What is bonus abuse?

The common types

• Repeat sign-ups. One person registers again under new email addresses, often spellings of a single Gmail inbox such as [email protected], or throwaway temp-mail inboxes.
• Accounts in other people's names. Friends' or relatives' details are used to open accounts one person controls. This has its own name: gnoming.
• Scripted registration. Bots fill in the sign-up form at scale to claim no-deposit offers, a pattern also called account farming.
• Hiding the location. VPNs, Tor and rented servers make many accounts look as if they come from different places.

Once the accounts exist, abusers clear the wagering with low-risk bets or by betting both sides of a market across accounts, then withdraw.

Why it matters to operators

Every abused offer is marketing spend that brings in no real customer. It also distorts acquisition numbers, ties up the payments and risk teams, and can pull affiliates' commissions into question. Sumsub's 2026 prevention guide reports that bonus abuse makes up 63.8% of iGaming fraud (Sumsub); whatever the exact share, it is the fraud most operators meet first.

Not every keen bonus user is an abuser. Shopping around for the best offer is fair play, and treating it as fraud costs you good players. See bonus hunting vs bonus abuse.

How InlineShield stops it at sign-up

InlineShield screens each registration before the account and the bonus exist. It folds Gmail dot and plus aliases back to one inbox and holds a repeat sign-up from an inbox you've already seen, blocks disposable addresses by default, and flags bots, VPNs, Tor and datacenter IPs. Each sign-up gets a verdict and a recommended action, including allow_no_bonus for a sign-up that is fine to let in but shouldn't get the offer automatically. See risk verdicts and the online casino page.