Two bonus hunters arrested in the US for creating multiple accounts

A pair of Connecticut residents are in serious legal trouble after authorities say they turned online gambling promotions into a profitable fraud business.

Federal agents arrested 29-year-old Amitoj Kapur and 29-year-old Siddharth Lillaney this week in connection with a scheme that allegedly ran for several years. Both men live in the town of Glastonbury.

A grand jury in New Haven has charged them with dozens of criminal offenses, including electronic fraud, misuse of personal information, and laundering money.

How the plan allegedly worked

Online gaming sites often offer rewards to attract new players. These can include free bets, bonus credits, or special welcome offers. The government believes the defendants built a system to collect those rewards again and again by pretending to be different people.

Court filings claim the two men bought stolen identity details from illegal sellers on the internet. With that information, they reportedly opened large numbers of gambling accounts under false names.

Whenever a platform asked for more proof, the suspects allegedly searched public record websites to gather extra facts about real individuals. That helped them answer security questions and keep the accounts from being blocked.

If a bonus bet produced winnings, the money was moved to prepaid virtual cards and then sent to bank and investment accounts controlled by Kapur and Lillaney.

The scope of the case

Authorities estimate that personal information belonging to about 3,000 people was used without their knowledge. Most of those victims had nothing to do with online gambling and were unaware that accounts existed in their names.

Investigators believe the activity started in 2021 and eventually generated close to $3 million.

U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan said the operation went far beyond bending the rules of gambling websites.

“This was not casual misuse of promotions,” he noted. “It depended on identity theft and deception on a large scale.”

Court status

The legal process began on February 3, 2026, when the grand jury cleared the way for charges. Kapur and Lillaney were arrested soon after and brought before a federal judge. Following that first hearing, the judge allowed them to return home while the case moves ahead.

The list of accusations could carry major consequences if prosecutors succeed. At the moment, however, the situation is still unresolved, and the court has not ruled against either man.

Why the story matters

Multi-account tricks are nothing new for gaming websites. Operators regularly catch people trying to create extra profiles to squeeze out more promotions, and the usual response is simple: close the accounts and move on.

Here, however, the authorities see something much more serious. The alleged use of other people’s identities and layered financial transactions has turned what might have been a policy violation into a criminal investigation.

As a result, the industry may need to change the way it works. More detailed verification and closer tracking of new users are likely to become standard steps for many companies.

A signal to the market

The U.S. online gaming market keeps getting bigger, and the fight for new players is fierce. Free bets and sign-up rewards are part of everyday business. This situation shows the downside of those incentives.

What happened in Connecticut makes one thing clear: organized bonus abuse that relies on fake identities is not a harmless trick. It can turn into a criminal case very quickly.

Authorities say their work on the matter is not finished, and further information may come out later.

Cases of players attempting to cheat online casinos have become more frequent in recent years. We previously reported on a similar legal dispute when Stake’s owner was sued for enabling a 17-year-old’s gambling addiction and bypassing self-exclusion measures.