When a Gift Club Promotion Pushes RTP Above 100%

Gift Club's paid mini-games are priced from a 95% return-to-player target. Deals are the exception: three run at a time, the board is topped up on the hour and half hour, and one of them, the Stars boost, lifts a box or scratch card past 100%: each boost is sized so the product's expected return reaches 102%, for 5 to 15 opens. Separately, a Monday cashback pays back 10% of a week's net loss, up to 20% with a crew. This page explains each deal, which one crosses 100%, and what the others do instead.

1. The baseline a deal moves

Return to player is the share of everything staked that a game pays back, averaged over a very large number of rounds. Gift Club's paid mini-games are priced from a 95% target that lives in the backend configuration, and each game's guide prints the multiplier table it is derived from. Boxes and scratch cards are priced per product rather than from one shared figure, so they are not listed here.

A deal does not rewrite any of those tables. It changes something on the side: what a Stars win pays, what happens to a gift you win, or what you get back after a loss. Everything below follows from which of these a deal touches.

2. The five deals

As of October 8, 2026, the generator draws a deal type by weight, then picks a box, scratch card, prize wheel or game that has no deal on it yet. Five types are in the draw:

Two more appear on the same board without taking a slot or a draw. Double streak opens every day from 14:00 to 20:00 UTC and doubles the Sparks of your next streak claim. A discount on sealing a box for a friend (5% off, up to 3 seals each) can also join the draw, but it is switched off by default.

3. The one that goes over 100%

A Stars boost is the only deal that lifts a product's return above 100%. While it runs on a box or scratch card, every Stars win from it is increased by the deal's percentage before it is credited. A gift win stays the gift.

The percentage is not drawn from a list. It is fitted to the product: the smallest whole percent that brings that box's or card's whole expected return, gifts included, to 102%. Never less than +5%, never more than +50%. A product that would need more than +50% gets no Stars boost at all, so a boost labelled as taking the return over 100% always does.

• 102% by the prize table, with a margin. The percent is a whole number, and each boosted win is rounded up to a whole Star (a 3-Star win under +7% pays 4), so the boosted prize table returns 102% or slightly above. The engine's per-player rules, such as the guaranteed first open and cooldowns, move individual draws; the two points above 100% are the margin that keeps a boosted product over 100% through them.
• 5 to 15 opens per deal. Every open paid in Stars uses one, win or not. When they are gone the deal ends, even if its timer has time left.
• Scratch cards are capped harder: at most +25%, and at most three card boosts a UTC day. Prize wheels get no Stars boost.

The house edge is not reduced. It is overpaid, out of the deals budget, for a fixed number of opens, and sizing each boost to 102% rather than a flat +30% is what lets boosts come round more often.

4. What the other deals do

No-loss applies to a gift you win from the promoted box, card or wheel. Tap Upgrade within 5 minutes of winning it, and if the upgrade wheel misses, the gift stays yours. The protected spin is priced at a 25% house edge instead of the usual 5%, so the chance shown before you spin is lower. Even so, a miss costs nothing, so on average a protected spin is worth more than the gift you put in. That is why it is limited: one protected spin per gift, one per player per deal, about 8 per deal, and any extra Stars you add to the spin are spent either way.

Full-price exchange lets you swap a gift won from the promoted product for its full value in Stars instead of the usual 75%. It only counts gifts won after the deal started. It removes the exchange cut; it does not lift the product above its own return. NFTs are not covered.

Big prize hour doubles every top Stars prize on one box or card and makes top prizes land about half as often, so the product returns about the same. It ends at the first doubled top prize, whoever wins it.

Spark cushion sits on one game for a few hours. When it ends, each player gets 1 Spark back per 2 Stars they lost there on Stars rounds, net of wins, up to 20 Sparks. Sparks are the free currency, so the game's Stars return is still its published figure.

5. Three at a time, on the half hour

A background scheduler wakes at :00 and :30 UTC and tops the board back up to three deals you can still take. It only fills empty slots, nothing is cancelled early to make room, and it never puts two deals on the same product or more than two of one type on the board.

• Most deals run 2–4 hours; Big prize hour runs 2–3. Every deal ends on a round :00 or :30.
• Claim counts are jittered. A Stars boost carries anywhere from 5 to 15 opens; no-loss and full-price exchange vary by about a seventh either way, so the limit is not a round number you can count down to.
• Spark cushion and Double streak are per player, so they never sell out.

The practical consequence: a deal's end time is an upper bound, not a schedule. A Stars boost on a popular box can use its opens long before its timer runs out.

6. Catching one

Live deals appear on the home screen and on the games hub, each with its time left and, where it has one, how many claims are left. There is no code to enter and no opt-in: the deal applies automatically when you open, scratch, play or exchange on the promoted product.

If you want the arithmetic behind the baseline a deal is moving, every game's published figure is listed in the RTP index, and the method behind the results themselves is in how to verify a round.

7. How does the Monday cashback work?

Every Monday, Gift Club pays back 10% of your net loss from the week before (Monday to Sunday, UTC) in the currency you played: Stars for Stars, Gram for Gram. It is on for 30 days after a top-up of 50 Stars or more, or a Gram deposit of 1 or more, and your crew can lift the rate to 20%.

