A Free Educational Resource Created by Carnegie Mellon University to Empower You to Secure Your Part of Cyberspace

Online Gambling

The placing of bets using the Internet

Online gambling allows you to place bets in online casinos by accessing a web page or by running special software provided by the casino. While online gambling occurs in a virtual world, the money involved is very real.

In online gambling, the funds required to play the games are uploaded through credit cards and online bank accounts. The amount is added to your account on winning and deducted on losing. Sometimes, for security reasons, credit card transactions are prohibited and, instead sites, like Neteller  , Moneybookers  , and PayPal  are used for fund transfers. All real-world gambling games can now also be played online with betting done electronically.

Protective Measures

Security Threats

When you play an online game or gamble, you connect your computer to a remote server. This remote server can be a private server, hosted by the gambling site publisher, or a public server, hosted by a third party. When you host a game, other people are able to connect to your computer, opening you up to possible intruders. You have to make sure you trust the person, or the company that hosts a game, before because by connecting to another computer, you reveal information about your computer, such as your IP address. If you use your credit cards and bank accounts for transferring funds, identity theft is a risk if the gaming site is not genuine. Because you can’t make a perfectly secure connection, you are vulnerable to the following threats when you do online gambling:

Legal Issues

Legal

While online gambling is technically illegal, in most states only casinos can be prosecuted, not bettors. Congress recently passed a law that makes most forms of Internet gambling illegal. In late September 2006, the bill was sent by Congress to President George W. Bush for signing into law.

Privacy

As with any online interaction, be careful about the personal information that you divulge when gambling online. Also, remember that people you meet online may not be who they say they are.

Depending on the privacy policy of the game or gambling organization, your actions and the things that you say online may be logged. The company may store this information in an electronic archive, and they may be required to turn over portions of this archive to the government or law enforcement officials, if asked.

References

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