I think that as long as you'll stick to the reputable casinos you're safe. Affiliate marketing can bring you some serious profit but as in every job you have to work hard and you need some marketing talent. Can't just sit and wait for conversions. 

Yes, affiliate marketing can be a means of generating a passive income most especially when it's done with reputable casinos that reward the efforts and activities of the members in their affiliate program.

We have seen a good number of casinos that engage marketers to promote their brand and get new players registered under the link, and through this, they generate passive income.

If you are that someone whom do decide on going with the path of affiliate marketing then this wont really be that something simple that you could really be able to succeed on.This would really be involving
on spamming out hell of your referral links and hope that you would really be getting someone who do register under your link.Yes, this could really bring out that passive income on which someone could
able to do so but we know that due to saturation of the market where there are lots of sites promotions and other similar stuffs plus there are people who do make out registering on direct links
then this would really be causing out for you to miss out those referrals, not all would really be ending up successful on this one.

Most times the work doesn't seem to worth the reward and just as you said that one needs a base of audience and if you'll agree with me, you'll understand that one still needs to first create a niche before thinking of having more people use their referral link or code.
I had a friend who actually is am influencer and doesn't really well in it and most times I see him rake in some very good profits or rewards from referral bonuses and it's actually enticing to see people make some passive income even when asleep and I just had to admit that one really can't be good in all field or endeavour of life.

All the rules of the referral program are not different but they provide different bonuses and there may be extra bonuses if there are influencers who can bring more new users, such as referral program competitions to get extra prizes for the top 3 rankings, but the referral program target must be at least with high bonuses so they get an equal return on their work convincing new users.

If you know how to advertise, you can earn big amounts with referral bonuses. Example BCGame, for every registered user you can earn up to 1000$ bonus. This depends on the level reached of the invited user. This is a extra bonus, beside of the normal commission, which is tremendously generous in that case.

It is waste of time if you do not know how to do it effectively and it can be waste of time for you but not for others who know how to do it.
Affiliate program is a feature for those who like to earn money from gambling industry without gambling their own money but by doing something else to refer people with their link.
There is nothing wrong for people to try it, people can simply use their social media to spread their link to get some referrals but it must be done effectively without forcing themselves to spend too much time.
If the result is good enough, they can try something better by creating a website or something similar.

In as much as you a trying a new thing that does not mean you can get it that easy. Life is not a bed of roses mate so if there is anything you want, you must try it out to get it in a good scale  but the possibility of getting it free is minuit because you would pass through processes to get it done. Any thing that seems to be a waste of time to you means that there is something lacking which invariably means you are not putting in your efforts or it just do not entice you because I believe anything worth doing is worth doing well.  If You are talking of audience, I believe they should be your followers because what ever you tell them to do that is what they would do not to talk of what you told them to do is of more benefit to them. You see one thing with refferal bonuses and audience, if you can not scale through the process at first on your own do not get them involved otherwise you will get yourself frustrated and loose their trust in you.

Affiliates may be a tough source of passive income, but then if one has active members in the team and is registered in a reputable casino that gives a high affiliate program, aside from that one need to put in general hard work and in doing that we must be ready to recruit active and passive gamblers who wager high amount on daily-weekly bases.

-I am not sure how much an affiliate can make at max, but it is certain that if the downline is active, it will give high percentages of returns in rewards, so it all depends on the activeness of the team;

Here's the point. Indeed, everyone can use a referral system like this, but not everyone can do it well. I am one of those who doesn't do well because whether you realize it or not, something like this requires effort and really has skills in making referrals because actually a few people are enough for this as long as these people are clear they can be used as income. what makes this seem like a waste of time is when we are constantly adding people but those are only people who can be said to be normal in gambling or indeed gambling in a small scope so that the bonuses received seem to be only a few.