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Latest News
Playing it safe: Financial transparency, privacy and data protection in online gambling
Online casino customers want to know they are playing at a casino that protects their privacy, data and financial information. Providing this creates several challenges, but licensed UK online operators still champion security protocols and compliance.
Player trust – essential for successful gambling businesses
Financial transparency, privacy, and data protection are crucial to player security and determine whether consumers trust a gambling site. Customer trust is the litmus test of a successful gambling brand. Untrustworthy sites don’t survive long, scoring low with players and review sites.
When considering where to play the best slots in the UK, it’s not enough for players to only look at games choice; customers also need to consider a casino’s reputation, ensuring it has up-to-date licensing, sufficient privacy terms, and state-of-the-art security features.
Reading online reviews can help with research and is one of the easiest ways to narrow down the options. Review sites test online casinos for security, ensuring licensing and site encryption. If a gambling site consistently has terrible reviews, it’ll put prospective players off and limit its success.
Security challenges for operators
Online gambling sites in the UK are held to licensing standards and UK laws, which cover data privacy protocol (following GDPR), fraud prevention, Know Your Customer Checks, Source of Fund inquiries, Anti-Money Laundering prevention, levels of site and server security (SSL and physical considerations), secure payment gateways and methods, and more. These measures, along with game testing and certification, are created to ensure that gambling remains crime-free and that consumers are assured of the industry’s legitimacy.
Despite the measures, the gambling industry is constantly under attack from criminal forces. In the last several years, major scale hacks have exposed the vulnerability of the global online gambling industry from a security point of view.
These include the Betway breach in 2011 (cyber criminals accessed the consumer database), William Hill hack in 2016 (a DDoS attack that took down the site, costing millions in lost bets), the DraftKings fiasco in 2022 (that led to $600,000 being withdrawn from player accounts by a teen) and BetMGM also in 2022 (user data was breached from May-Nov, 22).
These wide-scale attacks on market-leading gambling operators remind us of the pace of tech growth and that cyber criminals pose an ongoing threat to the online gambling industry. This is why operators must invest in robust protections, software and AI and conduct regular security audits with bodies like eCOGRA to expose vulnerabilities.
Data protection and Anti-Money Laundering laws
While some areas of regulation are the remit of the UK Gambling Commission, others, like data protection and AML compliance, are governed by separate laws. Data protection laws for personal and financial details are provided by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). These two regulations govern how businesses and gambling operators can use, and process data, with GDPR considered the latest update.
“Fairness, transparency, accuracy, security, data minimisation and respect for the rights of the individual whose data a business wants to process – these are all things that businesses should already be doing with data. GDPR seeks to build on those principles.”
Data protection laws and rules are complex and include details on encryption, SSL coverage, employee training in best practices, audits and testing, and data retention. UK casinos are experienced in data handling and storage protocol; they also employ the latest security software to ensure player accounts and data are kept secure.
We’ll go more into AML below, but just to add, on financial transparency, UK gambling sites must be completely transparent and even separate player funds to ensure they are protected in cases of solvency issues. All financial records are reported to the Gambling Commission for tax purposes.
Account security
Both consumers and casinos have a role to play in account security. In line with gambling and AML laws, online casinos in the UK must complete Know Your Customer Checks on new accounts. This includes age and ID verification. It helps satisfy source of funds regulations and financial transparency; on the individual level, cases of financial fraud by players have taken place in the past. The Gambling Commission’s primary aim is ensuring gambling remains crime-free, which chiefly means avoiding money laundering efforts.
In avoiding outside hacking efforts and to better reassure players, operators can also increase account security by using 2-factor sign-in accounts, fingerprint logins on apps and for payments, plus security questions.
Security audits and testing
Online casinos and gambling sites can pay third-party auditing companies, like eCOGRA and iTech Labs, to test their platforms. These attack the platform to expose any areas of weakness from an outside perspective. Conducting third-party security audits is considered the best practice for online gambling operators in the UK, at least every two years.
Future of fraud detection and gambling harm indicators
Gambling operators are increasingly using AI to flag cases of suspicious account activity. It’s decreasing the space for error, especially when coupled with the UK’s new rules regarding loss limits and financial checks (these are loss, so will include targeted interventions with players who are not experiencing harm or fraud – early intervention raises awareness of harmful partners of betting).
As AI can process large data sets and uses machine learning, it is getting ever better at flagging cases of fraud and gambling harm at the individual account level. It is also instrumental in detecting bonus abuse, brute force hacking attempts and unusual payments.
However, as the amount of data casinos process regarding players increases, so do the concerns relating to ethical uses of data, including how operators use this for targeted marketing and promotions, which, as the past has shown, has an impact on the behaviour of vulnerable players – we are of course thinking about how some UK operators used VIP schemes and promos to encourage large and unchecked spending on some accounts, which led to new Gambling Commission guidance.
At the end of the day, where there are cases of it going wrong, for the most part, operators play it safe and do their utmost to ensure consumers can trust the UK gambling industry. This means providing the highest standard of online security, financial transparency, privacy and data protection and encouraging responsible, sustainable play.
