Bonus abuse is an issue that has plagued the online gaming industry since the first appearance of the promotional incentive. It’s a concerning phenomenon that would simply disappear immediately if casinos decided never to offer free financial opportunities again. But that drives their traffic, so is it best for players and operators to understand what bonus abuse is and how to position themselves in relation to it?
This is an in-depth take on bonus abuse that will help you understand how toxic this practice is and that it actually tells us how vital it is for players to adopt a more responsible approach.
The Bonus Abuse Practice
Abusing bonuses can be done in many forms, but before we dive deeper into the mind of a true fraudster, we have to take a look at what this practice actually means and how disruptive it can be for both casinos and players.
Abusing bonuses means that a certain player or a group of players would register their accounts at a casino platform and manipulate its platform features to benefit from their free promotions. Their intention is to exploit these advantages and obtain as much profit as possible with the lowest amount of risk.
The most common rule that casino bonuses come with is that they can only be used once per account. Naturally, this will force abusers to create multiple accounts in order to claim that free incentive multiple times. And since registering multiple accounts is not permitted, this is a bonus abuse technique they would do anything to succeed with. The industry even has a term for this practice. The attempt to create as many accounts as possible in order to profit from a single casino promotion is called “gnoming.”
Fraudsters and Bonus Abuse Techniques
Right off the bat, we have to make a distinction between tech-savvy criminals who really go the extra mile trying to abuse bonuses and regular players who only attempt to cheat the system by ignoring certain casino terms and conditions.
Gnoming is the first action a regular player would try. This action usually leads to him getting banned or, even worse, added to an official blacklist. A “professional” abuser would immediately rely on illegal actions and manipulate digital casino platforms using all sorts of emulators, Sockx5 proxies to create new IP’s, or even betting bots that would perform the actual betting without the need for a human implication.
Here are some of the most common bonus abuse fraud techniques the industry struggles with at the moment:
Gnoming: We already mentioned and explained how this method works and how common it is, especially inside the regular players’ community. What a seasoned fraudster would do is set up multiple accounts using fake addresses from various geographical locations, targeting no deposit promotions, free cash incentives. A good example of such an offer would be a free $100 casino chip no deposit bonus.
Chip dumping: With the intention of abusing a free chip promotion or even launder money, a fraudster would create multiple accounts in order to transfer all its funds to only one of them. A certain person might do this to create an advantage for another player, obtain as many chips as possible from a no deposit promotion, or even launder money.
When using “dirty money” in casinos, transferring them to another account and withdrawing them to pay taxes in order to hide their trials and justify them as winnings.
Identity Theft: There is a reason why Americans are so careful with their social security numbers. Fraudsters would do anything to obtain this information in order to create accounts on the gaming platform on behalf of the victim, just so they can take advantage of a casino bonus multiple times.
Arbitrage betting: Also called arbing, this technique is more sophisticated and requires a more elaborate plan of action. Basically, one should look for discrepancies between odds that count for the same event but at different bookmakers. To simplify it, one can place a bet on Bookmaker 1 and the exact opposite on Bookmaker 2. The margin between these has to be calculated so that no matter the outcome, the bettor would still make a profit.
If you are interested in learning more about arbitrage betting, Darius Govindasamy published a study in 2022 explaining the whole process from a mathematical point of view.
How Do Casino Operators Detect Fraud Attempts?
If you thought abusing bonuses was complicated, wait until you find out what casinos do to prevent it. Companies around the world invest a lot of money trying to stop fraudsters from taking advantage of their generosity.
One measure we are sure you already know about is the KYC. Casinos have to implement the most advanced identity verification measures in order to verify if the person creating an account is indeed a real one and the true holder of that social security number, ID, and so on.
They monitor user behavior right from the sign-up. Based on how users decide to deposit, withdraw, what games they play or how they interact with the bonus promotions, they will decide if a user is indeed trying to exploit certain platform weaknesses or not.
They can go even further and perform KYC validations on demand, even if a player has already completed the process successfully. Together with machine learning algorithms, analyzing digital footprints, and blocking users from creating multiple accounts, casinos have to constantly improve their techniques and prevent fraudsters from abusing their bonuses.
Your Responsibility As A Player
Abusing bonuses will eventually get back to you, and you will not like the consequences. The best way to approach betting and casino games is by doing it responsibly.
You should never gamble money that you cannot afford to lose, especially if you have a family and responsibilities. Gambling should be fun, and the intention of abusing bonuses will generate stress and discomfort and, as stated before, get you into trouble.
Gambling is a form of entertainment, and anything that surpasses that limit is not recommended. Remain safe, gamble for fun, and if at any point you feel like gambling affects you mentally, stop.
In The End
Unfortunately, bonus abuse is real, and many fraudsters out there are trying their best to exploit casino platforms every day. While this practice may be dangerous, it is very simple to stay away from it. Do not get involved in such actions because casinos are doing a great job at identifying this kind of action.