As a Skrill user you’re going to find that the majority of betting sites prevent you from claiming their opening bonus offer. It’s annoying.
On this page we’ll tell you why that happens but also show you a list of Skrill friendly betting bonuses and free bets.
Best Skrill Friendly Bonuses & Free Bets
The following is a list of bookmakers with Skrill friendly bonus offers:
As you’ll see there are hardly any betting sites listed in our table. Why then do so many bookmaker ban Skrill deposits from their opening bonus?
Why Is Skrill Banned For Betting Bonuses?
Whilst bookmakers’ bonuses and promotions are aimed at attracting new customers, most of them do exclude any punters who wish to deposit via Skrill.
That may seem a little strange at face value, but there is a good reason why this a policy shared by many bookmakers and only gambling providers. The following should throw light on exactly why that is the case.
Fraud From Multiple Accounts
Every online bookmaker and casino’s welcome promotion will include a condition that it can be utilised only once per customer.
Setting up numerous accounts in order to take advantage of bonuses many times over, therefore, runs contrary to the terms of any promotion and is known as multi-accounting fraud.
In the past such fraud has unfortunately been commonplace and in the vast majority of cases, those individuals and organisations taking part have used Skrill or other similar e-wallet services to fund their fraudulent accounts. Excluding customers who deposit via Skrill from bonuses and promotions, therefore, is how bookmakers have chosen to protect themselves from such fraud.
Skrill Bonus FAQ
Is Excluding Skrill From Bonuses The Best Response?
No business likes to introduce a policy or rule which they know will be hugely unpopular with potential new customers. Excluding Skrill users from bonuses and promotions is exactly such a rule for bookmakers, and as such can be seen as quite a drastic measure. For a number of reasons, however, betting sites largely felt they were left with little other alternative.
Large scale criminal organisations perpetrating multi-account fraud, after all, could cost – and were costing – bookmakers a significant amount of money. What’s more, attempting to police and prevent such fraud without a wide-ranging ban on bonuses for Skrill customers was too expensive and too time-consuming to consider.
Doing so, after all, would have required bookmakers to either employ highly skilled cyber-security staff to identify and to ban fraudsters or to implement more stringent identity checks for all customers. The first of those potential solutions would have meant a significant extra outlay of money by the bookmaker, whilst the second would likely have been very unpopular with potential customers – regardless of their chosen deposit method.
Excluding Skrill deposits from bonuses, therefore, was the cheapest, simplest and most effective way of protecting themselves against potentially very damaging fraud.
What are Skrill Doing About it?
Another reason why bookmakers have taken it upon themselves to ban Skrill customers from their bonuses, is because Skrill don’t – and can’t – do much about multi-accounting fraud themselves.
The act of setting up numerous fraudulent betting accounts, after all, runs contrary to the bookmaker’s terms and conditions but not Skrill’s. The e-wallet service have a requirement to ensure that accounts are held by the named account holder but don’t have any real compulsion to police how those account holders may use their e-wallet to access and defraud betting sites.
It is not as if Skrill are in major danger of losing business due to the drastic action which bookmakers have been forced to take, either. This is the case as there are very few e-wallet services at the same level as Skrill for any users to switch to in order to fund a betting account and to benefit from a bonus. Neteller is the only truly comparable alternative to Skrill, after all, and not only is that deposit method also banned from many bonuses, they are also the company who actually own Skrill anyway.
Excluding Skrill deposits from bonuses, therefore, was the only effective avenue open to bookmakers and online casinos.
Why Isn’t Skrill Banned At All Betting Sites
Not every bonus or promotion run by bookmakers excludes those customers who deposit via Skrill, as is shown by the table at the top of this very page. In light of everything we’ve just explained, then, why is it that some bookmakers are still happy to provide their bonuses to Skrill depositors?
In many cases the answer to that question is because the bookmaker in question either haven’t recognised the problem of multi-accounting fraud or haven’t suffered from it themselves. In those circumstances, therefore, they may not feel that a ban on Skrill deposits is wholly necessary.
In other cases, it is the nature of the bonus or promotion offered which allows a bookmaker to continue to allow Skrill depositors to be eligible. The kind of criminal elements who perpetrate multi-account fraud, after all, have been proven to be less likely to target offers that are subject to more restrictive or difficult to achieve wagering requirements.
What Can Users Do About It?
If you are a punter whose preferred deposit method is Skrill but who would still like to take part in bonuses and promotions, the above will likely have been far from good news.
There are, however, a few different things which you can try in order to circumvent your exclusion from bonuses or welcome offers:
- Use a different deposit method, preferably debit card, to make your first deposit and claim the bonus. Then use Skrill for all subseqent transactions. Want to do this? Here’s a list of Skrill friendly betting sites.
- Simply use one of the bookmakers in our table above who do offer Skrill depositors free bets and promotions.
- Get in touch with the bookmakers customer support before you join. Sometimes they will wave the rule, especially if you are based in the UK.
