The increased popularity of gambling, both online and at land-based casinos, has led to a number of potential issues which the industry will need to tackle if they do not want to fall foul of regulators. In any case, gambling is a highly controversial sector, with many countries still banning the practice, while others have been slow to legalize it, and betting operators do not need any more issues to give governments more reasons to restrict them.
One of the biggest issues which gambling firms need to guard against is identity theft and fraud. Even the best internet casino is vulnerable to its database of users being stolen, and that information, which will contain the financial information of customers, could then be used for fraudulent transactions. This is a huge problem for an industry which is expected to touch $160 billion in revenues globally this year.
However, it is here that technology can come to the rescue of the sector. One relatively easy way to secure data is by using biometrics. Biometric technology can be used to verify transactions, making sure that the customer matches the information entered during sign-up, and operators could require customers to provide any biometric information – a fingerprint impression or a selfie, for example, every time they initiate a transaction, to ensure that the transaction is a safe one.
This would also help protect users in the face of technology such as deepfakes, which can synthetically create anybody’s face and superimpose it on another. Biometric technology captures multiple unique points from a selfie creating a 3D map of the face, for example, all of which need to correctly match the selfie that is submitted, for the user’s identity to be verified.
There are other challenges which can be tackled using biometrics as well. Another big problem for the industry is underage gambling, Here too, biometric information can be used to verify the age of anyone attempting to sign up for an account at an online gambling site, or even at land-based casinos. There are many operators who are trialing the use of this software, in conjunction with AI and machine-learning programs, to correctly identify if a potential customer is below the legal gambling age in that territory. If successful, this could represent a huge breakthrough in what is a considerable challenge for the entire industry.
Another issue is that many fraudsters often use GPS-spoofing technology to circumvent gambling regulations in their territory and access websites fraudulently, while they can also use hacking tech to identify advertisements, replay them continuously and then reap the advertising fees for themselves rather than the gambling operator.
Further, hackers have been known to manipulate reward systems in online games to give themselves an undue advantage, which can be a massive problem in competitive games where there are huge prize pools.
All of these issues can be solved through biometric data systems, as it would force such fraudsters to identify themselves, and thus would drastically reduce the likelihood of them committing such crimes, if they had to verify their true identity every time they logged into a gambling or gaming site.
As stated earlier, the online gambling world is growing massively in popularity, and with this growth come problems which will need to be tackled. With the technology available at the hands of most operators, it is important that they set up systems to protect both their own interests, as well as that of their customers, to ensure that their popularity continues, and more people are assured that their data, especially sensitive data such as financial information, can be securely submitted to these gambling operators.
