“Rake backs are an excellent idea – but should NOT come out of the affiliate’s pocket. If a Poker Room were to offer rakebacks to it’s players, both affiliates and players would flock there. It would be a very sensible way of promoting a room for the operator – sells better than bonuses, no abuse possible, and players only get it when they play.”
It hasn’t worked out that well for Gus Hansens site Pokerchamps.
“While no system is perfect, UltimateBet has procedures in place that ensure a player can’t create multiple accounts tagged to different affiliates.”
This does not directly address the problem. When I played more online poker I had accounts at about 15 different rooms, but when I learned about rakeback I found a deal with an affiliate promoting yet another room and started playing there so the other 15 rooms were out (theoretically). So the affiliates and the sites lost a player (me). In addition, I was able to simply switch sites within the same network so everything was the same but the skin. Now that I have started in the affiliate end, I despise rakeback and hope to never be forced to offer it.