Yes, I really want to know what is the answer to this for popular names.
A part of the money is lost between spywares redirecting our commissions (or landing ads on our sites), rips offs and tracking problems. I am sure in a perfect world we all would be doing DOUBLE of what we do normally without changing anything.
As for SE, yes, traffic is very very low. As a matter of example, I am still first for “internet gambling guide” at Google and I rarely receive hits. And I was in the top five before for “internet gambling” at Google, and I was receiving maybe one hit a day. Now I am in fourth page and I really don’t care because this keyphrase was not worth the investment in time.
I am sure a good part of the money is done without portals, with direct leads. Don’t forget, the affiliate marketign is only one marketing tactics big online casinos uses (the most profitable maybe). As for small ones, I think they all start with the affiliate program and some sort of small investment via email marketing.
What I regret is that we never see overall financial results of online casinos. I would be really interested to know numbers for some online casinos (I already asked to some managers but they never wanted to give numbers – sure -). One thing I know is that REAL big players are spending $300,000.00 per month in online casinos (one player). But they are very rare. And I am not sure if affiliate programs/casinos would be willing to pay the affiliate (if any) $100,000 per month for only one player. I am sure there are arrangements made by online casinos. But that’s my opinion!