The loyalty card, read line by line

Field 1What a loyalty programme actually is

Almost every operator runs two systems at once. The first is the ordinary account: you deposit, you stake, the house edge applies, and the game maths decide the long-run result. The second is the reward layer: a tier ladder, a points balance, a rakeback or cashback rate, and sometimes a named host. The reward layer is, in plain terms, a schedule of partial returns on the first system, priced so that the operator still keeps a margin.

The important consequence is the direction of the money. Nothing on a loyalty programme creates value for you that did not come out of player turnover, and a reward is always smaller than the expected loss that earned it. That does not make the programmes worthless — a returning player who would have played anyway is better off with the rebate than without it — but it does mean the honest question is never is this a good reward. It is what percentage of my expected loss comes back, and what do I have to do to keep it.

• Tier ladder
• Points balance
• Rakeback
• Cashback
• Comps
• Host
• Status match

Field 2The five moving parts

Every loyalty programme is some combination of five things, and they are worth separating because each is guarded by different conditions and each misleads in a different way. Only the first two are usually explained in a table; the rest tend to live in the terms and in a host's discretion.

Field 3What this site is for

This site is an educational desk, not a promotion. It explains the mechanics in the order a player meets them — the ladder, the points, the returns, the comps, the host, the offers — then does the uncomfortable arithmetic at the end and gathers the false beliefs. It is part of a longer series in which each entry takes one corner of gambling and explains it plainly.

• What you earn
• What it costs
• How it is measured
• What to keep
• What to doubt