Online gambling has become extremely popular over the last decade, with at least half of the world’s population gambling in some way, shape or form. This is even more true with the current COVID-19 pandemic, forcing most people to stay because of lockdowns and laws regarding social distancing.
The growth in popularity of online casinos comes as no surprise, especially when considering that the sites are accessible by smartphone, desktop computer and laptops. The majority of the games available on online casinos are made using state-of-the-art visuals, with intuitive and immersive gameplay.
All of this fun does come with a few risks though, specifically in terms of cyber security. Those most at risk are players using laptops, mainly because of the fact that any application can be installed, whereas smartphone users are protected with minimal accessibility to system functions which prevents them from installing applications from unknown sources. Those looking to take your money will employ a variety of methods, such as phishing, fake websites, harmful links, using keylogging software and more. It’s important to be able to identify these methods to not only protect yourself and your information, but to keep your money safe when using your laptop for gambling.
Check casinos authenticity
One of the easiest ways to keep yourself safe is to check the licenses the online casinos you are wanting to play on have. Every legitimate online casino has received a license, usually from the Malta Gaming Authority. This is because online casinos need to be fair and to also avoid money laundering. An unlicensed site could be a platform that fraudulent individuals are using to collect your bank account information when you “register” to the site. You might get an error during the registration process saying something went wrong, or they may be games on the site but you would never be able to withdrawing any of your “winnings”. If the license isn’t visible anywhere on the home page, and you receive no replies when requesting for one to be shown to you, the site is likely fake.
Even in countries like Japan where gambling is prohibited (unless using offshore casinos) the online casinos will still have these licenses. Take for example Casino X, they’re very popular in the Japanese market and are actually currently ranked number 1 by 6takarakuji. If you search online you will find that they have another popular license, the Curacao license, finding the licensing details is generally very easy with a quick Google search.
How to protect yourself against phishing
The first step to protecting yourself against phishing is to know what it is. Phishing is the most common cyber-attack in which an email is used trick the recipient into giving personal information, which could be used to steal their money. This is usually done by making a request for the recipient to click on a link contained in the email, where the attacker is pretending to be a company, a person, their bank, etc. This has become a widespread problem, and the most common victims are those who use gambling websites. The reason for this is because online casinos usually have some sort of promotion system where deals or marketing emails are sent to clients who have subscribed, so it would not be uncommon for you to receive many emails from the casino or casinos you have registered to. You would be very inclined to click on a link in an email from “a casino” if they were offering a ridiculous number of free spins. To protect yourself, pay careful attention to the spelling of the link address, for example Nikee.com is spelled incorrectly. Also be attentive to any redirects, where you will be sent to a website that looks almost identical to a real one. Lastly, don’t enter any personal information on a website that you don’t trust or a website that you have not verified to be real.
Links and 3rd party software
Some websites may offer an application, or casino games that they have “modified” to give you advantages like free spins, the ability to play without depositing money or higher winning chances. This is dangerous because this 3rd party software usually needs to be downloaded from a link on the website that isn’t affiliated with any licensed online casino. This software is usually malware which installs hidden software onto your laptop, such as keylogging software. This is a hidden application that logs your keystrokes when entering passwords, login details like usernames or other private information. This can then be used to access your bank accounts, online casino accounts, social media accounts and more. To avoid this, only play on licensed casino sites and download games, applications and software from verified sources.
