The online gambling industry experienced significant growth over the course of the pandemic and is expected to reach a value of $102.9 billion by 2025 – a growth of almost 100% from its 2019 value of $53.7 billion in 2019. The expansion started during the lockdowns of the early months of the pandemic when people were confined to their homes but it hasn’t slowed down, even when lockdowns were lifted and people started to circulate again. When the Vegas casinos reopened, the online casinos continued to out-perform them by a significant margin.
Predictably, the growth in activity at the online casinos has drawn more cyberthreat as cybercriminals and hackers see opportunities to get ahold of some of the billions of dollars that are transacted via ewallets, wire transfers, and credit and debit cards. Gambling companies have become a favored target for hackers and scammers by trying to get the transactions diverted to them and by trying to steal confidential information which gives them access to additional ways to steal funds.
Online casinos need to build safe and secure platforms but at the same time, consumers must be aware of hackers’ methods so that they can avoid them. The Sloto Cash login incorporates these principles which other casinos and their gamers should watch for as well.
Safe and Secure
Online casinos are taking a global approach to the vision of a safe and secure online casino of the future. Some of their focus involves
- Working with customers to teach them how to protect themselves while playing online. This would involve emails, video tutorials, and expanded support services to teach players how to protect themselves when gaming online.
- Encouraging more exchanges via cybercurrencies so all operations are automatically recorded within the game. A settlement between the casino and players is transparent and there’s no obligation for the player to enter any data during deposits. It’s virtually impossible to hack a blockchain system and players can execute all transactions anonymously. Players might come on board with a turn to cybercurrency transactions because it’s easier to facilitate deposits and withdrawals via cybercurrency transactions than with traditional online payment methods.
- Enacting stricter regulations to make it easier for the casinos to monitor player behavior and identify instances where a player might be in trouble – a budget player suddenly making VIP deposits, or a casual gamer suddenly playing 24/7, etc.
Threats to Operators
Online casino security is crucial to sustaining the industry. Hackers now have access to sophisticated tools and techniques. They can manipulate accounts through fake apps and breach data and break down online security protocols through app-based hacking tools.
As the number of players worldwide increases, so does the risk of cybercrimes that target players. Without cyber protection, the development and success of the online gambling industry is in doubt. The primary threat to online casinos comes from hackers who try to breach cybersecurity protocols to swamp servers with bot traffic but other attacks have involved contacting players to fraudulently solicit payments and even from individuals who hold administrative positions within gaming companies and steal customer details to collect data.
Some of these attacks include:
- Automated threats that speed up time-consuming action via bots so that players can violate gameplay rules and expedite payouts to third-party (hacker) sources.
- The flooding of gaming sites with unexpected surge of traffic through DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks which increase loading times, crash sited and force players to abandon sites in search of a faster and more responsive site.
- The taking over of players’ personal accounts where the hacker gains illegal access to a genuine player’s user profile and then uses that information to steal funds.
- The taking over of a database server via a SQL (Structured Query Language) attack which allows the hacker to add, delete or modify data.
Threats to Players
For players, the biggest threat is when an attacker gains access to their personal data, customer information, intellectual properties and banking information. Therefore, players should look for sites that go above and beyond in their efforts to keep their customers’ information safe and secure.
Players should look for companies that use multi-factor identification that adds additional layers of protection by limiting log-ins to customers who had to identify themselves using 2 methods of identification (along with the customer email address, the 2nd method might involve a second email, submission of a code sent to a cell phone, etc.).
It’s also important for players to recognize what they need to do to protect themselves. Much of this effort revolves around recognizing fraudulent emails and social media messages which is how hackers try to gain access to users’ digital information. Casinos remind users to:
- Look at the “from” field on any email that purports to come from the casino. Does it look a bit off? Check the first part of the email address, especially after the tail end after the “@” symbol. There might be an extra letter or number in the domain name or the name might be off by a letter. That’s your clue that the letter doesn’t come from the casino.
- Be wary of any email that requests personal information. Emails from the casino will never ask you for personal information.
- Look warily at any request for money. You shouldn’t be sending any money to the casino other than what you deposit for your bets. The request might take the form of requesting funds for taxes, fees, expenses, etc. but such an email will never come from the casino.
- Don’t click on a link embedded within an email or on any email attachment. That link might very well bring you to a phishing site where your username and password will be harvested to be used against you. ONLY enter the casino through your app or via a direct web link.
