Rakeback Explained: The Formula and Real Numbers per $1,000
Rakeback is a refund of part of the house edge, paid on every bet you place, win or lose. The formula is one line:
rakeback = wager × house edge × rakeback rate
That third factor is the marketing number. The second one, the house edge, is what actually decides how much money comes back. Casinos rarely put the two side by side, so this page does.
Run the formula once and the mystique disappears
Say you wager $1,000 on a Dice-style original at a 5% rakeback rate. The game has a published house edge of 1%. The house’s expected take on your $1,000 is $10. Your rakeback is 5% of that $10: fifty cents.
Now the same $1,000 through a slot with a 96% RTP. House edge 4%, expected take $40, rakeback $2. Still small, but four times the Dice figure, because the edge is four times bigger. Rakeback scales with how expensive the game is, not with how much you deposit.
This is why rakeback deals are cheap for casinos to run on their own originals: the games with the loudest rakeback promotion are usually the games with the smallest edge to give back.
House edge decides the payout, so here are the edges
These are operator-published figures, each from the casino’s own game pages, last checked 2026-07-13. What that returns per $1,000 wagered is computed at a 5% rakeback rate.
| Game type | House edge | House take per $1,000 | Rakeback at 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duel originals (Dice, Crash, Plinko) | 0.1% | $1.00 | $0.05 |
| Stake / Shuffle originals (Dice, Limbo, Crash) | 1% | $10 | $0.50 |
| High-RTP slot (97%) | 3% | $30 | $1.50 |
| Typical slot (96%) | 4% | $40 | $2.00 |
| Low version of a configurable slot (84%) | 16% | $160 | $8.00 |
Read the last row twice. The version of the slot that pays the most rakeback is the version that costs you the most to play. Rakeback never turns a worse game into a better one; it refunds a sliver of a bill you already paid. The full per-casino edge table for originals is on the games page.
What the operators actually run
Terms below are from each operator’s own published pages. Where a casino publishes no figure, that is stated rather than guessed.
- Stake’s help center puts the welcome-offer rakeback at 3.5% of the house edge, and is explicit that this is the welcome offer: there is no classic deposit match. Signup codes can carry their own rates. Details on the Stake code page.
- Gamdom advertises rakeback up to 15%, the highest published rate we track, with one catch in the terms: it must be activated within 6 hours of signup.
- Cloudbet structures its welcome package around 10% rakeback rather than a single match bonus, per its own terms pages.
- Duel went the other way: instead of refunding an edge, it cut the edge to 0.1% on its originals. At that level rakeback is nearly meaningless, which is presumably the point.
- Roobet runs rakeback-style rewards, but publishes few concrete figures. We list what its terms state and leave the rest blank.
Rakeback or a deposit bonus, which is worth more?
A deposit match looks bigger. A 100% match on $1,000 sounds like free money until you price the wagering requirement. At 35x, you must wager $35,000 before withdrawing. Push that through slots with a 4% edge and the expected cost is $1,400. That is more than the $1,000 bonus you were chasing.
Rakeback has no wagering requirement. It is small, it is slow, and it never goes negative. For players who wager a lot anyway, the honest comparison usually favors it. For a one-time deposit, the match can still win if the wagering is low and the game weighting is fair. The traps to check first are in the wagering guide and bonus terms guide.
Do your own numbers
The rakeback calculator runs this formula with your own wager, edge and rate. It takes ten seconds, and it is the fastest way to see whether an offer is generosity or geometry.
18+. Rakeback rates and terms are the operators’, change without notice, and should be confirmed on the operator’s own site. Gambling involves risk. Never bet money you cannot afford to lose. BeGambleAware.org