What Is Bonus Abuse at Online Casinos?

Online casinos offer bonus deals as a way to draw new customers and retain existing players. They’re fine with offering an opportunity to win free money as long as they benefit from the deal.

What casinos don’t want, though, are people who sign up at their casino for the sole sake of profiting from bonuses. They label players who’ll do anything to profit from their deals as “bonus abusers.”

Gaming sites close bonus abusers’ accounts and, potentially, confiscate their funds. Therefore, you definitely don’t want to fall into this crowd.

But what exactly is bonus abuse and how do you avoid this distinction? You can find out below by reading about different types of bonus abuse and how you can stay on the right side of real money online casinos.

Different Types of Bonus Abuse

Bonus abuse is a wide-encompassing term that doesn’t specifically relate to one action. You can learn about the different forms of abusing bonuses below.

Signing Up for Multiple Accounts

Every online casino limits players to one account. By preventing people from opening multiple accounts, they keep players from getting the same bonuses again and again.

Casinos request a variety of information to help ensure that gamblers don’t open multiple accounts (a.k.a. multi-accounting). Nevertheless, some players find ways to bypass this precaution and take advantage of multiple bonuses.

Multi-accounting allows one to cash in on multiple deposit bonuses, no deposit offers, free spins, and/or more. It’s also the quickest way to get oneself banned from a gaming site if casinos catch them.

Placing Huge Bets Just to Satisfy Playthrough

Casinos require you to meet playthrough (a.k.a. rollover) before withdrawing bonus funds. They use this requirement to force you to earn a bonus rather than just cashing it out immediately.

Here’s an example on how playthrough works.

• You qualify for a $100 deposit bonus.
• Playthrough is 3x.
• 100 × 30 = $3,000

$3k seems like a lot when you’re making $5 or $10 bets. However, it becomes much easier to manage when you’re wagering between $100 and $1,000 per round.

Online casinos offer bonuses so that they can acquire and retain your play. They don’t appreciate you making the largest wagers possible just to quickly cash out bonuses.

Playing High Paying Games Combined with Low Rollover

You can game the bonus system by choosing slots or table games with high return to player (RTP). You’ll especially improve your chances of profiting from bonuses by combining high RTP with low playthrough.

Here’s a look at how your profit potential improves through this combination:

• You qualify for a $200 bonus.
• You choose a slot with 98% RTP.
• Playthrough is 30x.
• 200 x 30 = $6,000 must be wagered
• 6,000 x 0.98 = $5,880 in winnings (or $120 in losses)
• 200 – 120 = $80 theoretical profit

You haven’t really done anything bad by playing a slot with high payback. Furthermore, the $80 in winnings are merely theoretical.

Nevertheless, a casino may claim bonus abuse if you choose games with the highest RTP and quickly withdraw winnings. It’s not like you’re breaking the law here, but you should still be aware of the situation.

How Do Online Casinos Combat Bonus Abuse?

Rather than get into messy disputes over bonuses, gaming sites like to prevent such situations ahead of time. Below, you can see the main ways that casinos stop bonus abuse before it happens.

Track Players’ IP Addresses

Theoretically, a gambler could continue creating multiple accounts and grabbing several bonuses without repercussion. Assuming the casino doesn’t track anything, they could be duped into continually giving the same player bonuses again and again.

That said, gaming sites prevent this from happening by tracking gamblers’ IP addresses. An IP address refers to the numerical label assigned to each internet-capable device.

By tracking a player, the gaming site can automatically determine if one has already signed up with them. If so, the casino can inform the gambler that they’ve already registered and avoid giving them another welcome bonus.

Ban Certain Countries from Qualifying for Offers

Some countries are notorious for taking advantage of casino bonuses. Most notably, they’ll multi-account so that they can continue trying to win money through no deposit bonuses.

Casinos keep a good record on which nations are the worst about abusing bonus terms. They solve this issue in one fell swoop by excluding entire countries from qualifying for bonuses.

