Cheers
Simmo!
It is a matter of the poker rooms expecting affiliates to pay the promos instead of paying them themselves.
As for stealing players – it is rampant. If you don’t offer rake back, and you promote a room that allows affiliate driven rake back, you can kiss your players good bye. I am not going to explain how to steal players, but believe me, it is very possible at all pokers, every one of them. And it is done all the time.
Also, lots of fraudulent rake back affiliates out there will promise rake back, sign the player under their name, and then disappear and never pay the player. If the player likes the room, he will keep playing anyway and the aff keeps getting paid for stolen players whom he screwed…
And, rakeback is only attractive if you deposit a lot of money every month. Otherwise the bonuses are a lot more useful to players. Unscrupulous rake back affiliates will sell rake back to any and every player they can steal. Players lose out.
The rake back model breeds a criminal element and a very bad subculture that will come back to haunt both other affiliates and the industry alike.