Cashback

Cashback is quoted as a percentage of losses over a stated window. Everything about its value sits in the definitions, and the percentage alone does not tell you what they are.

The first definition is the loss itself. Net losses over the period, deposits minus withdrawals, losses on named games only, or losses net of any bonus already received — these produce materially different numbers from the same play. The second definition is what arrives: real money you can withdraw at once, or bonus funds carrying a wagering requirement of their own.

That second question is the one most worth asking first, because cashback paid as bonus funds is not a refund. It is a further offer, and in Great Britain it falls under the same rule as any other: the Gambling Commission's provision 5.1.1 caps a wagering requirement at ten times the bonus funds, and defines the term: "A wagering requirement is where a customer is required to make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable." As with every rule we quote, that is Great Britain's, and we have not established what other regulators require.

Cashback is the one bonus whose value is tied to losing rather than to depositing or playing, and that is worth sitting with. An offer calculated on losses rewards the losses. If a cashback percentage is part of why a session continued, it has stopped being a rebate and started being an incentive.

And watch for the particular trap in this one. Cashback is calculated on losing, so the worse a session goes the more the offer returns — which can make continuing feel like recovering. It is not. A percentage of a loss is still a loss. If a cashback figure is part of why you are still playing, stop and check the number against what you set out to spend, and only gamble with money you can afford to lose.

One limit on everything above: this page is about real-money casino offers. A sweepstakes casino calculates and returns its own currencies on its own terms, which we have not researched, so nothing here describes how cashback works on one.

Cashback hides more in its definitions than any other bonus type, so read in this order.

• Cash or bonus funds? If it arrives as bonus funds, check whether a wagering requirement comes with it — where one does, it is not a refund. Settle this before anything else.
• How a loss is defined. Net of withdrawals? Net of bonuses already credited? On all games or some? The same week of play produces different answers under each.
• The period, and when it resets. A window that closes before you would otherwise have stopped changes how the offer behaves, so find its length and its reset.
• Minimum and maximum. Look for a loss floor below which nothing is returned, and a ceiling above which nothing more is.
• Whether opting in is required, and by when.

Under provision 5.1.9 a British licensee must provide "all significant conditions which apply to marketing incentives" transparently and prominently, and must present them at the point of sale and on the advertising itself. One click is that provision's fallback, available only where "limitations of space make this impossible" — so in Great Britain the default is no clicks at all, not one. A cashback definition you cannot find at the offer is worth treating with suspicion wherever you are playing.