Any luck with casino affiliate programs?

[marktheonlinesurfer]

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone had any luck promoting casino affiliate programs? I know Google Adwords banned advertising casionos, but that ban has been lifted for the UK. Also there are many other ways to advertise.

Also the US market is off limits- but there is a huge market in Europe, Australia and Asia.

Wondering what your experiences have been and if you had any success. I heard some people are making six to seven figures in this niche.

Cheers,

Mark

[Simon_Sezs]

Yeah, you can make money by being affiliated with casinos. Right before the US made the law, I was making close to 35k a month, give or take a few thousand. Then the law came, I had my lawyer look it over and it was so murky that he advised I find new "employment". (plus, my main program, pinnacle, was closing all us accounts)

BTW, you make your money from the losses of your affiliates. In other words, all it takes is to bag a couple 'whales' and they will feed you well.

Now that the democrats are in office, the offshore law will soften up a bit and I may re-enter the market.

Oh, and btw..just to give you an idea of how much money there is to be made, the top affiliates were making 500k+ a month.

[Graham Maddison]

Thanks for this thread Mark,
I am also interested in casino/poker affiliate progs as a niche. I am just unsure where i can get a site hosted that doesn't make restrictions. My sites are presently hosted in US.

Graham

[rendell]

It is still a gray area in terms of casino advertisement..
Casino affiliate is big and popular in UK.

Simon, 500k a month!!
Can you recommend me some sites to take a look?

[Alan Petersen]

Dream on if you think UIGEA will change with the democrats in office. The DOJ is it's own beast and they started putting on the squeeze starting with the Clinton administration. The Las Vegas casino lobby wants this law regardless of which political party is in office.

Still worth to sign the repeal UIGEA petition, you never know what might happend:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/306149419

[Simon_Sezs]

Originally Posted by rendell

It is still a gray area in terms of casino advertisement..
Casino affiliate is big and popular in UK.

Simon, 500k a month!!
Can you recommend me some sites to take a look?

Well, back in the day, I was an affiliate with Pinnacle and Bet365 (those were the ones that made me the most money). You can check out USbets.com.

All of the gambling aff programs are pretty much the same...all will pay you 20% of you people's losses

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

Dream on if you think UIGEA will change with the democrats in office. The DOJ is it's own beast and they started putting on the squeeze starting with the Clinton administration. The Las Vegas casino lobby wants this law regardless of which political party is in office.

Still worth to sign the repeal UIGEA petition, you never know what might happend:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/306149419

Yeah, I never thought that they would repeal their stand. What I do know is that democrats typically leave the fringe stuff alone and it is typically business as usual. Republicans tend to make stands on what they consider to be moral issues.

BTW, the bill wouldn't pass largely b/c of the democrats until it was added into the terrorist port act which forced even those that were against the bill in the past (it would have been political suicide to vote the terrorist port act down).

Offshore Gambling for US citizens will probably always be illegal. However, I think that a country controlled by the democratic caucus will be more lenient on those that promote offshore companies. Then again, maybe not.

Just curious....did you take a hit too?

what promotion methods did you use if you do not mind me asking

[Simon_Sezs]

I actually ran a small forum for a bit and promoted it via forums...make money forums, sports forums, ect. I went into vertical markets to cherry pick new sign-ups, ect.

I also had several blogs that focused on long tail keywords and acted as a funnel. (for organic traffic)

I did some other stuff as well, but most were blackhat so I wouldn't feel right discussing them here on this forum.

[AverageGuy]

does it mean we can NOT promote casino as affiliate in US now? or, as long as the hosting is not in US, it is ok? not know much about this, want a clearn answer.


thanks

david

[Simon_Sezs]

Originally Posted by AverageGuy

does it mean we can NOT promote casino as affiliate in US now? or, as long as the hosting is not in US, it is ok? not know much about this, want a clearn answer.


thanks

david

From what I gathered from my lawyer, the law as written is very murky and leaves the option open for the feds to bust you if you are a US citizen promoting casinos.

It is all a matter of how they interpret it.

[AverageGuy]

thanks. however, if I'm not a US citizen, although I'm living in US now, if I put the hosting overseas, could they bust this? sounds like complex,


thanks again.

david

Originally Posted by Simon_Sezs

if you are a US citizen promoting casinos.

[Simon_Sezs]

Originally Posted by AverageGuy

thanks. however, if I'm not a US citizen, although I'm living in US now, if I put the hosting overseas, could they bust this? sounds like complex,


thanks again.

david

Probably not, but I am not a lawyer. Chances are you won't get busted even if you are a US citizen but considering that it is a federal offense, I walked away...and trust me...I looked at every possible scenario to continue rolling in the jack..in the end, I decided that as long as there was a republican in office, I wouldn't risk it.

[Simon_Sezs]

AverageGuy,

If you do decide to pull the trigger, hit the adult webmaster forums...those guys are ahead of the game in terms of SEO and you will learn so much more than the regular same old, same old SEO that people speak and repeat.

Also, pay serious attention to keywords and silo the site out to cover a range of keywords....think of the vertical markets...for instance, if you are aiming for sports gambling, there are a ton of sports forums that you can kind of creep around in. (I know, that is an obvious one).