Bonuses and welcome promotions are some of the most effective and widely used tools that online gambling companies have for enticing new customers. When players have many sites to choose from, free spins, bets, or cash for wagering can be a highly successful customer acquisition tool.
Unfortunately, bonus programs are also an attractive target for fraudsters, who repeatedly open accounts to claim incentives meant only for new players. For gambling operators, this drains promotional budgets and gives distorted metrics on how well marketing campaigns are working.
What kind of impacts can new account fraud have in the iGaming industry, and how can companies fight back?
What new account fraud looks like in gaming & gambling
Generally, new account fraud refers to the practice of opening multiple new accounts, many times under a false or stolen identity. In online gaming and gambling, this can look like bonus abuse, with one person or group opening multiple new accounts solely for the purpose of extracting the bonus money without any intention of long-term play.
There are different extents to which people abuse multi-accounting in online gambling, from a casual fraudster posting to Reddit about how to take advantage of new user promotions for passive income, to larger scale bonus abuse that criminal syndicates perpetrate by opening new accounts at scale using the stolen identities of unknowing people. New account fraud can also pair with referral abuse: Bad actors repeatedly use referral links to sign up for new accounts to claim promotions or coupons meant for one-time use.
It’s a widespread problem in online gambling: According to a 2024 study from SBC Media, bonus abuse is the most common type of fraud that gaming operators face.
How bonus abuse works
Many iGaming companies require customers to play through a certain amount of money in wagers before they can withdraw bonus money, so a scheme typically involves making low-risk wagers to meet the limit and unlock the bonus.
By repeating this many times with new accounts, fraudsters can amass thousands of dollars (or in extreme cases, more). Creating accounts using multiple identities is banned under the terms and conditions of most online gambling sites, so fraudsters may use fake or stolen identity documents, VPNs, or IP-masking browsers like Tor to hide the fact that they’re signing up over and over.
Bonus abuse in iGaming is also a growth issue
When sign-up bonuses go to waste because they aren’t actually going to new players, it’s not just a problem for the fraud department. Customer acquisition becomes more expensive than it should be because fake accounts are eating into your promotional budget. Metrics don’t accurately reflect how well marketing campaigns are working, causing the company to add resources or incorrectly analyze potential revenue.
How new account fraud hurts customer lifetime value
The goal of a sign-up bonus is to gain a loyal customer who enjoys your iGaming platform and returns frequently. Users who create accounts for short-term use, mainly to extract bonus money, provide little or even negative lifetime value to the company. Their goal is to meet wagering requirements without risking any deposits they’ve made, which hurts profitability for operators. With many fake new accounts, your overall customer lifetime value drops as fewer users visit your site for entertainment.
The impact of unfair gaming on reputation & user growth
The presence of fraudsters placing many low-risk wagers can also have a wider impact on your reputation. If your site is flooded with lots of fake users who don’t stay long and bet conservatively, game play is less fun for good customers who are expecting free and fair play with other users on the site. When iGaming platforms become known among players for a poor play environment, they have a hard time growing their user base as customers turn to competitors.
If you add restrictions on bonus withdrawals in response to widespread fraud, this can also hurt your reputation among legitimate players who find that they have to deposit large amounts to enjoy the promotion. Gambling sites that require players to wager 25x or 40x the bonus amount before they can claim the bonus risk alienating new customers who find the restrictions onerous.
How device intelligence helps stop fraud at sign-up
Keeping bonus abusers away from your platform requires you to be able to recognize when someone has already come to your site to sign up before. One of the most effective tools for detecting repeat sign-ups is device intelligence, which encompasses browser and device fingerprinting techniques.
Device intelligence platforms like Fingerprint rely on browser, device, and network signals that are difficult to obscure or change. These allow you to distinguish one device from among billions of others, even when a user visits in incognito mode, clears their cookies, or uses a VPN.
Fingerprint works by assigning a unique visitor ID to every device, so you can trace suspected fake accounts to the single device that opened them all. We identified more than four billion unique devices in 2024, and we use more than a hundred signals for industry-leading accuracy rates. The visitor ID can remain stable for months or even years, giving you long-term visibility to help identify repeat offenders.
We also offer Smart Signals, which include bot, VPN, and rooted device detection, so it’s easier to spot fraudsters trying to conduct fake sign-ups at scale.
Fingerprint uses the very latest in fingerprinting technology to help prevent fraud in gambling. Our platform is easy to implement and requires no maintenance, giving you peace of mind with minimal effort.
To learn more, visit our product demo playground or get in contact with us today.
