As iGaming expands across more regulated and semi-regulated markets, location verification remains one of the most fundamental compliance requirements. Operators ensure player activity aligns with jurisdictional rules by using IP geolocation to infer a user’s location from their IP address.
However, with an estimated 1.8 billion VPN users worldwide, this approach faces growing challenges, creating a gap between the assumed reliability of IP checks and the real risk operators must manage.
Where IP Geolocation Falls Short in iGaming Compliance
IP-based geolocation has long been the default method for determining where a player is connecting from, but it’s no longer enough on its own. While IP data offers a convenient first layer of insight, its limitations create significant blind spots for operators striving to maintain compliance.
- IP addresses are easily manipulated: Players can disguise their true location with VPNs, proxies and residential IP services. Even when these tools are detected, flagging and stopping the activity becomes a constant uphill battle. Especially in high-value markets where jurisdictional boundaries matter.
- Accuracy varies widely: IP-to-location databases rely on external providers and public records. These sources lag behind real-world changes and often deliver inconsistent results. For operators, this means increased risk of false positives (blocking the wrong users) and false negatives (allowing restricted users through).
- Device mobility breaks traditional assumptions: In a world where users switch between mobile networks, public Wi-Fi and home broadband in minutes, IP-based conclusions about their physical location become inherently unstable. Instead of the guesswork, compliance teams need certainty when evaluating whether a bet or transaction is legal.
- Regulations increasingly demand pinpoint precision: As iGaming businesses expand into strictly regulated markets, regulators expect operators to determine not just the country a player is in, but the exact permissible region. IP data simply can’t provide the city-level or, in some cases, the street-level precision needed to adhere to regulations.
How Players Bypass Location Rules With VPNs and Proxies
Another IP monitoring solution involves asking players to install tools themselves. These third party A quick online search is all it takes to find step-by-step guides that show players exactly how to mask their location. Entire forums, blogs and comparison sites break down which VPNs and proxies work best for accessing restricted betting platforms, even ranking casinos by how easily their geolocation controls can be bypassed.
As the VPN market continues to expand, players have more tools than ever to disguise their true whereabouts. This rapid growth fuels a parallel rise in geohacking, giving bad actors and opportunistic players alike increasingly sophisticated ways to appear compliant while operating outside permitted jurisdictions.
To stay ahead of these tactics, operators need robust methods to distinguish legitimate users from those hiding behind digital masks.
Why IP Spoofing Keeps Evolving Faster Than Geo Controls
IP spoofing benefits from the same forces driving mainstream digital innovation: faster networks, more privacy-focused tools and an expanding marketplace of services designed to mask or reroute online activity. New VPNs, proxies and anonymizing technologies appear constantly, each offering more seamless ways for users to obscure their real location. Many of these tools are built for convenience or privacy, but they’re easily repurposed for bypassing geolocation checks.
Geo controls, on the other hand, don’t enjoy the same pace of iteration. Compliance requirements are strict, integration cycles are slower and operators must balance precision with user experience. As a result, by the time a new evasive technique gains traction, many legacy systems are still catching up.
This creates a widening gap: spoofing methods advance rapidly in the open market, while geolocation defenses evolve more cautiously within regulatory frameworks. For operators, the takeaway is clear: staying compliant requires tools that can detect and respond to this accelerating pattern of evasion.
When Geo Evasion Becomes a Fraud Signal
Geo evasion is often the first sign that a player isn’t just bending the rules, they’re actively trying to get around them. People don’t usually fire up a VPN or spoof a device for convenience — they do it because their real location, identity or behavior wouldn’t pass basic compliance checks. And the same tools used to bypass geolocation are often the starting kit for wider fraud schemes.
When a user masks their IP, routes traffic through proxies or hops between devices to avoid detection, they’re showing a willingness to manipulate the system. Those patterns are closely linked to multi-accounting, bonus abuse and iGaming chargeback fraud.
Treating geo evasion as a fraud signal lets operators step in earlier and with more context. Instead of logging it as a one-off violation, it becomes a reason to dig into motivation, linked accounts and wider behavior. That shift — from simply blocking access to understanding why someone is hiding — is what really strengthens both fraud prevention and regulatory protection.
Strengthening Location Decisions Beyond IP Data
IP geolocation alone was never designed to carry the full weight of modern iGaming compliance. At its core, an IP lookup does one thing: estimate where a user is connecting from. But the realities of today demand far more, especially when players actively use tools to disguise their true location.
SEON combines IP fraud scoring with multiple fraud signals to give operators real-time insight into user intent and behavior.
- Geolocation intelligence: SEON pings local servers to estimate longitude, latitude, country, city and ZIP code. Combined with time-zone checks, it becomes easier to detect suspicious behavior like impossible travel speeds or mismatches between login locations and account data.
- VPN, proxy and TOR detection: SEON identifies whether an IP belongs to a residential ISP, a data center, a public network or known TOR exit nodes. This helps surface users who are masking their identity or routing traffic through anonymity networks.
- Open port scanning: By scanning certain ports, SEON can determine whether a connection is being routed through a proxy setup — an immediate red flag for location spoofing and multi-accounting attempts.
- Spam and Reputation Checks: SEON cross-references IP addresses against spam blacklists, including DNSBL and RBL. If an address has been flagged before, the likelihood of fraud increases significantly.
Device Intelligence for Detecting Repeat Bypass Attempts
When players attempt to evade geolocation controls, their devices often reveal more than their IP addresses ever could. This is where device intelligence becomes a powerful tool: SEON surfaces hundreds of real-time device data points that uncover patterns traditional geo checks miss.
By analyzing a user’s hardware and software configuration, SEON pinpoints behaviors that commonly accompany location spoofing and other fraud attempts. You can quickly identify whether users are:
- Using browsers built for geohacking: Some browsers and extensions are specifically designed to spoof location or conceal device attributes. SEON’s browser fingerprinting detects these variations instantly.
- Automating login attempts for multi-accounting or bonus abuse: Fraudsters often rely on bots or automation frameworks to cycle through multiple identities. Device data exposes these non-human interaction patterns.
- Switching browsers, clearing cache or operating in incognito mode: Rapid environment changes are strong indicators of someone trying to avoid persistent tracking. SEON flags these anomalies to support more confident decision-making.
- Spoofing device or network data with emulators: Emulators allow users to mimic new devices at scale — one of the most common tactics in high-volume fraud operations. SEON detects emulator fingerprints and other device tampering techniques.
Lottoland used SEON’s digital footprinting and device intelligence to automatically block players from non-approved countries and stay compliant with gambling laws.
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Leaving the Guesswork Behind
Relying on IP data alone has become a liability in modern iGaming compliance. With players increasingly using VPNs, proxies and device-masking tools, traditional IP checks can no longer provide the certainty regulators expect or operators need.
By combining IP insights with device intelligence and digital footprint analysis, operators can finally close the compliance gap and make confident, defensible location decisions in every market they serve.
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