Regulatory Protection For Affiliates?

[bonustreak]

https://www.gamblinginsider.com/in-...mpaign=Roost&utm_source=Roost&utm_medium=push


Really good read, I would love to hear what you all think!

 

[AussieDave]

I enjoyed the read too. Though, it's bias towards operators.
The comparision made to affiliates and sellers of concert tickets, I could see that mindset fitting within the guise of a CPA, but certainly not Rev-Share.

• Do I think affiliates need some type of protection, yes I do.
• Do I think regulatory bodies where a casino is licensed, should also veto all aspects of casino/aff program operations, yes.

Making sure a casino is not operated by crooks, is just as important as making sure a aff program is not dodgy also. He's correct, we don't have a shotgun held to our head, to sign up. But neither do players either. That came across as a bit of throw off. A means to invalidate our genuine concerns.

All this regulations and what not, have made our industry a mine field.

I was happy when it wasn't regulated.

Sure it was bit like the 'Wild West', but, we were all making bags of cash. Players were being paid (most of the time) and it was just so much simpler, easy.

I'm glad I'm not a noob these days. I'm not even sure I'd bother with it to be honest, if I was starting afresh.

 

[Shay]

I would love to see independent auditing of programs for tracking.

Not enough of us are willing to call bullshit and hold affiliate programs to their terms (which are again a contract).

 

[onlinecasinoscloud1]

It does not sound too seriously: "Affiliates should not be entitled to the same protection as consumers precisely because they are not consumers"

So it means that this is a business, and all programs can cheat webmasters, but not customers hehhe, now I feel as if all program old or new cheated webmasters and had it deep in a..

 

[slotplayer]

Hard for me to complain too much as its easy money.

 

[AussieDave]

I would love to see independent auditing of programs for tracking.

I would too BUT the only way this would ever work, is if the 3'rd party (independent) auditor, had direct access to stats, anytime of day. It's all too easy for programs to fudge a database. I've seen way too much iffyness over the years, to know, what we're feed as affiliates and what auditors are given, doesn't amount to much, if any credibility.

If MGS data can be fudged, tags removed from players, and double databases easily aquired by an MGS aff program, then, I'm sure fudged db's are more common than we think.

 

[AussieDave]

Hard for me to complain too much as its easy money.

But at some point you would have invested considerable time/effort and money into obtaining that"easy money", now.
I wont be the 1'st to say this or the last BUT heard it more than a few times ove the years, from different sources...what we make as affiliates, we should be getting paid about 3x that. Becuase that's what we actually earn.

I don't like being ripped off, even if what I'm making is "easy money" per se.

 

[slotplayer]

But at some point you would have invested considerable time/effort and money into obtaining that"easy money", now.
I wont be the 1'st to say this or the last BUT heard it more than a few times ove the years, from different sources...what we make as affiliates, we should be getting paid about 3x that. Becuase that's what we actually earn.

I don't like being ripped off, even if what I'm making is "easy money" per se.

What isn't an investment?

 

[Shay]

It does not sound too seriously: "Affiliates should not be entitled to the same protection as consumers precisely because they are not consumers"

So it means that this is a business, and all programs can cheat webmasters, but not customers hehhe, now I feel as if all program old or new cheated webmasters and had it deep in a..

I took it to mean that we are not customers. Instead, we have a business relationship governed by business/contract law. Thus, consumer protection is not afforded to us. Business and contract law is the means by which we are protected IF we choose to protect ourselves in any way.

 

[i-man]

I too think there should be some level of protection for affiliates as we are the driving force behind this industry. It is not easy working so hard in such a competitive industry to send paying customers to an operator only to not be paid what was agreed upon or worst not been paid at all.

We as affiliate spend our money, our time and long hours to help these operators make money only to be left to the mercy of their due diligence. The affiliate industry help improve the lives of many people and also help boost economies so i will vote for affiliate protection anytime.

Hard for me to complain too much as its easy money

There is no easy money in this because 100s of affiliates don't make i dime monthly.

 

[onlinecasinoscloud1]

I understand it, but for example. webmasters sends players to the brands, webmaster helps if the player has a problem with the brand (less or more That can expand this in the long conversation), but the end who will help the webmasters, if the program untagged players or add fake negative number in the stats, that nobody cares, important is business grow with awards and sponsorships, and I mean small sites without facilities like portals/ forums worth millions. This is usually underground for a webmaster without rules say something is wrong to aff manager and then wonder why none of the permanent player no longer plays

 

[Kadabra]

Hard for me to complain too much as its easy money.

That's not easy money at all. Maybe it was in 2000 or 2004, but it is not now.

In any case, it completely doesn't matter. If you know what you are doing then investing in stocks and companies can also be called easy money - that doesn't mean the companies can cheat in their reports. If they are caught doing so - they go to prison.

Here, there is no protection whatsoever. This is something that I really couldn't believe when I first entered affiliate marketing. Till then, I didn't have to "trust" the company/person I was doing bussiness with. And he didn't have to trust me. This whole idea of trusting an affiliate program - we all got used to - but it's ridiculous. Basically they can all do whatever they want and we won't have anything to do about it.

So first, I don't trust any aff company. I don't even think about it. I just check clicks vs bottom line, that's the only thing i care about.

There can't be trust when only one side holding a gun.

