Allseing, you have already known my “loving” about your sites 
It makes me always feel so good to see such a great design, IA, etc..
But good points there… Sometimes I also used to think about what makes a site good, because I see a lot of poorly designed sites, and despite the lack of good navigation and tons of banners : these sites sell!
I’m sure you all know those one-page-100-miles-long websites.. and they convert…
Maybe the clue could be the cultural differences (between Europe and America) and the definition of the target market. (What is a default gambler looks like – I don’t mean how tall he is, but from what niche could he come. What is his background? – I don’t really know…) Sometimes I have an urge feeling to throw a lot of banners into my site to help conversions, but when I think it over I always come to the conclusion that I hate banners on sites, so I don’t want my visitors to hate my site.. 
But maybe I am wrong, and my visitors want a truck of banners to their face