Every businessman want whales to come to their platform but they cannot make that if they don't have solid community so building up first the community and see how fair they are can attract huge number of players including those whales which can spend a lot of money just to play the game. For sure whales will not play on casino if they don't see any huge activities coming happening on the platform. Also I believe they are truly aware about those KYC so for sure they are selective on reputation before going in so I believe this is not main issue to them.
This depends, there are ton of ways to lure whales in. One certainly is to give them tokens that pay dividends. But i am pretty sure that they also get private deals where casinos are giving them huge (even unofficial) cashbacks just to play there. That's what i would do anyway.
I personally trust casinos more if whales are playing there. Because if they trust it, changes are that i can too. So i think it's other way around too; whales draw regular people in.
There is no such thing as private deals in normal whales unless they are an influencer that casino can benefit when they play through there influence. Casino has a VIP rewards that increased base on players total wager. This is how they reward whale players and nothing in private negotiations since that will be a redundant offer. Only influencers has this kind of special offer so that they promote the casino on there channel. The best example here is Drake for doing livestream when playing for Stake.
I am more on this side, as they have VIP rewards as you increased your level.
I don't think there is private deal happening, unless, maybe you are the official endorser of the site.
That is why there is VIP rank system to reward high rollers with increased cashback, promotions and other VIP bonuses.
Here in betfury, they have 20 levels that you can reach, and once you're on the top rank, you will have more higher cashback as well as benefits.