deposit, a large sticky bonus with a low requirement can be a better instrument than a small withdrawable one. If you want your money back at the end of an ordinary session, it is the wrong product, and an offer where the bonus is yours to keep does what you actually want.
The question to ask support, in writing: Not “is this bonus sticky”. Ask whether your deposit balance can be withdrawn while the bonus is active. That is the answer that decides whether your own money is at stake, and it is the one the terms are least clear about.
The Cashout Cap Sits On Top
Sticky offers frequently carry a maximum cashout as well, which caps what the whole thing can ever produce regardless of what you win. A large sticky bonus capped at a small figure is a worse instrument than its size suggests, and the cap on what an offer can ever pay out is usually further down the terms than the multiplier.
Where Sticky Bonuses Still Exist
Plenty of places, and the pattern is predictable. Markets with a strict local regulator have squeezed the deposit locking version out, so what survives there is the milder form where only the bonus credit is non withdrawable. Offshore operators serving many countries at once have no equivalent constraint, and the full version is still common there.
That makes the licence a better predictor than the brand. An operator under a regime that requires the deposit balance to stay withdrawable cannot offer you the harsher structure even if it wanted to, while one outside that regime can, and the offer will look identical in the banner either way.
Sticky Free Spins Are a Separate Trap
Free spins are frequently sticky without the word appearing anywhere. The winnings arrive as bonus funds rather than cash, carry a wagering requirement, and are removed if you withdraw before clearing it. The spins were free; the winnings were never yours yet.
This is the specific pattern advertising regulators have taken an interest in. The advertising code guidance on the word “free” in gambling has been in place since February 2014, and its operative principle is that describing an offer as free is misleading where significant conditions qualify the headline claim. An offer calling itself free spins while the winnings sit behind a 35x requirement is exactly the fact pattern that guidance addresses.
How to Spot One Before You Accept
Three checks, none of which takes longer than the deposit itself.
Search the terms for the word “non withdrawable”. That single phrase is the reliable marker. If the bonus is described that way, it is sticky whatever the promotion calls itself
Look for how the bonus is treated at withdrawal. Terms saying the bonus amount is deducted from any cashout are describing the same mechanic in different words
Check what happens to your deposit specifically. This is the one the terms are vaguest about and the one that decides whether your own money is exposed
A test worth running once: Deposit without claiming any bonus and request a small withdrawal the same day. You learn the operator’s real payout behaviour with nothing at stake, and you find out whether the deposit balance moves freely before you ever attach a bonus to it.
Whether to Take One
Take a sticky bonus deliberately or not at all. It is a fine instrument for a specific purpose and a poor default, and the version that locks your deposit is one you should decline anywhere, since two regulators have now said a licensed operator should not be offering it.
The bonus itself is not banned anywhere. What two regulators have ruled against is the version that locks your own deposit. Spain requires that a promotion cannot make a real money deposit unwithdrawable, and Britain requires that players be allowed to withdraw their deposit balance at any time, including while a bonus is active. Two markets, the same protection, arrived at separately.
Not at a Spanish or British licensed operator. The Gambling Commission publishes a five times wagering condition on deposits as an example of a prohibited term. Under other licences it can happen, which makes the licence the thing worth checking before the offer.
With a sticky bonus the bonus credit is removed when you withdraw and you keep only the winnings. With a non-sticky bonus the bonus becomes ordinary money once wagering is complete and leaves with the rest. The second is more valuable at the same size.
It is deducted from the balance. Win up to €400 from a €100 deposit and a €100 sticky bonus, and €300 leaves the account. If the balance is below the bonus value when you cash out, there may be nothing left to take at all.
They are a specific instrument rather than a bad one. Sticky offers are often larger with lower wagering, because the operator recovers the headline amount. That suits chasing a large multiple of a deposit and suits ordinary play badly.
Only deliberately. If you want a big bankroll to swing at a large win and accept that the bonus is never yours, it can be the better offer. If you want your own money back at the end of a normal session, take a non-sticky or wager free offer instead.
The terms will say the bonus is non withdrawable, or that it is deducted from any withdrawal. What they are often less clear about is your deposit, so ask support in writing whether the deposit balance can be withdrawn while the bonus is active.
Usually yes, and often lower ones, which is part of the trade. In Great Britain any wagering requirement on bonus funds has been capped at 10 times since 19 December 2025, sticky or otherwise.
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