Any large issuer of gift cards has an income stream from gift card breakage to the tune of a few percentage points of their outstanding gift card obligations each year.

Imagine a business where people give you cash and don’t ask for 5% or so of it back. Meanwhile your use of that cash is regulated with a feather (compared to a bank or other deposit-taker) and you can earn some yield while you wait for people to ask for their money back.

Gift cards are very lucrative at scale.