As of October 7, 2026:

Who gets it	Anyone who topped up 50 Stars or more, or deposited 1 or more, in the last 30 days. Either one switches on both currencies. A top-up bonus doesn't count.
Rate	10% alone. 12%, 14%, 16% or 20% with 1, 2, 3 or 5 crew members who played 3 days that week. An invited friend starts at 12%.
What counts	Boxes, scratch cards, prize wheels and single-player games. PvP duels don't. The counted loss is capped at what you topped up or deposited in the last 30 days.
Smallest payout	5 Stars or 0.10. Less pays nothing, and nothing carries over.
Floor	At least 5 Stars when you staked 500 Stars or more and the week ended down. In Gram, 0.25 at 25 staked.
Claim window	Monday 00:00 to Wednesday 23:59 UTC. After that it lapses.
Doubling	One top-up of your Stars cashback amount, from 50 up to 250 Stars, made after Monday's payout and before the deadline, doubles the Stars. One deposit of your Gram cashback, from 1 up to 5, doubles the Gram. The extra is capped at 250 Stars (5).
Paid to	Your in-app balance. In-app Stars can't be redeemed or withdrawn.

In the app, the cashback card sits on the Crew tab with your rate, your crew and the time left until Monday. On Monday the amount arrives as a message to claim.

Does the cashback change the return?

A little, and only in a week that ends down. Take a game priced at 95%: if a week ends down by exactly the expected 5% of what you staked, a 10% cashback hands back half a percentage point of the stake, so that week returns 95.5% instead of 95%. At a crew's 20% it returns 96%. The floor matters most for a small week: 5 Stars on 500 Stars staked is 1% of the stake.

Can the cashback push a week above 100%?

Not through the rate. It pays back a share of a net loss, a fifth at most, so a week that ended down still ends down. The floor is the one exception: a week of 500 Stars staked that ended 2 Stars down still pays 5 Stars, so it closes 3 Stars up. Box opens made under a Stars boost don't count toward those 500 Stars, so a boost can't be used to reach the floor.

8. What this does not mean

• It is not a standing rate. The 102% applies to opens of one box or card while its Stars boost lasts, 5 to 15 of them. Your own return over a month is dominated by the ordinary rate, because that is what almost every round pays.
• Above 100% is still a gamble. An expected return over 100% does not make an individual open a win: a boosted box still pays less than its price on many opens. Variance does not care about the deals budget.
• Games keep their published figure. Stars boosts, no-loss, full-price exchange and Big prize hour attach to boxes, scratch cards and prize wheels. The only deal on a game is the Spark cushion, which pays free Sparks, so a game's Stars return is its published figure, deal or no deal. The Monday cashback is the one perk that pays Stars back on games too, and only after a week that ended down.

9. FAQ

Can the return really go above 100%?

Yes, on a box or scratch card under an active Stars boost. Each boost is sized for its product so its expected return, by the prize table, reaches at least 102%: two points of margin over 100%. It is paid from a fixed budget rather than by changing the odds, which is why it lasts 5 to 15 opens and a few hours.

How big is a Stars boost?

Whatever that product needs to reach 102%, in whole percent: never under +5% and never over +50%, and at most +25% on a scratch card. A product that would need more gets no Stars boost.

Does Gift Club have cashback?

Yes. Every Monday it pays back 10% of the previous week's net loss, up to 20% with a crew, to anyone who topped up 50 Stars or more, or deposited 1 or more, in the last 30 days. It is paid from 5 Stars or 0.10 and can be claimed until Wednesday 23:59 UTC.

How do I get a higher cashback rate?

Through your crew. The rate is 12%, 14%, 16% or 20% with 1, 2, 3 or 5 crew members who played 3 days that week. A friend who joins your crew starts at 12%, because you count as one member of theirs.

Do I need a promo code?

No. There are no codes. A deal is attached to a specific box, card, wheel or game, and it applies automatically to anyone who plays that product while it lasts.

Why did the deal disappear before its timer ran out?

Because its claims ran out. A Stars boost ends after 5 to 15 opens, no-loss after about 8 protected spins, a full-price exchange after about 20 exchanges, and Big prize hour at its first doubled top prize, whichever comes before the timer.

How often do new ones appear?

The scheduler runs at :00 and :30 UTC and refills the board to three deals. Most run 2–4 hours and all end on a round half hour, so several new ones appear over a day. Double streak opens every day at 14:00 UTC on top of the three.

Is the no-loss deal strictly better?

For one spin, it is worth more than the gift on average, because a miss keeps the gift. The chance shown before you spin is lower, since the spin is priced at a 25% house edge rather than 5%, and you get one protected spin per gift and per deal, within 5 minutes of winning the gift.

Related reading

• Telegram game RTP index — the published figure for every game, and the tables behind them.
• How to verify a provably fair round — checking a result rather than trusting one.
• Telegram gifts glossary — RTP, house edge and the rest of the vocabulary in one place.
• Gift Club in Telegram — live deals are listed on the home screen.