Are the team prepared for some possible security breach or cheat on the game? For cheaters may cause some big problems that can lead to loss of funds.
in my opinion, a poker game implies that any player can lose his money. Therefore, if you want to gamble, you must be prepared to lose.
Indeed, gambling is an easy way to make funds but at the same, it is also proned for loosing all your earnings. So much better to handle yourself first before engaging with this kind of games so that when everything goes wrong, at least you can managed to start again.
The dev really did some good strategy about how they are going to attract people which they make some promotion that includes some benefits of those who want to participate in the activities.