Earning Virtual Currency on your Credit Cards

ptorrone wrote to mention an article on the MAKE blog, where the author theorizes that perhaps someday instead of frequent flyer miles we'll get WoW gold or EQ plat as a reward for using our credit cards. From the article: "It's not a matter of if, just when - credit card companies, Pay Pal, Amazon, eBay and the individual "gaming" companies eventually bridge the real and virtual currencies with loyalty programs and private label credit cards - there's too much money out there to -not- to do this. This 'demographic' is the battleground. The more you spend, the more you earn, sorta. Virtual $ isn't a crappy electronics doo-dad, it's just a number in a computer. Maybe you'll get some discounted airline tickets when you hit level 60 too, you deserve it! Earn your way to a new graphics card, why not."

How is this going to work?

[Opportunist]

If you get in-game cash for spending money with your credit card (or whatever "out of game" way), one of two things will happen:

1. Inflation kicks in worse than ever.
2. It gets harder to get money the "normal" way.

All fluff stripped, it's just another way to "buy" in-game currency. So one or the other will happen.