Maybe some campaign managers feel pressured in to filling slots therefore allow many things to take place which they normally would not. It depends on the campaign manager and also on the business being promoted. I agree, lowering payment and bonuses will probably bring an even lower quality of post from spammers but there is no easy solution except to self-moderate threads in boards where signature spammers and scammers are running riot.
It's not up to campaign manager all the time I think. Sometimes, project representative also mention some rules and among them, I have always seen they have a high number of post requirements in gambling sector. Personally, I don’t like to force users to post on any section but projects requires a minimum number. Campaign manager can recommend to lower it which I did too but sometimes, you can't follow your own. You have to hear the project owner.
I don't understand why "project owners" as you say don't pay participants with free bets/spins/chips? It would guarantee them to have posters knowing their platform and being real gamblers. They could also ask a minimum weekly wager requirement on their platform to be accepted and kept in their campaign or at least some proofs like a gambling history sent by PM showing that the participant is a real active gambler.
I went through a few of those megatrends, I wonder if even 5% of the post would qualify as being about gambling.
Since I'm pretty sure a lot of the posters don't actually gamble or don't have a clue how to place a bet other than on the winner, most of the discussions there could be classified as football fans talking about their team, one post in one hundred talks about spreads, about handicaps about anything, it's about X beat Y so they might beat Z, A is a great player or bad one, xerox copies.
I totally agree with you, they don't even try to make predictions most of the time. Since they don't know anything about gambling they just make posts about the last game or race they've watched on TV, listened on the radio or read on a sports newspaper.
That being said, I've been always curious, in that whole mess of a board, is there a horse racing topic as I haven't seen one and it's the only spot I actually gamble on, not just watch.
You are right, it would be a very interesting thread though. It's sad to see that real bettors like you don't even dare to post there anymore.