Keeping yourself and your personal information safe online has become a full-time job. Most of our daily activities are completed online, and in turn, this has created a wealth of opportunities for bad actors to harvest your personal details.
Nearly everyone has been affected by a data or security breach. In fact, around 61 percent of Americans have learned that their data had been breached at some point on at least one of their active online accounts.
In June, a report was made public that stated a data breach that occurred in 2024 had affected nearly 3 billion individuals, including almost every American, Canadian, and British citizen.
When it comes to online betting, keeping your details out of the hands of malicious cybercriminals is a crucial part of enjoying online entertainment platforms, including online gambling and sports betting.
Taking the time to learn how you can protect yourself, and your details will help create a more enjoyable online betting experience, but further help mitigate the misuse of confidential information.
Essential Safety Measures For Online Betting
Whether you consider yourself a professional bettor or a novice player, practicing mindful online safety measures can keep you and other players safe. Applying the appropriate measures will help minimize potential financial losses, and regulatory or legal stress, and ensure the responsible use of legitimate betting platforms.
Vet online betting sites
Before you can start playing, and long before you provide any online platform your personal information, ensure that you have authenticated each website or platform properly. You can vet each platform or website through a simple online search.
Be sure to see whether a company or platform is registered with local or federal government agencies, such as a gambling or sports betting board.
Next, research whether any previous players have had issues with the company or platform. Read any available reviews and make sure to go as far back as you can. Reading public reviews will help give you a clear image of what potential issues other players have experienced in the past.
www.ownedcore.com/casino/ suggests making use of public and objective reviews to help gather information surrounding the player experience. Having an unbiased approach will give you a clear image of what you can expect from an online casino.
Look at site activity and how frequently a platform is updated with new games and other information. An authentic site will include recent standings, earnings, or any winning streaks. Additionally, some sites will include industry news and insights as a way to boost engagement online. Be sure to look for these developments when vetting each site.
Examine Transaction and Payment Gateways
When using an online betting platform you will be required to provide highly sensitive banking information. Should this information end up in the wrong hands, you can quickly find yourself in a stressful financial situation that can cost you a pretty penny.
Be sure to examine all online transactions and payment methods. Most sites will probably use a combination of various payment methods, allowing users to pay for credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, prepaid betting cards, or alternatives such as cryptocurrency.
Each transaction method will most likely require additional authorization, which would mean that you will need to contact your bank to approve a transaction or approve the transaction using two-way authentication. Only make use of payment gateways that you are comfortable with, or which have been authorized by your bank to use.
Set up two-factor authentication.
To avoid any person from logging into your account, activate two-factor authentication settings. This should include having to approve a login on any device, including new devices, either through e-mail or a Time Pin (OTP) verification.
Additionally, some devices may allow you to activate biometric authentication, which can help add another layer of security. Biometric security can include facial recognition or fingerprint authentication.
Having two-way authentication will help protect your online identity, but more importantly, minimize the intrusion of bad actors that can quickly scrape your information from the internet at any given time.
Use strong passwords
Setting up a strong password is one of the best ways to protect your online account and information. Creating a password that’s not easily recognizable can help minimize a potential data breach from anyone accessing your account.
Despite having a strong password being an important step to protect yourself and your online information, roughly three in ten internet users have been victims of a data breach due to using a weak password on one of their accounts.
Even more, nearly one-third of users often use a pet’s name for their password, while 22 percent will use their name, and 15 percent of users will use a partner’s name for their password.
Instead of using information that might be readily available, try to use a complicated password that contains various characters, letters, numbers, and symbols.
Consider licensing and regulations
In most parts of the world, online betting is heavily regulated, requiring all operators to be in position of the necessary licenses, and adhere to stringent regulatory requirements to ensure safe and equitable betting practices.
When vetting an online betting platform, be sure to look at whether a company is a registered licensee, and fulfills the regulatory requirements to be considered a safe and reliable bettering partner.
Should you be unsure about a company, then you can contact your county or state gambling board. They should be able to provide you with the relevant information about a specific company. Additionally, you can search for a company online using a county or state gambling board website.
Audit privacy policies
To be honest, reading through a company’s privacy policies is a laborious process. Most companies today have some form of privacy policy that might outline specific requirements of the company and its users. In addition, these policies are used to protect companies from any sort of liability, or legal actions in the event of a data breach or privacy concern.
Before you accept the terms and conditions of using an online betting site, be sure to read through a company’s privacy policy for added peace of mind. You may want to consider how a company plans on keeping your information safe, and how they will be using your personal information.
Keep in mind that most of these policies will contain complicated and hard-to-understand language. However, should you feel unsure about something, then you can always research terms online or reach out to the company itself for better clarification.
Remain informed about scams
Online scamming and digital fraud are everywhere and have become a growing problem for authorities. Each year, consumers and internet users lose billions of dollars to online scams and fraud. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that consumers lost nearly $10 billion to fraudulent activities in 2023. This was an increase of 14 percent compared to 2022.
Staying aware of online scams can help you avoid falling victim to fraud, and further ensure that you can keep all of your personal information safe. Consider taking some time to read about common betting and online gambling scams, and how you can identify them should you even stumble upon them.
On top of this, avoid sharing personal information with any person or entity online that you feel might be a scam. Always practice due diligence, and never believe everything you read or see online. Scams will usually promise outrageous returns, or the ability to make back double your money. Online betting is at your own risk but refrain from making increasingly risky bets that might turn out to be a scam.
Delete banking information
For any reason, always clear your banking details from any online betting platform. This includes online gambling and online casinos, and even those that may be operating via a mobile application.
Once you have deposited or withdrawn any money, be sure to remove your banking details to avoid any malicious bad actor from having access to your financial information. This might seem tedious, as you will be required to enter your banking credentials for each transaction, however, this might help protect you from falling victim to fraud. ‘
You might want to consider activating two-factor authentication for completing online transactions. This might include something such as requesting approval via e-mail or using biometric authentication to complete a transaction.
Trust your instincts
The best way to keep yourself safe online is to trust and listen to your instincts. Although our instincts might often direct us in the wrong direction when it comes to online betting, listen to what your gut is telling you.
Should you have an uncomfortable feeling about using a specific platform, or have recently had an unfavorable experience, consider minimizing interactions with the platform, and seek to remove all your details from the site.
Listen to what your instincts are telling you, the best person to trust is yourself. Should you have fallen victim to a potential scam or fraud, report the incident to the necessary authorities and remove any personal information that may be available on any site.
Keep Yourself Safe
Whether you may be a pro or simply seeking to tap into the world of online betting, take some time to get comfortable with learning the rules of how to stay safe, and what you can do to protect yourself and your personal information.
Refrain from using sites you are not familiar with, and try to vet each platform before you start betting, and before you provide operators with your details. Make an effort to research all sites beforehand, and be sure to equip yourself with ways to spot fake or fraudulent activities.
By using safe betting practices, you will improve your betting experience, and it will ensure that you can protect your digital information from bad actors, and mask any personal details that may cause harm in the event of a data breach.