Online Casino

When gambling online using one of the many respected and reputable online casinos and poker rooms, we expect our private details to be kept secure and away from prying eyes.

Exactly this has just happened and it throws into confusion the once solid reputation that has been built up by the online gambling industry over several years. How does this affect you, the individual? Perhaps you have placed your trust in one of the well recommended and reputable casinos and are now having doubts about that level of trust and reliability? Let's look at how this latest bombshell to hit the online gambling industry as a whole affects the consumer.

There is already a certain amount of concern over the problems of identity theft from unscrupulous people who use the Internet to try and obtain as many details from a person as they can. Emails are regularly sent to the unwary with fabricated tales of winning money or prizes and to claim them all you have to do is email them back with your details. Unfortunately, for every person who is tricked by this scam, known as "phishing," a shady company will use those details to open false bank accounts, apply for credit cards and all manner of other illegal activities using the names and addresses of real people they have stolen personal details from. The authorities are swamped by the sheer volume of claims from the victims of these scams, so they can surely do without a new wave of identity theft coming from online casinos that are supposed to be regulated and trustworthy.

When Nick Haslem, an Australian webmaster working for AustralianGambling.com.au managed to expose the sale of personal customer details allegedly by employees of high profile sites owned by William Hill, Full Tilt Poker and 888, a veritable Pandora's Box opened. Haslem was able to obtain sensitive information regarding players at certain sites without any difficulty and has also uncovered one of the big buyers as Ryan Clegg, who is apparently a well known figure amongst webmasters within the poker industry. He operates from an address in Surrey, England.

Alarmingly, the details provided by Clegg included players' full names, home address details, email addresses and birthdays along with their gambling habits, amounts deposited, lost and won as well as the frequency of their visits to online casinos and poker rooms.

While the purchase of such information is strictly illegal under the Data Protection Act, the management of the companies involved appear to be unaware this is happening and certainly would not sanction its practice. However, it is happening nonetheless.

It is clear that the information leaks tend to happen when an employee leaves the company and is able to download the customer database and take it with them. Again, this is a highly illegal form of theft, but the financial gains to be made obviously offset the risk the ex-employee would be prepared to take.

In the course of Haslem's investigations where he posed as a potential buyer of the stolen information, he was contacted directly by Clegg. Haslem was given a surprising amount of information including the names of many of the online casino websites involved.

To broker the deal, Clegg sent Haslem a sample of the data, which included personal details of 50 gamblers. If the deal went ahead, Haslem would have been able to purchase a batch of around 40,000 records for which the price was $4,000. All of the data comes from European players and most of them are from the UK. Clegg also mentioned that he had around 500 records that came from bingo sites that were comprised of UK email addresses which he would be prepared to include for free with a substantial order. These came from Cheeky, Foxy and Tombola Bingo websites.

This latest breach of trust is a real worry for the online gambling industry as a whole because such sensitive personal information is being sold to anyone who can afford to buy it for an agreed price. The most worrying part is that this information could all too easily be misused if it got into the wrong hands.

If you are worried about the security of your personal data with any online casino or poker room, contact their online support and make sure they are aware of your fears regarding this situation. If enough players bombard the casinos with enquiries, it will make the industry stand up and act swiftly to quell any fears and to tighten up its own security. Nothing makes an industry act faster than the fear it will lose all its customers through the loss of trust in its integrity.