The online gambling world is competitive, and it can be challenging for one online gambling platform to stand out above the vast competition. As such, leading casino operators use different means to attract and retain clients on their platforms, one of the most prominent being rolling out various bonuses. Players appreciate platforms that offer appealing offers and are more inclined to register and be loyal to such platforms. ICE Casino, for example, rolls out exciting bonus deals, and some of them are so exclusive that players are supposed to use an ICEcasino bonus code to gain access.
Unfortunately, while many gambling businesses continue developing these attractive strategies to retain players’ interest, gambling fraud is still tricky to overcome. One of the most common fraudulent practices that impact casino businesses is bonus abuse; sometimes, players may be part of it without even knowing. However, by creating awareness, gamblers can avoid it and behave best whenever they gamble online. So, what is offers’ misuse, and how can iGaming operators tackle this fraudulent gambling practice? Here’s a comprehensive look into how they do it.
What Is Bonus Abuse?
Bonus abuse occurs when a person registers at a platform multiple times, uses marketing offers for new users, and then quits the casino after taking advantage of the site. This promotional abuse is also called multi-accounting, and any betting company that offers no deposit bonuses or welcome bonuses may be vulnerable. Fraudsters target such platforms and try creating many new accounts using virtual machine emulators, and sometimes even use stolen IDs, resulting in synthetic identity fraud in the platform.
Types of Bonus Abuse
Fraudsters have different ways of misusing casino offers. The popular types of fraudulent practices that have been occurring in the recent past are as follows:
- Sign-up Bonuses’ Collection: People may collect sign-up offers intended to welcome new clients and use the offer to cash out the platform’s promotional offers without first playing;
- Collusive Play: Fraudsters can also control multiple players and defraud other unsuspecting players through what’s known as collusive play;
- Chip Dumping: Affecting the outcome of another player’s hand through chip dumping. This happens when the cheater intentionally loses their chips to another unsuspecting player;
- Arbitrage: Involves placing several bets simultaneously to increase your chances of winning on betting platforms. This is not allowed in many betting platforms, but fraudsters can still find a way to do it;
- Account Takeover: Fraudsters may illegally gain control of other players’ accounts;
- Chargeback Fraud: This is where a person requests a chargeback from their bank after using up the funds in the casino.
These are just a few of the most common examples of fraudulent practices. While iGaming operators have devised strategies to detect them, fraudsters are resourceful and still find other ways to attack and defraud online casinos.
How Casinos Detect and Prevent Bonus Abuse
Online casino operators have dealt with different offers misuse cases, and they all have something in common. They study and understand the patterns and use them to their advantage to detect potential fraudsters’ attacks on the platform. These fraudulent practices signs include:
- Fraudsters complete their registration process faster, no matter how complicated. This quick registration time might be a tell-tell sign that they have done it before;
- The complex metric cash-out behavior can signify a potential abuser. For example, if the account is fake, the period between the registration process and withdrawal is very short;
- Specific casino games tend to attract more fraudsters than others. For instance, games with low odds have reduced risks, while those with higher edges on the player have increased chances of the offers misuse;
- Suspicious IP addresses, including a user relying on a VPN in blocklisted residential proxies;
- Suspicious customers also use devices whose hardware configuration already appears on the site with a similar setup.
Prevention Strategies
When these signs are detected, operators immediately flag the offers’ misuse attempt and tackle the situation. Some of the prevention strategies used to nip misuse fraud in the bud include:
- Creating complex bonus rules like introducing rigorous withdrawal conditions that players must fulfill and play several times before receiving the award;
- Operators can also lower the frequency and amount of offers payouts. This quickly fixes the issue of rapidly losing money to fraud;
- Casino operators will also block risky locations that are prone to stealing offers;
- As the user base grows, operators need to know and verify the identity of the customers, especially at the sign-up stage;
- Employing tools that detect the use of VPN software and automatically block any registration attempts.
Security Above All
Combating online abuse is essential for companies that protect their users, maintain website security, and preserve their reputation. Thankfully, the savviest operators implement multi-tiered approaches involving bot detection, real-time monitoring, device fingerprinting, advanced rules engines, and comprehensive analytics to detect and prevent offers’ misuse patterns.