As an experienced risk product manager for SafeCharge, I'd like to share and discuss the upcoming challenges in online gambling payments related to the cross-platform nature of web and mobile traffic.
During 2013, the i-gaming industry is going to face new challenges, mainly due to the technological and regulatory evolution. The industry, by its nature, is subject to a range of fraud attacks for several reasons.
Firstly, in any business where the end user can cash out actual money, there is an element of risk and of attracting money-laundering activity.
Furthermore, the nature of the service is characterised by a certain amount of player anonymity and a conversion-driven approach from online merchants, leaving it vulnerable and creating a potential breach for fraud and money laundry attacks.
The main challenge is that risk management systems face a variety of options for deposit and withdrawal, which can reveal the connection between a deposit and a withdrawal transaction and hence expose the system to risk.
The increased use of pre-paid credit cards and wallets makes it hard for fraud platforms to track the flow of money from deposit to withdrawal and helps limit cross-platform fraudulent transactions made from mobile or computer desktops.
Governments and financial institutions have introduced more strict anti-money laundry regulations in recent years, requiring merchants and payment processors to adopt strong ‘Know Your Customer’ policies. Online merchants face challenges in multi-factor authentication of player identity and the validity of transactions, forcing them to adopt new technologies that will reduce human resources and provide genuine authentication in real time.
Those gambling merchants reluctant to acquire new solutions will find themselves falling behind, spending more resources on losses and manual review. The wide variety of online payment methods, including mobile-oriented payments, provides comfort for players but can also complicate operations for the gambling merchants.
Each payment method has its own regulation and attributes of identification, and every merchant wants to offer them all in order to be among the industry leaders. Traditional tools such as IP geolocation, address verification services and even device fingerprint identification will no longer be sufficient when it comes to mobile. Only robust, flexible solutions combining multiple layers of protection can meet the needs.
