VIP and loyalty programmes

Loyalty schemes are presented as gifts, and the arithmetic presents them as something more modest, a refund of a small share of the money wagered. A player who wagers $20,000 a month on slots with a house edge averaging 4 per cent expects to lose $800, and if the scheme returns points worth 0.2 per cent of "turnover" (the total of all bets placed) the refund comes to $40, one twentieth of the expected loss.

This page sets out what the main kinds of reward give back, which are points on turnover, cashback on losses, tiers and invitation-only "VIP" treatment. It also sets out what each costs at the "house edge" of the games played (the share of every bet that a game keeps on average), and it ends with the checks that a licensed operator owes a high spender in Great Britain, which we have read on the Gambling Commission's site.

What a point is worth

A point, or a "comp" in the trade, is worth what the conversion table says (points per dollar wagered, dollars per hundred points), and you will usually find that table in the terms of the scheme rather than on its page of promises. A scheme that gives one point for every $5 wagered and exchanges 100 points for $1 pays one cent for every $5, which is 0.2 per cent; the player of our example, with $20,000 of bets, collects 4,000 points and $40.

The effect on the price of play is therefore small: net of points, the edge of 4 per cent becomes 3.8 per cent. The scheme lowers the cost of the month without changing its sign. Three clauses can lower it further: a minimum to redeem, an expiry for unused points, and conversion into bonus money (with a wagering of its own).

If the $40 arrive as a bonus with a "wagering" of 15 times (the bets required before it becomes cash), the player must bet another $600, which costs $24 on average at the same edge, and the refund shrinks to $16. Our guide to wagering requirements explains the mechanism.

Points on turnover, cashback on losses

A "cashback" works the other way round, because it is calculated on losses and not on bets, usually on "net losses" (what went in minus what came out over the period, by the definition the terms give). A cashback of 10 per cent paid in cash returns $80 in a month that ends at the expected loss, twice what the points pay.

In a month that ends in profit it returns nothing, a detail that a headline rate does not show. Credited instead as bonus money to be wagered 5 times, the same $80 require $400 of further bets, which cost $16 at 4 per cent, so the net refund falls to $64, still more than the points but no longer twice as much.

What $20,000 of slot bets at a 4 per cent edge costs under each scheme (hypothetical player, one month)

Scheme	Refund in a month that ends at the expected loss	Cost of that month
No scheme	$0	$800 (4.0%)
Points worth 0.2% of turnover, paid in cash	$40	$760 (3.8%)
The same points paid as a bonus at 15 times	about $16	about $784
Cashback of 10% of net losses, in cash	$80	$720 (3.6%)
The same cashback as a bonus at 5 times	about $64	about $736

The game decides the price of a status

The same $20,000 wagered at blackjack with basic strategy (the set of decisions that minimises the edge), where the edge is about half a per cent, carries an expected loss of $100 instead of $800, and the same points would then return 40 per cent of that loss. A scheme that credits table games at one fifth of the slot rate pays the blackjack player of our example $8 on $20,000 of bets; the terms of each scheme say which rate applies to which game.

The point is not that you should choose games for their points, but that the game sets the price of a status. A status reached at slots costs eight times what the same turnover costs at a blackjack table played well, and a scheme that ranks players by turnover ranks them, in practice, by what they pay to the house!

Tiers and the cost of keeping one

Many schemes are built in "tiers" (levels with names such as silver or gold), each with a turnover that must be reached and then kept. Suppose a tier requires $60,000 of bets a quarter and raises the value of points from 0.2 to 0.3 per cent (a rise of one half): a player who would otherwise bet $20,000 a quarter, and plays $60,000 to keep the tier, collects $140 more in points and adds $1,600 to the expected loss!

The British guidance names this trap, asking that tiered schemes do not lead to "gambling excessively to obtain (or retain) a grade or status". In a group that shares one programme, such as the sixteen casinos of Casino Rewards, the status follows the player from brand to brand (see casino groups).

Invitation-only VIP and the checks a licensed operator owes

Above the published tiers many operators keep a level reached only by invitation, with an "account manager" (a member of staff assigned to the customer), personal bonuses, gifts and events, and it is on this level that the British regulator has written specific rules.

In Great Britain the Gambling Commission's code on rewards (SR code 5.1.1) requires that a scheme designated "high value", "VIP" or equivalent be offered "in a manner which is consistent with the licensing objectives", and that licensees take into account its guidance on high value customer incentives, dated 30 September 2020. The same code caps at 10 times the wagering on bonus funds, which limits what a VIP bonus can cost a British player in bets.

The guidance is precise about what comes before an invitation. A licensee should be able to show three checks before making a customer a "high value customer": that the spending is affordable and sustainable as part of leisure spending, that there are no signs of harm or heightened vulnerability, and an up-to-date record of identity, occupation and source of funds (what the guidance calls "enhanced due diligence").

The account is then to be reviewed at least quarterly (more often if the risk changes), a named person "at senior executive level or equivalent" answers for the programme, and when a customer fails any of the checks the status "should be suspended immediately". Staff should not be paid on a customer's losses, and personalised incentives stop as soon as the customer asks to leave the programme.

Outside Great Britain these rules do not apply to you, and most operators on this site serve the international market under other licences (Malta, Alderney, Kahnawake, Curaçao and others) whose rules on high spenders we have not reviewed for this page; we would not assume the British protections, and we would read the terms of a VIP programme with the same care as those of a bonus.

When a VIP offer deserves a no

Three situations call for a refusal, in our view. The first is an offer that arrives after a heavy loss, which the British guidance excludes when it says that incentives should not be timed to periods of excessive play or significant losses; the second is a status that can only be kept by playing more than planned, which is the arithmetic of the tiers above.

The third is a private message offering "VIP status" or a reserved bonus against a deposit through a link, which is not how a licensed operator recruits and is described on our page on money scams. If a scheme has started to set the pace of your play, the tools on our responsible gambling page are the place to go, and leaving the programme costs nothing but the points.

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By the Rand Casinos editorial team · Last updated October 2026 · Online since 2007