Luke's Lazy Referrals

Miscellaneous

InKind 

Updated 2025-06-18

• Offer: $25 off $50+ (before tax & tip)

  • Precludes you from normal sign up bonus of $20 off $60+

  • Credit works with gift cards 

    • Costco often sells $100 gift cards for 30% to 40% off

    • InKind app offers wallet reload discounts but requires min $500 prepay for a 25% bonus

• Link: https://app.inkind.com/refer/QWTTGFQ8

• Verdict

  • It's okay - depends on your location and habits.

• Other considerations

  • Requires using an app to pay your bill but it works fine.

    • You ask for the bill number and key it into the app. It's slower than tap-to-pay when using at takeout places

  • Around Chicago, decent options include: 

    • Upscale restaurants like Rosebud and Labriola and takeout places like Stan's and Protein Bar amongst others

    • Canal Street Eatery has Paisano's Fridays (and Saturdays) - all you can eat pizza and pasta for $20.

      • $12-$14 per person if you churn gift cards. Less if you stack with sign up bonus

Shopping Portals

• Shopping portals offer modest rebates when purchasing items from major retailers through them

• The catch is that they monetize your purchasing history and incentivize greater consumption

• They typically offer browser extensions for convenience but work without them

• I use cashbackmonitor to find the highest redemption

• Airline shopping portals are useful to keep accounts active and prevent miles from expiring

Rakuten

Updated 2025-06-18

• Offer: $30 rebate off purchase of $30+

  • Typically higher sign up bonus around Christmas

• Link: www.rakuten.com/r/LAALEC?eeid=28187

• Verdict

  • Easy cashback via PayPal or check. I've only had one issue with a missing rebate and customer service eventually credited me for it

• Other considerations

  • Eligible Amex holders can earn rebates in the form of Amex Membership rewards points rather than cash

TopCashBack

Updated 2025-06-18

• Offer: You get nothing. I get $35—that doesn't seem very fair

• Link: https://www.topcashback.com/ref/giardiniera

• Verdict

  • Takes for cashback to credit

  • Cashback pays out in prepaid credit card or gift card

  • Crummy UI and less established than others

Gambling Websites

Argh, beware the hooks! 

Sports betting companies offer great sign up bonuses with the intent  to "hook" a new generation of gambling addicts. 

The initial sign up bonuses have positive expected value. The companies lose money acquiring new costumers because they've calculated a small percentage of those customers will ultimately subsidize everyone else

The apps algorithmically lure you into gambling. They're far too accessible, dangerously over-marketed, and a huge fucking societal mistake. It's cigarettes for a new generation. How is this shit still legal to advertise!? 

For ethical reasons, I won't include referrals. With that being said,  if you want to pursue these new customer sign up bonuses, I recommend waiting for a book sporting event like the start of the NFL season for higher bonuses.

In a state where it's legal, a 21+ individual can game a few thousand dollars via "matched betting." That is, a user signs up for Book A where they get a "risk-free bet" up to a $1000 stake. That is, if they lose, they are reimbursed $1000 in "free bets". However, these "free bets" do not pay out the stake. If you gamble $1000 in free bets on a +100 odds  bet, the app will only pay you $1000; whereas, if you win a $1000 real money +100 odds bet, the app pays your stake, $1000, and the earnings, $1000, for a total of $2000.

So, to arbitrage these free bets, users can sign up for 2+ books and bet opposite sides of the same bet. For example, on Book A, I max out my $1000 risk free bet on the Chicago Bears winning this Sunday at -110 odds. On Book B, I max out my $1000 risk free bet on the Chicago Bears losing this Sunday at -110 odds.

Tip: to calculate earnings for positive odds, put the odds in the numerator over 100. For negative odds, put the odds in the denominator below 100

+110 -> stake * 110/100 (win 110% of your stake—indicates a  less likely outcome)

-140 -> 100/140 (win 71% of your stake—indicates a likelier outcome)

In this scenario, you're guaranteed to win 1 bet (stake + $909), lose the other $1000, and get $1000 in free bets. While you lose $91 upfront, you make it back and then some with the $1000 in free bets.

You can then repeat the scheme in another matched bet or make a bunch of small bets with your risk free bets which should have an expected value of half your free bets, $500 (law of large numbers). You can use basic probability theory to bet uneven amounts against each other by leveraging odds. For example, if Book C only offers $500 in risk-free bets and Book D offers $1000 in risk-free bets, to guarantee a consistent outcome, you could leverage odds to your favor by playing the $500 bet on a +200 odds event (stake + $1000) and the $1000 bet on a -200 odds event (stake + $500).

So, in essence, that's how you can reliably churn sportsbook sign up bonuses. Sign up bonuses boost expected value. Matched betting is a technique to guarantee positive returns from profitable bets without the risk of a loss.

$1000 in free bets sounds like a lot of free money! But it's largely marketing. 

A free bet of $1,000 has an expected return of just 41% or $410 in profit.

Math for a $1,000 risk-free bet (risks walking away with $0 but has positive return)

Assume book takes 9% commission on an even probability event (standard -110 odds)

Iterate 2 rounds of betting. Each line item has a 25% chance of happening

Win and Win ((1000*1.91)) + (1000*.91) = 2820

Loss and Loss: 0

Win and Loss ((1000*1.91)) + 0 = 1910

Loss and Win (1000*.91) = 910

[ (.25 * 2820) + (.25 * 0) + (.25 * 1910) + (.25 * 910) ] - 1000 = 410

$410 profit

A risk-free bet has the same expected return as a deposit match.

Additional Notes

Typically, for 50/50 odds, the gambling sites take a 9% commission (otherwise referred to as juice). A 50/50 probability event (+100) is juiced to -110. 

It's a safe assumption that the gambling site odds indicate the true odds of the event happening. So, we cannot beat them by arbitraging for different rates against other books or by being very good at sports gambling. There's too much margin in their commission to do this (in reality, some people profitted from wide spreads across gambling sites but they've implemented algorithms to catch this behavior and ban users for it)

Always read the fine print and seek out recent feedback from other users. Sometimes, a risk-free bet can only be used in certain increments. Risk free bets typically expire soon after earning them. To guarantee a profit, I recommend doing plenty of planning and double checking your calculations.