Of course, this isn’t fair if you’re an honest player from one of these nations. But casinos sometimes make bulk decisions to protect themselves from desperate bonus hunters.

Limit Which Deposit Options Qualify for Bonuses

One key aspect to abusing a bonus involves cashing out quickly. A fast withdrawal allows a bonus abuser to get their money fast and move on to the next site.

Therefore, many internet casinos don’t allow Skrill and Neteller depositors to qualify for bonuses. After all, Skrill and Neteller are among the fastest ways to cash out in the gaming world.

You can typically look forward to receiving your funds within less than 24 hours using these e-wallets. Therefore, many casinos disqualify Neteller and Skrill deposits so they have more time to review suspicious bonus wins.

How Can You Avoid Being a Bonus Abuser?

It seems like you must toe the line when dealing with bonuses to avoid the abuser classification. However, you can easily get past this problem by following the tips below.

Take Advantage of Bonuses at Different Casinos

Almost every gaming site offers bonuses. Therefore, you won’t experience any trouble finding deals.

You’ll be privy to no deposit, deposit, free spin, and cashback bonuses throughout the industry. Given this variety, you don’t have to sign up for multiple accounts at the same casino.

Instead, you can collect the bonuses you want at one online casino and move on to the next. You can always double back to the original gaming site when they feature a new promotion that you like.

Thoroughly Read the Terms & Conditions

You don’t want any surprises when trying to earn a casino bonus. Reading through the terms and conditions is a good way to eliminate any surprises.

Common terms and conditions behind bonuses include:

• Bonus code: You often need to enter a bonus code to qualify for a bonus.
• Claim the bonus: You must claim a bonus from your account before it’s active.
• Playthrough: Once you’ve activated a bonus, you’ll need to earn it by meeting playthrough.
• Minimum cashout: Casinos require you to meet the minimum withdrawal on bonus funds.
• Game restrictions: Some games with high RTP are restricted from qualifying for playthrough.

You must satisfy every term within a bonus deal before cashing it out. That said, you should always closely read the T&C’s.

Don’t Finesse Terms & Conditions

You can boost your chances of profiting from bonus deals by choosing games with the highest payback. The highest RTP decreases the chances of you losing money while meeting playthrough.

Nothing is inherently wrong with doing your best to win money from bonus offers. However, some casinos take exception when you choose games with the highest RTP and withdraw money ASAP.

You may be able to get away with doing this at some gaming sites. However, you should be aware that others might consider this practice to be bonus abuse.

Not Every Casino Is Honest Regarding Bonus Abusers

You can see up to this point that gaming sites aren’t necessarily evil for preventing bonus abuse. On the other hand, not every internet casino has your best intentions in mind.

The same gaming sites have a different view of bonus abusers. Rather than accusing you of abuse for legitimate reasons, they’ll simply cry foul anytime you earn a large reward.

That said, you should be careful about which casinos you sign up and deposit at. Some are much less forgiving when it comes to bonus abuse and will actually rip you off.

How to Avoid Being Taken Advantage of by Casinos

Online casino reviews are the key when it comes to not getting cheated out of bonus funds. Most reviews discuss casinos’ reputations and histories.

The average review will explain whether or not a gaming site honors bonuses. If not, then you know to steer clear of that particular casino.

Another thing you can do to find reputable casinos involves checking out their terms and conditions. You want to ensure that none of the terms are ambiguous.

Ambiguous T&Cs increase the chances that a casino will cheat you. After all, they can simply point to an undecipherable term as “evidence” that you didn’t earn a bonus.

Conclusion

Online casinos offer bonuses to entice you to keep playing with them. Most have no problem if you legitimately profit from a bonus.


However, gaming sites get annoyed when you or anybody else deliberately tries to gain advantages with bonuses.

You’re not necessarily wrong for exploiting loopholes to profit. But not every online casino is happy when you use any means necessary to win.

That being said, bonus abuse can be a murky situation. For the most part, though, gaming sites only cry abuse under legitimate circumstances.