Online Casino Computer Identification Prevents Fraud
Date Added: March 18, 2009
One of the more common types of fraud is a bonus abuse in which a player claims multiple sign up bonuses. Online casinos not only restrict such bonuses to one per player but also to one per address, one per computer and one per e-mail id. This is because some online players began to open accounts under different names in order to avail of the sign up bonuses a number of times. They would simply use another e-mail id and name and postal address of a friend and create a new account from their computer. In order to prevent this online casinos introduced the condition of one bonus per computer and put in place a mechanism that enables them to verify if the same computer is being used for creating more than one account.
The download version of online casino software contains programs that can read certain unique identification labels that are given to computers. These programs can also transmit these labels to the online casino and store it on the servers of the online casino. Some of these identification labels are the computer’s IP address, MAC address of the network card, the serial number and version of the CPU and the hard drive serial number. When a new player downloads the software, the identifying labels are matched with those in the online casino’s database. If the player’s computer’s identification labels are unique then the registration process is completed. However if the labels are already in the database then the registration is annulled. Simultaneously the existing registration is also cancelled. Therefore it is not advisable to let a friend or relative register at an online casino from your computer.
This check does not prevent players who want to commit this form of bonus abuse from using a different computer. It only makes things more difficult. If a player wants to commit this form of bonus abuse he will have to use a different computer, a different e-mail address, a different name, a different address and a different bank or e-wallet account and provide hard copy verification for those.
Online casinos make it clear in the privacy policy that they will use this information only for the stated purpose. They will not divulge this information to any third party unless required by law. If the online casino is a reputed one, and there are means of ascertaining this, then it will not misuse the players’ computer information. Also online casinos adequately protect their servers from being hacked into. Therefore players need not worry about online casinos accessing this information.
Players who want to circumvent this check can use different machines on different networks or even stand alone different computers. For example a player can use a home computer, an office computer, a laptop and a friend's computer to successfully open four different accounts. However, online casinos have evolved other methods to prevent this. The methods include identity checks through addresses, social security numbers and bank accounts.
Players should read through the privacy policy of the online casino in order to learn what information the casino will collect and how it will use the information. Since the privacy policy of each operator is different the player should read the policy for each casino he intends to play at.
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