Online casinos are highly profitable and therefore they attract scammers often. Scammers seek not only money but also access to the personal information of the players to later send it to advertising companies, etc. Data breaches are real so online casinos do everything they can to protect their own data and their users’ data technologically, and via policies like KYC policies, Privacy policies, etc.

However, it must be said that even the best paying online casino sites expect scams not only from breaching third parties but from their fraudulent users, as well. Some players tend to hunt for bonuses, violate casino rules, seek access from banned jurisdictions, or open new accounts after being excluded from a particular casino.

In this post, we look into a couple of methods used by online casinos to provide scam protection.

Geolocation Services

Online casinos that operate from abroad and offer their services to Canadian players do not apply geolocation services to Canada so players won’t notice. However, online casinos that only work with Canada or sites that only allow players from specific provinces – Ontario is a good example – do activate geolocation services to prevent users who are not eligible from registering new accounts on their platforms.

This also works if you are in Ontario and want to register an account at a casino site outside of the province; or if you are in a neighboring province and try to sign up to a new casino site that’s only available in Ontario – in both cases, the geolocation service won’t let you.

Of course, folks who are close to the country or province border may experience certain problems with access if the geolocation services start going crazy at times. However, this limitation is necessary to prevent users from wherever from registering and using real money on the platform.

Online casinos that are licensed for operation in a certain country or province are bound by a set of laws and regulations and they have to provide guaranteed access and limit of access to be compliant with these regulations, otherwise, they will lose their licenses.

VPN Ban

The absolute majority of online casinos does not allow the use of VPN services when accessing their sites. In most cases, new account registration is impossible with VPN software on, and even access to the existing and active account will often be impossible when using a VPN product.

The reasons are simple – online casinos want to make sure that only players from the allowed jurisdictions are able to register and use the casinos’ services. Otherwise, people from grey areas, jurisdictions that prohibit online gambling, and players that hunt down bonuses, will be able to visit from multiple locations and commit scams, or just violate the casino’s rules.

Only a couple of cryptocurrency online casinos available in Canada allow access with a VPN, and even these casinos recommend using their own VPNs to make sure their players’ accounts will not be blocked or suspended.

It must also be said that using VPN software to access your own legit online casino account when you are abroad or in a province that doesn’t allow online gambling will also result in your account being suspended or even blocked by casino services.

Bonus Hunting Prevention

Many online casinos offer low-deposit or No Deposit bonuses immediately upon sign-up to encourage new customers to gamble. This is why they only limit their No Deposit bonuses to one account per person and per household. This is done to make sure that more than one person in a family or household will try to get more bonuses using the same account, so if players are from the same family and have the same address or the same (common) banking method, the online casino will most likely prevent them from getting the bonus more than once.

Now, the same person will not be allowed to open new accounts, again and again, to take advantage of the bonuses even if they get themselves new email addresses and even new payment methods like e-wallets. Online casinos prevent bonus hunters from doing that by getting their real names and other data, so the same person can have one casino account per casino site and get the No Deposit / Sign-up bonus once.

Another interesting nuance to discuss is different online casino brands belonging to one operating company. There are big operators out there that run more than one casino website. These sites have different brands and are managed separately, but the bonus systems are usually shared for the sake of financial security and convenience. As a result, most casino sites that belong to the same network limit one person to getting a Sign-Up bonus or a No Deposit bonus for account registration only once, even if this person gets a totally new account for the first time in a different casino by the same operator.

Or, this person may be allowed to take advantage of a No Deposit / Sign-up bonus every time they register a fresh account in a new casino by the same company only if this player meets extra wagering requirements for each consecutive bonus they take. This is done to prevent the same player, often rather experienced, from taking advantage of the same operator again and again, especially if the operator offers really beneficial bonuses.

Paying Big Wins in Parts

While there is always a reasonable limit in terms of the maximum possible withdrawal that a player can request in 24 hours/ week/ month, some online casinos prefer to prevent issues with potential money laundering or illegal withdrawals by limiting payouts even more.

If you win more than a certain amount of money and want to withdraw and the withdrawal is bigger than the 1-month limit, you are unlikely to do that at once. Unless the sum matches the maximum withdrawal per month and you have not requested withdrawals earlier the same month and there are no pending withdrawal requests, the casino will most likely limit the payouts to reasonable sums (usually lower than the maximum limit per month because it also has to pay other players!) and send the money on a monthly basis until the whole sum is paid.

There is an exception to this rule which is progressive jackpot wins. Progressive jackpot wins are paid mostly by the software provider, not the casino site, so the wins are usually paid in full and at once.