Playing With Bonus Balance on Cooked

Cash plays first, bonus plays second

Every wager you place pulls from your cash balance until it hits zero. Only then do the next wagers start drawing from your bonus balance. You can see both balances at the top of the lobby, and the active one is highlighted while you play.

What that means in practice: until your cash is spent, your bets do not contribute to the wagering requirement. So if you opted in to a bonus and you are still playing through your deposit, the progress bar in Promotions will not move. That is expected.

How wagering contribution works

Cooked bonuses have a 25x wagering requirement on the bonus amount. Every wager placed on bonus balance contributes to that target, but not at the same rate.

• Slots: 100% contribution
• Originals (Dice, Crash, Limbo, Plinko): 50%
• Live Casino: 10%
• Table Games: 5%

A $1 slot spin counts as $1 of wagering. A $1 blackjack hand counts as $0.05. That is the difference between clearing a $100 bonus in a few hundred spins versus a few thousand hands.

The fastest path

If you only care about clearing the bonus, slots are the right answer. The math is simple: lowest contribution gap, no decision skill that variance can punish, and the spin-per-minute rate is the highest of any category.

If you want to mix in originals because the pace is more fun, that is fine. Just be aware they only count for half, so the rollover takes twice as many wagers at the same stake.

Live casino and table games are not really viable as a clearing strategy. At 5-10% contribution, a $100 bonus with a 25x requirement turns into $25,000-$50,000 of wagering. That is not a path, it is a punishment.

Stake sizing

The instinct on a bonus is to crank the stake to clear it faster. Resist it. Variance hurts more on shorter sessions, and the goal is to finish with bonus balance still in the tank, not to bust to zero halfway through the rollover.

A reasonable rule: pick a stake where the bonus amount is at least 50 spins. A $100 bonus at $2 a spin gives you 50 spins of cushion before variance even matters. At $20 a spin, five bad spins ends the run.

Mid-volatility slots with frequent small hits clear bonuses better than high-volatility slots with rare big hits. The big hits feel good but they cluster, and a cold streak on a high-volatility title will eat the bonus before the first hit lands.

What does not count

• Sports bets and Sportspook markets
• Any single sport selection at odds below 1.5
• Anything tagged "Bonus excluded" on the game card in the lobby

The Promotions screen lists the exclusion rules for whichever bonus is active. Check it before you commit a session to a specific game.

Cashing out

Once the Wagering remaining bar hits zero, the bonus balance converts to cash automatically. No claim button, no waiting period. The amount that was bonus becomes real money you can withdraw or keep playing with under normal cash rules.

If you bust the bonus to zero before clearing, the rollover ends with it. No clawback, no negative balance, just the offer closed out.

Tracking it live

Profile > Promotions shows a live progress bar for every active bonus. Watch Wagering remaining rather than total wagered, since the remaining number is what matters for finishing. The bar updates instantly after each bet settles, so you can pace your session against it.