Imagine walking into a negotiation room where you’re handed a document titled "Agreement" by a company’s representative, but the terms are set in stone. You’re told to sign on the dotted line or walk away, with no room for discussion or compromise. Meanwhile, the company retains the power to modify the agreement unilaterally and on the go.
That’s what essentially happens when you try to use an online service, access a platform or, in our case (we at Gamblescope are all about casinos and gambling after all) play in an online casino. No, you can’t have more than one account. No, you cannot use the VPN, even if you need to preserve your anonymity or bypass website blocking. But we can, for example, suddenly open multiple casinos under a single licence. Problem?
This inequality has been a source of quiet discontent among many people online for a long time. But what if casinos have a point here? Let’s see.
Why Casinos Forbid Multiple Accounts
While for a player another casino account is something that just requires a new mailbox or a phone number, online casinos see extra accounts in a different light. And have valid reasons not only from their business’s model perspective but also from the perspective of game integrity and positive players’ experience.
1. To Avoid Bonus Abuse
In order to attract players, casinos almost universally offer welcome bonuses. These offer an easy way to start playing with less investment and give extra chances for a quick win. Due to them being one-time offers, they are more lucrative when compared to typical recurring bonuses the casino usually offers.
You can probably see where this is going — some unfair players want to collect those bonuses multiple times, and thus go for multiple accounts. And while someone might ask “Why should I care, I just want the benefits that are openly offered and provided,” the situation goes a “bit” further than that.
The casino bonus program is a fruit of collaboration between multiple departments, with the casino’s Marketing Department playing the most prominent role. And there are several milestones set, like revenue or the number of new players, that the casino must reach as a result.
Letting the player open 100 accounts to collect 100 welcome bonuses not only entirely defeats the purpose of the bonus program. But also screws legit players, because if the casino promotion program fails to reach the set financial milestones, the casino may suffer substantial financial losses. And for example, offer lower bonuses in the future. Or decrease investments into new software, making it a less desirable place to play.
2. To Avoid Unlawful Advantage
There are many online casino games where playing from multiple accounts at the same time gives an unfair advantage. Bingo and card games like Poker, multiplayer versions of Blackjack, and Baccarat, as well as live dealer games, are particularly vulnerable to this.
If you play from multiple accounts, you control more cards at the same time than any other player at the table. This knowledge allows more precise identification of the hands of other players. As well as devise complex strategies that the opponents can’t counter. What is more — this provides multiple winning chances instead of one, since it doesn’t matter which account wins.
This is essentially cheating, that hurts the casino financially and reputation-wise. So it is understandable, that they fight it with every means possible.
3. To Stay Compliant With KYC Requirements
Nowadays KYC (Know Your Customer) checks are a norm in many industries, online casinos included. Their implementation can be required by local legislation or casino licensing requirements. With the general aim to prevent money laundering, which is a serious problem.
Using multiple accounts goes against this policy. To pass the KYC checks on several accounts, a person needs to obtain a separate set of documents to pass the verification for each one. This requires illegal stuff like fake identities and stolen credit cards.
To launder money, a launderer can open multiple accounts at a casino, deposit funds on each, and then start “layering” the funds by placing bets in various games and doing transactions to make it harder to trace the funds later, should an investigation be launched. And after a certain amount of transactions he withdraws the illicit funds as clean ones “won at a casino”.
Since penalties for money laundering can be quite severe including the loss of a licence, the casinos simply prefer to invest in the means that prevent the creation of multiple accounts, no matter the purpose.
Why Casinos Ban VPNs?
Because, while they are useful for those who simply want to conceal the fact that they play at the casino, or require them to bypass the website blocks by local Internet providers, they are also a convenient tool that helps to create multiple accounts for the reasons above, bypassing certain checks like IP check.
Also, online casinos under the terms of their licence may need to restrict access for players from certain countries and territories. VPNs can be used to bypass these requirements, leading to the breach of these terms by the casino, which it definitely wants to avoid.
However, some casinos, especially offshore ones, allow VPNs or at least turn a blind eye to their usage, relying on other means: behavioural analytics, anti-fraud software, browser fingerprints, and KYC procedures all working in complex to detect cheating and fraud.
Why Casinos Operate Multiple Brands Under a Single Licence
This approach, often referred to as the "multiple-brand model", is not only profitable for the casinos involved, but also makes a better player experience.
Let’s take a real-life example — Kindred Group, a prominent online gambling operator licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). This licence allows a parent company to manage several distinct brands, while efficiently managing compliance and regulatory obligations of a single jurisdiction.
Some of the brands under Kindred's umbrella include:
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Unibet: Offers a comprehensive range of sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo.
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Maria Casino: Focuses primarily on casino games and bingo, catering to a different demographic.
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32Red: Provides a variety of casino games and has a strong presence in the UK market.
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Stan James: Known for its sports betting services.
You can see that each brand targets a different segment of the market or different demographics and has relevant games, designs, bonuses and activities. This allows tailored marketing campaigns aimed at those segments, thus getting more players and revenue. And if a certain brand fails, it is easy to discard and replace it with a new one, while the others continue to bring profit.
Conclusion
As you can see, while certain casino policies might feel unfair and inconvenient to players at first glance, upon closer look they are essential for sustaining a fair, secure, and compliant online gambling ecosystem for those players included.