What Is a Sticky Bonus?

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.

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.”

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

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Because a sticky bonus is credit rather than a gift, and credit that can never be withdrawn costs the operator far less than cash.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 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

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.

Check the licence before the terms, because the licence decides whether that protection exists at all. Casinos grouped by their regulator shows which regime an operator answers to, and offers where the bonus is withdrawable are the straightforward alternative if none of this appeals.

Frequently Asked Questions