Industry Awards
PopOK Gaming Won Two Prestigious Nominations at BFTH Arena Awards Ceremony
![popok-gaming-won-two-prestigious-nominations-at-bfth-arena-awards-ceremony](https://igamingradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/132949-popok-gaming-won-two-prestigious-nominations-at-bfth-arena-awards-ceremony.jpg)
PopOK Gaming has achieved remarkable success at the recent BFTH Arena Awards Ceremony, securing two prestigious awards that highlight the company’s commitment to innovation and excellence in the gaming industry.
The company was honored in the following categories:
1. Best FTN Casino Game for its Fast Fruits slot game which is known for its Classic design, bright colors, and seamless gameplay.
2. Best Game Achievement for Fast Master exciting crypto themed game with Avalanche reels, featuring multipliers in Free Spins
Both games have the innovative “FTN Mania” feature which awards Fasttokens for every spin.
“We are delighted to receive the BFTH Arena Awards” said Tsovinar Elchyan, Head of Partnerships at PopOK Gaming. “It was certainly an evening to remember. These achievements are a testament to our team’s hard work, and dedication to delivering outstanding games.”
The post PopOK Gaming Won Two Prestigious Nominations at BFTH Arena Awards Ceremony appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Latest News
Mandelli celebrates 10 years with ITL
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Stefano Mandelli, Business Development Manager for Innovative Technology Ltd (ITL), is celebrating a decade with the leading provider of cash handling equipment and age & identity validation technology this month. Stefano is responsible for ITL’s presence in Italy and several countries within South East Europe.
Commenting on his long-standing achievement, Stefano said, “When I first joined Innovative back in 2014, my role focussed solely on growing our presence in Italy with an emphasis on the gaming and vending industries, alongside developing new markets. After a short period I expanded my territories, and as well as looking after customer in Italy, I am now responsible for a large part of South East Europe including Slovenia, Greece and Turkey. I am particularly proud of the strong partnerships I have established in all my regions, both with the main OEMs and with our approved Trading Partners and Service Centres. These collaborations have assisted with the growth of my markets, and even during difficult periods of supply, we have optimised lead times to ensure prompt product delivery.”
Enrique Jütten, VP of Sales & Business Development for ITL’s Gaming, Amusement and Vending sectors said, “ Stefano is an asset to our company and highly valued by the team, and his customers. Stefano’s main responsibilities are customer sales, forecasting and researching potential new business segments. He is an excellent account manager who understands his customers and their business models to ensure they choose the right ITL products to meet their needs.”
Continuing Stefano said, “ The growth of ITL and the development of new products has given me the tools to create opportunities in new sectors such as retail, banking, parking and transportation over the past few years. The best thing about my job is meeting people from different countries and getting to know their culture and advising them on how our products can elevate their business. My focus for the future is to continue to expand my area with the target to introduce and extend our new technologies and solutions in emerging sectors.”
Concluding Enrique said, “This is an impressive achievement and I would like to thank Stefano for his commitment to ITL. I look forward to seeing Stefano continue to grow our presence in his regions, and reach new markets over the coming years.”.
The post Mandelli celebrates 10 years with ITL appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Latest News
BGaming evokes cartel chaos in Grand Patron
![bgaming-evokes-cartel-chaos-in-grand-patron](https://igamingradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/132945-bgaming-evokes-cartel-chaos-in-grand-patron.png)
Popular iGaming content provider BGaming is taking fearless players to the depths of the Grand Patron criminal empire. This feature-packed release includes two additional reels, a trio of modifiers, multipliers, three types of Free Spins modes, and a Wild symbol.
The cinematic video slot sees players step into the shoes of a cartel boss as two extra horizontal reels dictate their fate. They both reveal one random symbol during each spin in the main game, with the power to unlock one by one during the Free Spins mode.
Unpredictable gameplay is the main appeal of Grand Patron, with Spawner, Prison and Bombastic modifiers shaping its direction. Spawner sees a Wild or any regular symbol appear on both additional reels, leading to three of these symbols being added to the main game field. Prison features a question mark symbol landing on one of the additional reels, while the other sees a paytable symbol drop. The paytable character on the main reels will then be locked for a respin. If the Prison symbol lands on both extra reels, all symbols are locked and the screen is filled with one random paytable symbol, resulting in a win across all 20 paylines.
The Bombastic modifier occurs when a bomb symbol appears on one additional reel and any regular symbol on the other. The corresponding regular symbol on the main reels then explodes at the end of the spin. Random symbols fill the spaces, with the potential for future wins. Two bombs on additional reels clear the reels and trigger respins.
Free Spins mode is granted when two Scatters appear on the extra reels during the main game, with an initial 12 spins triggered. If a Prison symbol lands at the start of the round, three extra free spins are awarded. Additionally, players can purchase one of three Free Spins modes for between x100, x250 or x1,000 of their bet amount.
The Wild has the power to substitute all paying symbols in Grand Patron, while the Multiplier can greatly increase wins.
Aliaksej Baliukonis, Game Designers Team Lead at BGaming, said: “Just like a life of crime depicted in cartel movies, Grand Patron has twists and turns at every spin. Players who like unpredictable, high-volatility games will enjoy this release, which is one of our most feature-rich titles to date.”
The post BGaming evokes cartel chaos in Grand Patron appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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