This could be an effect of California law that doesn't allow businesses to expire gift certificates. They have to honor it as long as they're still in business.
The whole ruse is because people store so much data with Google and dont want to bother with backing it up/cant back it up easily (i dont know, i never used G that much)
Plus, email is your everything now. Its your login, its your invoice book.
> Your Google Account contains a gift card with a monetary balance.
So, all I need to do to keep a Google Account active indefinitely is just link an unspent $10 gift card to the account? Sweet!