Online casino players have come to expect bonuses as part of their playing packages, regardless of whether they are new or existing players. After all, these bonuses enable them to increase their playing capital, which helps them increase their playing time or wagers.
Casinos also benefit from offering the best online casino bonuses as they enable them to not only attract new players but also retain their existing clients.
As such, these incentives are a win-win for all. Even so, there have been cases of bonus abuse, which undermines the premise of these bonuses. We look at how casinos are preventing this by using emerging technologies.
Which Tech Tools Monitor Bonus Usage?
Casino bonuses abuse arises when players try to get more out of the bonuses than the casino provides. For example, a player may sign up to the same casino with different accounts to take advantage of the new player bonus, which should only apply once to each player. So, how do casinos prevent such activities?
1. Identity Verification.
In the past, players could sign up for casinos and get bonuses by virtue of sharing their email address or phone number. As such, a player could create multiple accounts, which they would use to get bonuses from a single site, thus allowing them to profit from bonuses alone. Casinos soon caught on to this and have now been using identity verification systems to curb this behavior. How so?
Each time a player signs up to a licensed casino, they must present government identification documents, such as their IDs and proof of address.
This way, if the same player tries to open another account with that site, the system will flag them as a returning customer, and they will thus not be eligible for new player bonuses.
2. Machine Learning.
In a world where artificial intelligence simplifies operations, it comes as no surprise that casinos are now using machine learning to prevent bonus abuse. But how and why?
In the past, players could find loopholes in the wagering requirements, thus helping them to clear the bonuses fast and start profiting from them. For example, many players would bet the absolute maximum allowed bonus stake, which would allow them to skip most wagering criteria and start earning money sooner than the bonus allowed.
Now, with the use of artificial intelligence, casinos are preventing this by tracking how players behave upon receiving their bonuses. Their systems track aspects such as:
- The size of the bets.
- The choice of games.
- The deposit and withdrawal timing, etc.
These factors help the systems recognize suspicious activities, which can then be flagged for human monitoring, enabling the casino to weed out players who are essentially trying to cheat the system.
3. Anti-Fraud Software.
It’s no secret that some people rely on online casinos to launder money. In fact, many of the people who engage in such illegal activities would bank on bonuses to help them clean their money faster and earn a profit in the process.
Understandably, this was putting online casinos at risk of getting shut down or penalized by their licensors, as fraud is illegal. So, how could casinos get ahead of this problem? Well, they installed anti-fraud software.
This software works in the following ways:
- Source verification. It checks the source of the money used to either claim or withdraw a bonus. Where the source is questionable, the system flags it for further analysis.
- Assessing patterns. Based on history, casinos know that people who use their platforms to launder money often deal with large amounts of cash, which they deposit and withdraw in quick succession. As such, if the software detects such a pattern, it flags it for further review by the casino’s staff.
By relying on global watchlists and databases that cover illegal transactions, casinos are able to spot questionable patterns that could point to money laundering.
4. Multi-Factor Authentication.
There have been cases where players’ accounts have been hacked by people who are out to capitalize on their bonuses. Casinos are protecting players by requiring them to verify their login requests by entering codes sent to their registered phone and email addresses.
