Corruption in Online Poker Room Reviews
Thousands of websites are giving their opinions on what the best
poker rooms are. Almost every poker or gambling related website
includes a poker room reviews section. But can these reviews
actually be trusted?
The answer is no, most of the reviews aren't genuine. Where
there's money there's corruption, and there's a lot of money in
the online poker industry. Even the largest poker sites ranking
high in search engines will adjust their reviews based on how
much a particular poker room is paying them
Online poker sites pay their affiliates a fixed amount of money
to sign up players through their site. The problem is that
instead of writing reviews on the poker sites, they make up the
reviews based on how much money they're getting paid. I've seen
poker rooms that are notorious for having the worst quality
software and no traffic ranking #1 on many popular poker room
reviews sites, just because those rooms offer more money for
sign ups.
The poker rooms don't want you giving them negative ratings. If
you read an affiliate terms and conditions policy it will
explain that you're obligated to promote them, "As widely and
aggressively as possible so as to maximize the financial benefit
to affiliate and to company." So this means that poker rooms
won't even let you give them any negative reviews or else
they'll ban you from their program.
What ends up happening is many poker room review sites recommend
EVERY poker room. All of the poker rooms they rate get a 5/5 or
very close to it. Bad aspects of the room are ignored because
the 'job' as an affiliate isn't to give honest advice; it's to
sell the room to the readers.
But don't worry; online poker isn't filled with only cheats and
liars. My site, for one, has detailed and honest poker room
reviews. If you can sift through those review sites giving
obvious false reviews you'll find a bunch giving valuable
information. Just be aware that many exist only to make money
from you.