 

[AussieDave]

@Kadabra - mate that's one solid post there. Kudos, well said

Aside from players going MIA etc, there's that magic word, chargeback.

Ask yourself this...how many times has any affiliate program sent you an email, about a chargeback. In 16 years, I can name 3 times. Once was with FA way back in 2011 (when I was making them a pretty penny). The other, Shane (AM) over at Referback. The rest of the time, I only discovered it when the EOM stats didn't add up to commission received.

Where this becomes questionable for me...
95% of my player base is AU, the rest NZ. since around 2013 in AU, the banks have stepped up their CC security measures. To use a (stolen) CC at an online casino, is almost impossible. Depending on the bank, you need to know the persons DOB & some card details. Others require you to enter your banking p/w. And, then there is 24/7 card transaction monitoring. No to mention, with all the licensed sportsbooks out here, no too many banks are keen to accept a charge back, when it's associated with gambling. I'm of the firm opinion, most believe the customer has indeed used the card to buy credit, lost that money and then, screamed chargeback.

Way too many times I think chargebacks are faked. Just another way to steal money from affiliates.

There's just so many ways affiliates can get shafted... W're never given any proof. Instead we just have to trust, we're not being lied to.

 

[slotplayer]

I too think there should be some level of protection for affiliates as we are the driving force behind this industry. It is not easy working so hard in such a competitive industry to send paying customers to an operator only to not be paid what was agreed upon or worst not been paid at all.

We as affiliate spend our money, our time and long hours to help these operators make money only to be left to the mercy of their due diligence. The affiliate industry help improve the lives of many people and also help boost economies so i will vote for affiliate protection anytime.



There is no easy money in this because 100s of affiliates don't make i dime monthly.

Compared to my retail business its easy money.

 

[slotplayer]

I might add if you think this industry is competitive, the retail industry is just as competitive if not more.

 

[TheGooner]

It's always interesting to hear the views of fellow affiliates about the industry - and a topic like this is sure to bring in all points of view.

For an online gaming affiliate currently there are very few protections, and accordingly the best action is to only work with high quality programs. Unfortunately, few affiliates do the legwork to find out the REAL situation of the group that they promote, and many part-time or fly-by-night affiliate simply promote the highest paying CPA group.

This situation means that there are hundreds of bootleg / unlicensed / unmonitored operators out there and thousands of affiliates and black-hat traffic guys sending large amounts of traffic to them, it creates a very unstable environment with many bad operators, and this means that serious affiliates also get caught up in their activities as well.

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Is there a solution ?

I am against nearly all forms of regulation and government interference. Government authorities know little about commercial practice, add huge levels of red tape for very little gain.

There is an argument that a licensing body could extend their licensing process to some form of monitoring certainly on the gaming and playing side :
- Games offered should be monitored
- Customer monies should be in "trust accounts" and not able to be used by companies for general spending and expenses.

But this is not done, and it's laughable to think that many of the more exotic jurisdictions (I'm looking at you Beleize, Curacao and Costa Rica) do anything more than rubber stamp applications and collect the annual license fees. Even the big organisations like Malta, Gibraltar and UK, seem to do little more than monitor advertising and respond to customer complaint - there is is very little active compliance monitoring of gambling activities.

So what chance is there of legislation, or regulation of things like employment or commercial sales activities (affiliates must fit somewhere in here) ? Can we really expect any organisation to agree to have a 3rd-party insert themselves into a gambling company and monitor / audit customer numbers, distribution and sales agreement and the like?

And even if such a company did exist - the cost of this compliance would be significant, resulting in extra costs and charges, and likely a lower payout for affiliates. Which in turn would mean that the company would be shunned by many affiliates as not providing an acceptable return.

Finally, consider that much of what we do, and promote falls into a gray space. And when I say "gray" I mean
- Australian Online Casino Players? Not legal according to Australia.
- US Online Sports Betting? Not legal according to the United States.
- UK Online gamers at non-UK licensed outfits? Not legal according to the UK
- Promoting offshore sports betting to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand? Their Goverments ban this.
- Advertising real-money games to New Zealand players? Not legal according to NZ Gambling Board.

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SUMMARY :
We live in an online world - our product is virtual, banned in many countries and misunderstood in many others - and we can, and DO, easily slip between nations boundaries and laws when it suits us. The chances of getting this environment legislated and regulated and monitored is very, very close to ZERO.

 

[AussieDave]

I might add if you think this industry is competitive, the retail industry is just as competitive if not more.

I'd side with that statement. Though, the comparision is a moot point, here.

 

[slotplayer]

I'd side with that statement. Though, the comparison is a moot point, here.

I try and focus on how good I have and not complain endlessly. I look around in my travels and see people doing their jobs, like the coke/pepsi lugging in cases and cases of soda in to the shops or the UPS/FedX guys delivering endless packages. Even the Latinos down the street at the 24 petrol station pumping fuel in 12 hour shift for peanuts in the cold nasty winter or this brutal heat wave we're having.

That keeps it all in perspective. That's all I'm trying to say.

 

[falseadoom]

It isn't easy money at all, it can be good money but I would never call it easy.

 

[slotplayer]

About the only other easier money is my drop ship site I did in 2008, customer pays me, I pay the supplier, the supplier ship it to the customer.