I only bet on regulated sites. You can make thousands a year in the VIP programs, especially if you're hedging the free bets and promotions.
That's a lot of free money and privileges if you're a VIP and of course it's good to take advantage of this.
I prefer a site to have a VIP feature because once there's a big player in the site you can at least have the assurance that the site is ok and the site will continue to grow more because of the number of their gamblers and the volume of money coming in on the site. Most of the top site have their own VIP program, and that is their big difference to other site.