an interest free loan, that's why it has "gift" in the name.
It works the same way as lending the money directly to a person, gift cards are simply more convenient to handle and are safer than cash, but other than that it's just a gift in the form of cash, no matter how many intermediaries are between the sender and the receiver, the input and the output will always match exactly.
If, for example, I give my friend Alex $20 to buy something for his little daughter but Alex uses it to bet on a football match and loses it, Alex has to take some money from his pocket and then buy the gift with his own money. Which is not different than saying he spent his money on the bet and bought the gift with the money I gave him.
If otherwise Alex wins, he will still buy the gift, but he will also have increased the initial sum by an x% which he can keep (or maybe try his luck again)
Buying a gift card is the same process, the company holding the money at one point has to give back something of the same exact value, it doesn't matter what they do with the money in between, what matters to the sender and the receiver is that the amount printed on the card is fully available at the check out (which is just lik getting the amount in cash and then paying with that)
It works the same way as lending the money directly to a person, gift cards are simply more convenient to handle and are safer than cash, but other than that it's just a gift in the form of cash, no matter how many intermediaries are between the sender and the receiver, the input and the output will always match exactly.
If, for example, I give my friend Alex $20 to buy something for his little daughter but Alex uses it to bet on a football match and loses it, Alex has to take some money from his pocket and then buy the gift with his own money. Which is not different than saying he spent his money on the bet and bought the gift with the money I gave him.
If otherwise Alex wins, he will still buy the gift, but he will also have increased the initial sum by an x% which he can keep (or maybe try his luck again)
Buying a gift card is the same process, the company holding the money at one point has to give back something of the same exact value, it doesn't matter what they do with the money in between, what matters to the sender and the receiver is that the amount printed on the card is fully available at the check out (which is just lik getting the amount in cash and then paying with that)