GGR, NGR, % commission... - how they scam you 💩

[FreeSpins]

What I hate most about casino affiliate programmes is their hidden costs and other absurd deductions when calculating commissions. Earn ‘50, 60 or even 70% with us!’ - such slogans can be found on a daily basis, but most of them are so-called powdered crap. After analysing more than 100 affiliate programmes, I have come to the conclusion that most of them use unfair practices, i.e. robbing customers through “hidden” - invisible to the affiliate - costs, administrative fees, taxes, and other crap they will never tell you about. Interestingly, these most “robbing” parameters are always invisible from the partner's panel, and when asked to disclose them, we are often told that they are sensitive data? Sensitive to what? That the thievery will be revealed?

BTW, can you imagine, for example, a payroll where you have it written that you earn 200k and they pay you 100k, without giving details of the calculations (deductions), i.e. from gross to net?

[casinobonusguy]

I had a similar conversation today with a program that claims not to have any NCO.I last got paid in February by them
Here are unpaid amounts
April 2025 352.34
June 2025 $55.47
July 2025 $53.77
August 2025 $22.84
Sept 2025 $77.77


May was -$278.12 .

After consultation today they said I had a $200 chargeback too so I am only owed $98.21 .The said they have no NCO so I really don't know how to reconcile this ,what do you guys think I am owed?

[wonderpunter]

What I hate most about casino affiliate programmes is their hidden costs and other absurd deductions when calculating commissions. Earn ‘50, 60 or even 70% with us!’ - such slogans can be found on a daily basis, but most of them are so-called powdered crap. After analysing more than 100 affiliate programmes, I have come to the conclusion that most of them use unfair practices, i.e. robbing customers through “hidden” - invisible to the affiliate - costs, administrative fees, taxes, and other crap they will never tell you about. Interestingly, these most “robbing” parameters are always invisible from the partner's panel, and when asked to disclose them, we are often told that they are sensitive data? Sensitive to what? That the thievery will be revealed?

BTW, can you imagine, for example, a payroll where you have it written that you earn 200k and they pay you 100k, without giving details of the calculations (deductions), i.e. from gross to net?

it's worse than that.. some places you send them 200k.. and you make 1 or 2 k lol.. We all know that nobody is that lucky and the odds are not against the house. That's why if you have decent traffic then just drop them or cover large fixed fee's

[patdog]

Yes, you're absolutely right about the hidden fees, some programs do play border with their GGR, NGR math.
But let's be honest: many affiliates today also expect everything.


They want:
NCO
Sub-affiliate system
Lifetime revenue
Instant payouts
High-converting landing pages & custom creatives
Personal affiliate manager 24/7
Hybrid deals
No admin fees, no taxes, no BS deductions
And on top of that, they still expect 60–70% rev share.


That's just not sustainable for any serious operator.
The truth is: the best programs are transparent, not magical.
If a brand pays 70%, they're taking that money from somewhere else, usually by cutting player value, support, or retention.


So yeah, call out the scammers, 100%.
But also, affiliates need to stop pretending every casino can pay 70% forever while offering all the perks.
The math just doesn't add up.

[kid]

ngr can deviate from ggr, that's basically bonuses/comps and transaction/agent fees. Operators are not incentivized (and many wouldn't afford to) to screw with their acquisition channels. I'd guess if the operator is not fraudulent already, anything that may look weird boils down to employee mistake/incompetence, legacy systems or fraud user activity

[FreeSpins]

Fraud through the manipulation of commission calculations is one thing, but there are others, even more serious:

- detagging high rollers and frequent players from your affiliate account (manually in proprietary aff programs, by marking them as “self-excluded” or “duplicated” so that you can no longer earn from them)
- manually removing the above-mentioned players from your account when migrating to a new affiliate system (such modifications are possible when generating/uploading a .CSV file)
- Imposing time limits on your referred players' accounts so that you are no longer able to earn from them lifelong
- adding new T&Cs and applying them retroactively to limit your earnings from already referred players (e.g. increasing the limit of minimum FTDs/month to maintain your earnings).
- closing casinos/affiliate programs so that they can “legally” steal your players and commissions and upload them to a new casino but without your participation.

and there are many other issues...


It is worth building awareness and knowledge among aff partners and demanding full access and transparency from aff programmes.

Don't be fooled. Be aware!

[Cash Bonus]

The biggest issue for me, is the program admin fee. I've seen some crazy program admin fees that even go as high as 60%.

[wonderpunter]

But even with high % comms or low percent admin fee the only thing that really counts is how well it does for you as affiliate. I have some programs that pay just 45% but makle 10 more than those at 50 because of all the backend work that goes into the player to keep them ahppy and playing long term.

[worthy]

Don't forget the cookie duration. It used to be 30, 60, or 90 days. Now, session cookies are used.

[Pokerface]

Some programs will do what they can to claw back money from affiliates or through "flexible" T&C's that only favour the operator. There are some ridiculous programs that I move on from. Not worth the effort. Best to work with friendlier programs and get rid of the bad ones.

[Theratman]

Some programs will do what they can to claw back money from affiliates or through "flexible" T&C's that only favour the operator. There are some ridiculous programs that I move on from. Not worth the effort. Best to work with friendlier programs and get rid of the bad ones.

Agreed. One operator had us on 45% rev share, but passed on a % of the slots providers fees that they charge for each spin. Put us immediately into a huge negative, because even if a player loses $100 you are potentially in the negative as they managed to get a load of spins in. At the first sign of anything like this we drop them.