Bonus offers in online casinos reward the players for their activities or motivate the players to register with a provider. The majority of the online gambling providers offer a bonus on the basis of the first payment. In the past however the so-called cashback bonus became popular. How does the cashback bonus in the online casino function and how dangerous is such an offer?

One of the most important aims of the new State Gambling Act is to “prevent gambling and betting addiction and lay the foundations to effectively fight gambling addiction.” (§ 1 State Gambling Act, GlüStV). There is no doubt that bonus offers attract players to register on a particular platform and deposit money there. However, a regular cashback bonus is much more “dangerous” than a new customer bonus which is used only once. Why? Quite simple: The cashback offers incite the users to continue playing, because the cashback payments often take place daily or weekly. In this way, in particularly bad circumstances, the risk for a gambling addiction can be increased.

Generally, the online casinos award a so-called loss-based cashback bonus. This means, that the player receives a previously determined percentage of the amount wagered by the player as a bonus credit. The players must then use the credited cashback amount in the casino and play with it as real money. Such cashback offers are often also integrated in the VIP programmes of the casinos. Here the percentual cashback amount often increases, depending on the activity and turnover. Further details about the cashback in online casino are further explained here in our suitable glossary entry.

How dangerous is a cashback bonus for casino players?

To begin with we must say that a cashback bonus is basically always something positive. The casino operators pay the players a percentage of their losses back and in this way the players are bound long term to the platform. A win-win situation? Actually yes. However, the effect of such a cashback can be problematic. The gamblers are thus bound long term to the respective platform and are incited to play regularly.

Besides this, the proportional cashback amount often increases with the increase in loss. If for example, a player loses the amount of 100 Euro in a week, this same player will receive a cashback bonus of 2 % (2 Euro cashback). If a player loses 1000 Euro or more, the cashback amount returned will be that of 5 % cashback (40 or 50 Euro cashback). In certain circumstances, the recurring rewards in the form of cashback payments can lead to an increase in the risk of problematic behaviour.

Since they will receive cashback payments some players can feel motivated to stake more money in the online casino than originally planned and thus lose complete control over their gambling behaviour. In an article published in October 2021 we had reported about the fact that lorry drivers are more susceptible to gambling addiction.

Is a cashback bonus appealing?

Basically, one can argue that every casino bonus is appealing. In an article on GambleJoe some time ago, we had for example already compared a bonus without a deposit to a bonus with a deposit. All bonus offers of online casinos give a reward to the users. Naturally the providers here are pursuing their own interests, since they want to advertise and attract new customers and keep the existing players as long as possible. However, in any case, the players will also profit from this. The question therefore is more how appealing a cashback bonus is.

The proportional amount of the cashback offers usually varies between 2 and 5 %. Therefore, if one stakes 100 Euro, he or she will receive between 2 and 5 Euro in the form of bonus credit. In exceptional cases online casinos will also award cashbacks of up to 20 %. One must consider the conditional wagering requirements of the cashback payments. It is very rare that the cashback is posted directly to the real money account without any further wagering being required. In a handbook from Summer 2021 we had described the largest mistakes of gambling novices.

An example: If a player stakes 100 Euro with a cash back of 3 %, the provider will then refund 3 Euro. 35-fold of this amount must then be wagered and thus one would need to wager 105 Euro before the cash back is paid back as credit.

If you have the feeling that you have lost control of your gambling behaviour because of bonus offers, you should take a look at our handbook on “recognising gambling addiction and tackling it”.

Conclusion

Those who do not let cashback bonuses influence their gambling behaviour can enjoy such bonus offers without any worries. It is a challenge not to be incited to gamble more or gamble at higher stakes. One should instead view the cashback bonus in the casino simply as a gift which does not influence the player’s behaviour. If one succeeds in doing so, then the cashback bonus is absolutely not dangerous for players in the online casino.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/euro-banknoten-handschlag-1144835/

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