Jeremy Enke discusses the the highs and lows of being a full time poker affiliate.

Often times when looking from the outside in, it would appear that being a full time poker affiliate or casino affiliate is the best job in the world.  After all you can work whatever hours you want, you can sleep in, stay up late, and really you don't have any boss looking over your shoulder telling you what to do.  Even better, you are working in the gambling industry on the "house side" and reaping the benefits of one of the most lucrative industries in the world.

Don't get me wrong now with the subject of this article, I love my job and being a full time poker affiliate is extremely rewarding.  But to all the young webmasters out there who think it is a cakewalk, it really isn't.  I feel qualified to discuss the subject of the highs and lows of being a poker affiliate because I have seen it from every angle.  There is nothing we can do about the recent legislation, but when your a full time poker affiliate and see a great % of your income dissipate, it stings a bit.  I still stand behind my last article about being positive, but lets explore some of the downfalls in this career.

The Good, The Bad, the Ugly

1. Lack of social work environment - This is something I have never really thought about until the recent weeks.  Before transitioning into being a full time affiliate I worked in sales for a couple Fortune 500 companies.  Mind you, it was daily grind, but having "co-workers" and people in the office or on the sales team to interact with on a daily basis was so nice.  Chatting on MSN and Skype only provides you with so much social interaction in a day.  I remember saying I could never sit in a cubicle and work all day and that Corporate America sucked, BUT here I am sitting in my office by myself behind this computer yet another day.  Maybe it's just because I have a very social attitude and enjoy being on a team, but to go along with the subject of this article, this would be one of the definite lows.

2. Health Insurance - Unsteady Income - Money Management - If you're young and healthy, more than likely you just see the $$$ in being a full-time poker affiliate.  But, one of the things that really blows is the health care system in the U.S.  For example I have private health insurance for me and my family, but it costs me over $1000 a month and the coverage is not that great. I remember the good old days of a small deduction out of my two week check and having a prescription drug card. Oh and Dental Insurance, yea right.........I had to have a root canal and a crown at the tune of $1600 out of pocket last week.......I wonder if they take Neteller debit cards...LOL.  With that said, the income we as full time affiliates have sometimes can fluctuate just as much as professional players, especially if you depend on casino or sportsbook revenue.  Trying to explain to your significant other that the month looked really good until some blackjack player wiped out a huge portion of your profits on the 29th can be tricky. 

Managing your money over the long term can be very difficult in this field as well.  Unfortunately the income is unsteady and you always find yourself getting into new investments or spending more than you expected on marketing.  So the old days of contributing 10% of my income to my companies 401K is just a memory.  Now it's more like, hey I had a great month, I should move some of that into my Fidelity account.

3. The Political and Legal Landscape - After what we have all been through in the last few weeks, I shouldn't even put this here because it is so self explanatory.  But this has always been the reality, even before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act - H.R. 4954 passed.  Pretty much every aspect of a professional poker affiliates job revolves around gray areas.  Even worse sometimes however is trying to defend your career choice or even worse explain what it is that we do.  Unfortunately, the political and legal landscape of being an online poker affiliate or casino affiliate is not going to get any clearer in the months to come.

BUT WAIT............

Being a full time poker affiliate is still the best job in the world.  Of course there are headaches and obstacles, for example all the things listed above.  But at the end of the day another favorite quote of mine holds true "A job ain't nothing but work".  However the beauty of this job is that it allows you both freedom from Corporate America as well as well as financial freedom.  The gambling affiliate industry is one of the richest and most cash heavy industries in the world.  The average American yearly salary is around $30K per year.  I personally know several affiliates who are making these figures each month and probably doing half the amount of work than the "Average American" grinding it out in their cubicles.

I decided to write this article not to be negative, but because I had lunch today with a friend who has the impression that being a poker affiliate is the easiest job in the world and really has no downside.  I agree it is "the best" job in the world, but to think that there is no downside to any career is silly. I often get emails from friends and fellow poker affiliates asking about going full time.  It IS big decision to go full-time as a poker affiliate, and I encourage you to see past the big $$$ and look at the whole picture when contemplating the decision.

The above quote was directly hijacked from our friends at FullTiltPoker.com. :)