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Affiliates of the world's largest online casino operator 888.com are firing back against illegal content scrapping and blog spamming that has surfaced over the past couple of weeks. Overshadowing an otherwise stellar quarter for the online casino, Affiliates are putting their collective foot down and demanding that the publicly traded casino stand up against unscrupulous affiliates known in their network.



So far 888 Casino has decided to stay mum on the issue, but affiliates are not waiting for an answer. Forums are buzzing, articles are being published daily and affiliates are pulling 888 from their websites. How long will it be before 888 realize the value of its affiliates and feel the sting of negative feedback and lost earnings?



Earlier this week CAP announced that it had revoked 888 Casino's certification, which lead to similar action by other industry watchdogs. The controversy has already started to reshape the industry, prompting another online casino affiliate program Casino Pays to proactively modify its terms and conditions to include a policy against scrapping. More casino affiliate programs are anticipated to follow suit over the coming weeks.



So how does content theft and blog spamming by 888 affiliates impact all affiliates?



These illegal activities are negatively impacting thousands of affiliates and online marketers worldwide. There a number of programming teams operating with the approval of 888 Casino which are flooding search engines like Google and Yahoo with thousands of spurious search results. This angers searchers and makes finding legitimate destinations on the internet difficult if not impossible. These rogues are also robbing bandwidth and corrupting web logs with millions of commercial messages all linked to 888 Casino. This abuse of the system tarnishes the image of the industry as a whole and can not be allowed to continue.



To resolve this issue CAP has been in negotiations with 888 Casino for the last six weeks, but so far they have declined to comply and have stated they are not interested in a resolution at this time.



CAP had been seeking the following action items from 888 Casino on behalf of their affiliate members:



1. Issue a public statement indicating that 888 Casino does not condone nor will they reward content theft or illegal marketing practices by their affiliates or marketing consultants. If affiliates or marketers are discovered to be engaged in these practices their accounts will be closed, they will be banned from the 888 affiliate program and their proceeds or commissions due forfeited.



2. Addition to the Affiliate Program Terms and Conditions a provision stating the above policy.



3. A good faith effort by 888 Casino to adhere to these policies now and in the future.



"ALL CAP Certified Programs must work vigorously to protect the rights of all of their affiliates, even if that means policing affiliates who maliciously hurt others for profit," said Lou Fabiano, managing partner at CAP. "By condoning these actions we have no choice but to revoke 888 Casino's certification, effective immediately."