Obviously everyone makes their own call, but the way I look at it is I don’t want to be sending players where they are going to be badly treated or, ahem, “mistakes” occur. I want my players happy, because they’ll stay longer and I’ll do better with them. Additionally, a lot of savvy players know the “bad apples” and if they see them on my sites, they might not trust me to give them good information. You can’t always get it right, but you can get damn close.
I never take on a casino unless they have been going at least one, probably two years with exceptions for Microgaming and Wagerworks (because they are strictly licenced and backed up by the software providers). RTG aren’t nearly as fussy about who licences their software so you have to be really picky -the Crystal Palace group is a prime example & RTG simply can’t afford to bring them to task. Playtech are only marginally better and neither offer an effective dispute backup service. Some of the smaller casinos also don’t have a backup mechanism so if they run into trouble, there is nowhere official for players to turn. The only truly effective jurisdictions in helping the player are IoM, Gib and Alderney so licensing in these territories also impresses me.
I watch the Meister Rogue list and others and monitor the player forums – if I see regular problems (although I tend to ignore bonus complaints) I remove the casino from my site. I don’t care if a casino offers me 25% or 50% – I’m not here for the short term and if they don’t treat the players the way I’d want to be treated, I’m not interested, and monitoring the player forums and watchdogs is the only real way to keep on top of it all.
In a nutshell – ask yourself, would you play at a casino you represent/promote? If the answer is yes, then you are doing what you believe in.