Minimum deposit
A minimum deposit is the smallest amount an online casino or betting site will accept in a single payment into your account. Anything below it is rejected at the cashier before the money leaves your bank. The figure is set by each operator, and it can change depending on the payment method you pick, so the number on the home page is not always the one you meet at checkout.
How the minimum deposit is set
There is no single industry figure. Each operator writes its own floor into the payment terms, and it is usually a flat amount in euro rather than a percentage of anything.
The floor often differs between methods on the same site. Debit cards, e-wallets such as PayPal or Skrill and bank transfers each carry their own processing costs, and the operator may set a higher minimum for the method that costs it more to handle.
Read the method, not the headline.
Where you meet the limit
You will find the figure in the cashier itself, normally shown beside each payment option, and again in the payment or banking section of the terms.
What I check first is whether the cashier and the terms page agree, because the two are not always updated together. When they differ, the terms page is the document the operator is bound by, and it is worth asking support to confirm which one applies before you pay.
Minimum deposit versus bonus qualifying deposit
The term most often mixed up with it is the qualifying deposit for a welcome offer. That second figure is the least you must pay in to trigger the bonus or free spins, and it can sit well above the cashier minimum.
So a deposit can be accepted and still earn nothing extra.
Some offers also exclude certain e-wallets from qualifying altogether, which means the method you choose decides whether the promotion applies at all. The minimum withdrawal is a separate limit again, set on the way out rather than the way in, and it is not guaranteed to match the deposit floor.
