In today’s day and age, one of the greatest threats to all kinds of businesses is the danger of cybersecurity breaches. While this is something that all businesses must take seriously, the ways in which different businesses deal with these threats is rather interesting. In this article, we shall be looking closely at how online casinos manage to control both cybersecurity threats as well as attempted manipulations of the services that they provide.
Given that online casinos deal with vast sums of money on a daily basis, these platforms can be prime targets for hackers and criminals. While this is a constant threat globally, the risks are dramatically higher in regions experiencing a sudden boom in online gaming. In fact, international betting operators considering operations in the Middle East, the fastest growing eSports market in the world, consider piracy to be the most challenging cyber risk threatening their expansion into the Arabic market.. Given the nature and size of the online gaming industry, it’s clear cyber security is a challenge that must be tackled from various directions. In this article, we will highlight a few of the challenges that online casinos and betting sites are dealing with. It’s a fascinating topic, so let’s jump right into it.
Money Laundering & Identity Theft
One of the greatest threats to online casinos is the prospect that people who sign up are actually laundering money. If you think about it, online casinos are a great way for criminals to actually hide funds. This is because they could choose to just sign up with an online casino and deposit large amounts of cash, although some deposit illicit money and try to gamble in the attempt to earn money off the back of illegally obtained funds. Therefore, in order to protect against money laundering, online casinos have implemented something called ‘Know Your Customer’.
This is where online casinos require that you provide proof of address, proof of identity, and if large sums of money are involved, you might be requested to provide proof of funds too. This is something that is required by every licensed operator and ultimately it’s an issue of protecting your identity online. Basically, if any customer cannot provide these details, it is assumed that they do not meet the requirements needed in order for the casino to meet the requirements stipulated by the money laundering. Violating these regulations will further impact their license to operate a real money casino.
Hacked Gaming Software
In addition to the Know Your Customer routine that we have talked about above, casinos also need to shield against hackers tampering with the software that they use. While this might sound difficult to do, skilled hackers could potentially manipulate the software so that the outcomes of certain casino games work to their advantage. If such a breach took place, online casinos would risk losing millions. For that reason, you will often discover that online casinos use encrypted RNG (Random Number Generator) software.
This is the software that dictates the randomness of the outcomes for all of the casino games that you choose to play. Not only does this keep things fair across the board, but it also plays a major role in preventing these security threats. More often than not, an online casino will advertise that they are using such software on the site.
Closed-Loop Systems for Withdrawals
This is an important step online casinos have taken in an attempt to closely monitor the funds that flow in and out of an individual’s account. Basically, a closed-loop system means that you must withdraw funds to the same method that you used to make your most recent deposit. This helps to prevent criminals from taking advantage of online casinos to transfer money around their various accounts. To go hand-in-hand with that, some casinos have even put in a 1x wagering condition on all funds that are deposited before they can be withdrawn.
With these factors combined together, anyone wanting to transfer illicit funds between many different accounts will have a much tougher time in doing so. This is because they must actually wager the money that is put into the account in the first place, and then they must withdraw the funds back to the exact same method – leaving a trail of money that can easily be tracked should the authorities get involved.
Conclusion
As you have seen from the information provided in this article, online casinos need to protect themselves from a whole range of different angles in order to make online gaming as safe as possible. This is just the world that we live in today, and as we continue to become a more digitalized society, it is likely that casinos will need to put in more measures to control any form of illegal and unwelcome activity.
With all of this said, online casinos are generally used as a platform to have some online gaming fun for most people, and these measures should make you feel secure since you are not trying to engage in any criminal activity.
