Gambling App Fraud: Android Rates Surge to 59 Percent in Recent Report

The mobile gambling app landscape is facing a severe threat from organized fraud, particularly affecting users and developers on the Android operating system. Recent data from AppsFlyer’s 2026 State of Fraud for Marketers report highlights that Android gambling fraud climbed from 49 percent to 59 percent year-over-year. The situation was particularly critical in the fourth quarter of 2025, when the rate hit 64 percent. During this period, Real Users Lift reached 175 percent, meaning advertisers were essentially paying for nearly two fraudulent users for every real one they acquired.

This trend stands in sharp contrast to other industries. While finance fraud rates on Android remained flat across five consecutive quarters, iOS fraud fell by 33 percent year-over-year. AppsFlyer’s analysis covers a massive dataset of 106.4 billion installs across 246,000 apps. With user-acquisition spend in the casino and gambling category jumping 127 percent in 2025, bad traffic has become a much more expensive nuisance for businesses.

Numbers and facts

A primary reason for the gambling industry’s vulnerability is the complexity of its acquisition channels. Many operators work with a high number of traffic partners, which makes maintaining a clear view of traffic quality difficult. Richard Schmidt, Head of Sales at ROCKAPP, identifies this as a structural issue. The agency, which works with iGaming and fintech clients, notes that the sheer volume of partners obscures visibility.

“The result itself is not particularly surprising to us. iGaming and fintech tend to work with a large number of traffic partners, and the more complex the acquisition mix becomes, the harder it can be for a product team to maintain a clear view of traffic quality across every source.” - Richard Schmidt, Head of Sales at ROCKAPP

A particularly dangerous aspect is that fraud is often not immediately apparent at the time of installation. A cheap install can look productive for a few days, while signals exposing poor quality only appear further down the funnel. Once fraudulent traffic is mixed into historical data, it creates a feedback loop where optimization systems learn from the wrong signals, funneling even more money into compromised sources.

Background

Beyond technical install fraud, the industry is plagued by traditional scams fueled by new technologies. An estimated 26 percent of the global population uses online gambling services. The enormous market volume, which reached 536 billion US dollars in 2023 according to H2 Gambling Capital, attracts criminals. A major problem is bonus abuse, where players use fake identities or bots to create multiple accounts and exploit welcome offers. According to Gambling IQ, this practice accounts for nearly 66 percent of online casino fraud. Deepfakes and cryptocurrency-related scams are also on the rise. Estimates suggest that fraud costs the sector around one billion US dollars annually. Between 2022 and November 2024, general fraud rates surged by 73 percent.

Why it matters for German players

For German players, this development is a double-edged sword. On one hand, high fraud rates force legal operators to massiveley strengthen their security measures. Those playing at a German-licensed provider are already in a very secure environment due to the State Treaty on Gambling 2021 (GlüStV 2021). The Joint Gambling Authority of the States (GGL) mandates strict identity verification, complemented by the LUGAS system and the OASIS exclusion file. This makes it difficult for fraudsters to operate, as every account must be clearly assigned to a real person.

However, the increasing pressure of fraud also means that registration processes for honest customers can become more tedious. Providers are increasingly relying on biometric methods and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to ensure that a bot or identity thief is not behind an account. German players should only play at providers on the official GGL whitelist. There, the monthly deposit limit of 1,000 euros and the stake limit of one euro per spin on slots serve not only as protection against gambling addiction but also as barriers against large-scale money laundering and massive fraud.

What it means for GGL-licensed casinos

For operators with a GGL license, traffic analysis is becoming a question of survival. In Europe, casino apps generate 64 percent of their in-app purchase revenue from paid installs. If more than half of this traffic on Android devices is potentially manipulated, providers are burning millions. German casinos must therefore look beyond simple install reports. Post-install events are the decisive metrics. Traffic only has economic value if a user actually deposits and plays. Agencies like ROCKAPP advise auditing sources strictly before campaigns launch and taking immediate action if unexpected changes in key performance indicators occur.