Everyone has a right to enjoy online services in a way that is both safe and secure. However, many platforms and providers fall short in this regard, which can leave customers feeling hard done by. Interestingly the world of online gambling is actually more attuned to these aspects than other industries. Let’s look at how this is achieved, and why it matters.
Fairness works both ways
Lots of people think that casino games, and slot machines in particular, are either rigged against them, or can be exploited to earn a payout. But is there a trick to slot machines and online games? The short answer is no.
Casino operators are specifically regulated to ensure fairness both for them and for their customers. So they are prohibited from hosting games which are unwinnable at any point, just as customers are prohibited from using any kind of software exploit to cheat their way to a jackpot.
That doesn’t mean online gambling is guaranteed to net players a profit; quite the opposite. It simply means that every time you spin the reels of a slot, there has to be a chance that a winning combination of symbols will crop up. Gambling regulations thus ensure safety for players and operators alike.
Payment options are varied
When it comes to making deposits and withdrawals, online casinos have been ahead of the curve for many years.
They were among the first to support digital payment platforms like PayPal and Skrill, long before these became mainstream in other contexts.
Some casino sites have even innovated by adopting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin both as a method for adding funds to an account, and even as a token that can be gambled with.
The anonymity and encryption that are intrinsic to blockchain technologies like these are set to transform the security landscape going forward, and online casinos are at the forefront of this movement.
Play limitations are available
Gambling is an entertaining and harmless pastime for the majority of players, but for the minority that do encounter issues with addiction, it is important to protect them from potentially damaging losses being made.
Online casinos have gone further to ensure player safety in this regard than their land-based counterparts, with most offering the ability to automatically lock out players from wagering more than a predetermined limit within a given time period.
This deserves to be celebrated, since very few other forms of gaming have gone this far. While people can pour hour after hour into other online games, and spend huge sums on digital in-game items that are effectively worthless in any other context, the spending cap features from online casinos could solve the wider issue of gaming addiction if adopted elsewhere.
Multifactor authentication prevents malicious account access
A growing number of online services now either optionally offer or require users to go through multifactor authentication in order to let them log into their accounts and verify their identity so that hackers can’t break in and cause havoc.
Once again, this is something that some online gambling operators have been doing for a while now, and it certainly benefits customers who recognize the risks they face when using any kind of web-based platform.
Until recently it was really only online banking platforms which were better protected at the point of login, so once again the forward-looking, cautious stance of casino brands is worth applauding.
Penetration testing for peace of mind
Speaking of hackers, top casino operators don’t just put security measures in place and expect them to work; they also turn to penetration testing in order to prove whether or not their protective solutions are up to the task in real-world scenarios.
Pen testing has become commonplace in many industries, since as more businesses have their mission-critical assets stored digitally, putting security contingencies through their paces is better than crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
It is not just the overarching casino sites which are checked for vulnerabilities, but also individual games themselves.
This is necessary because games are often developed by third parties, rather than put together in-house, and so operators have to be sure that they are up to the same high standards of security that they uphold elsewhere.
Final thoughts
Online gambling has been pushing the envelope of safety and security for years at this point, leaving other industries to play catch-up.
This is good news for would-be customers who have perhaps been a little skeptical about the resilience of such platforms. So long as you pick a reputable casino site to play with, you’ll be safer than almost anywhere else.
