Re: Anyone think that this has more to do with the phrase....
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Party has been against rakeback for years.
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I don't really agree with that. It's been against the rules but for a long time it seemed like a don't-ask-don't-tell policy applied. As long as Party rakeback affiliates were discrete they were left alone even though everyone knew who they were. They could have easily caught them by answering ads and running "I need rakeback" posts on 2+2 and other major forums.
Rakeback is problematic for a publicly traded company because it is difficult to compute revenue properly when doing earnings reports. Rakeback is a discount that should be deducted when computing revenue. Affiliate payments are marketing expenses that are not deducted from reported revenue. They are subtracted at a later stage when net income is computed. Unfortunately Party has no accurate way to know how much the affiliates are keeping and how much the customers are getting.
For a private company that does not need to answer to ignorant outsiders this is a completely unimportant difference. But stock markets are extremely fixated on revenue growth or the lack thereof and it's a big spin control issue and possibly a legal issue too.
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