Although I do not give rakeback I did make the statement at the conference that it is the players driving rakeback and not nessacarily the rakeback affiliates. I believe this is the case at least 80% of the time.

So to Beanie's defense, he is not out poaching our players nor is he even advertising anywhere. (all word of mouth) It is our big players that are going to these rakeback affiliates asking to be switched. I feel confident in saying that Beanie or a few of my other friends who do rakeback would NOT encourage a player to sign up a new account, but the reality is that most will. Or they will simply get them to another room which in essence has the same end result for us non-rakeback affiliates.

This is such a complex issue the industry is currently facing. And unfortunately I don't believe it is going to get better anytime in the near future.

At the end of the day the responsibility falls on the double standards of the card rooms themselves. Most have no policies about rakeback and in fact make under the table deals with rakeback affiliates offering higher percentages right from the start.

Likewise none will say it publicly but if a high producing player were to sign up with a new account after learning about rakeback, some card rooms will turn a blind eye before they will risk losing that player to another site ........trust me, it happens.

If rakeback is such a great assett to the poker industry in general, I would ask why NO live card rooms give it and why the top 3 online poker sites dont participate in it either?