Online gambling is booming: global market revenue is projected to exceed $100 billion in 2025. Yet alongside that growth, fraud is escalating rapidly. Recent industry data reveals that fraud in the sector increased by 64% between 2023 and 2024. From account takeovers to bonus abuse and identity manipulation, these security concerns are reshaping how platforms operate.
Against this backdrop, the sector is undergoing a critical change. Operators are now focusing heavily on end-to-end protection—from registration and deposits to gameplay and withdrawals.
The Importance of Security in Modern Online Gambling
Security concerns in online gambling are not new, but their scale and complexity have dramatically increased. In the past, simple tools like two-factor authentication and secure socket layer (SSL) encryption were sufficient. Today, those measures form only the most basic foundation.
According to multiple industry audits, over 80% of operators saw an increase in fraud-related incidents in the past year. These included common but costly issues such as chargeback fraud, account sharing, identity spoofing, and the use of bots to manipulate promotions. A growing tactic involves multi-accounting, where bad actors create several identities to exploit welcome offers or manipulate odds.
This rise in fraud has led to a new wave of security features across many gambling platforms. For example, mobile-first platforms have started incorporating behavioural analysis tools into their apps. These systems track interaction patterns to identify abnormal activity, such as repeated failed logins or large, erratic wagers.
An example can be found in a popular mobile betting application, betway mobile that runs on smartphones across Nigeria and other regions. Users interacting with this mobile platform—well-known for sports betting and in-play games—will now find that the system actively monitors for behavioural anomalies. This allows it to flag suspicious sessions in real time, adding a critical extra layer of fraud prevention without interfering with legitimate gameplay.
Emerging Fraud Prevention Technologies
One of the most notable shifts in online gambling security has been the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In 2025, more than half of all licensed operators are reported to be using machine learning tools to help detect and prevent fraudulent actions. These AI-based systems can identify unusual user patterns—such as logging in from a different country minutes after a previous session—and automatically block or freeze accounts when needed.
Biometric verification, including facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, is also being used more widely. As of mid-2024, around 40% of online gambling firms had integrated these features as part of their onboarding process. Biometric verification has proven particularly effective in tackling synthetic identity fraud and preventing account reselling.
Another innovation gaining traction is device fingerprinting. This approach assigns a unique signature to each device used to access the platform, making it easier to detect whether multiple accounts are being operated from the same device, even with different credentials.
Behavioural analytics is also becoming standard. These systems don’t just look at what users do—they look at how they do it. The speed at which someone types, the pressure they apply on touchscreens, and the patterns of navigation through an app can all be used to build a behavioural profile. If that profile changes suddenly, it can trigger an alert.
In 2024 alone, these technologies were responsible for identifying hundreds of thousands of attempted frauds before any financial damage occurred. Operators are also employing automated transaction monitoring to analyse betting patterns and highlight possible money laundering or collusion between accounts.
Transparency and Fair Play: Industry Trends
While technical innovation is critical, user trust is also built on transparency. Increasingly, gambling platforms are publishing third-party audits of their random number generators (RNGs), payout rates, and dispute management protocols. Some even display real-time game statistics, such as return-to-player percentages and win/loss ratios, offering players more insight into how games work.
Fairness in betting is now being reinforced by the use of provably fair algorithms in some newer platforms, where the fairness of each outcome can be verified by players themselves. These systems are often based on blockchain technology and are gaining popularity, especially in crypto-enabled betting environments.
Responsible gambling tools have also become a baseline requirement. Most platforms now include features such as time limits, deposit caps, and cooling-off periods. Some apps now go further, using pattern recognition to detect when a player may be at risk of problematic behaviour, prompting a timeout or suggesting self-exclusion options.
Interestingly, this shift toward proactive moderation has become particularly visible in mobile betting apps. These platforms now employ internal alerts based on session length, frequency of wagers, and deviation from typical user behaviour. Rather than disrupting the user experience, these tools operate quietly, building a more responsible environment without being intrusive.
Licensing and Regulatory Requirements
As fraud and transparency become central to online gambling, regulation is evolving in tandem. Operators are now required to meet more stringent licensing criteria across many jurisdictions. Regulators in the UK, Malta, and certain African countries have updated their requirements to include 24/7 fraud monitoring, regular compliance audits, and robust Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols.
By mid-2025, nearly all major platforms licensed under the UK Gambling Commission were found to be compliant with real-time monitoring, two-way encryption, and formal anti-money laundering frameworks. Many also incorporated independent mediation services for disputes, ensuring players could escalate issues fairly.
International crackdowns on illegal online gambling have intensified as well. In Turkey, over 230,000 unlicensed gambling websites were shut down over the past year, while other countries have tightened border controls and payment monitoring to prevent cross-border gambling fraud. These efforts highlight how regulators are not only tightening compliance for legal operators but actively removing bad actors from the ecosystem.
This increased pressure from regulators has pushed legitimate operators to clearly display their licensing status, terms and conditions, and user safeguards. Sites now often include quick access to dispute resolution, customer support transparency, and automated alerts if users breach certain behavioural thresholds.
What´s Next?
The online gambling sector is undergoing a structural shift. With fraud up 64% year-on-year, the response has been a sweeping upgrade in how platforms manage risk, verify users, and demonstrate fairness. From AI-based monitoring to biometric onboarding and transparent reporting, today’s security strategy is multi-layered and built to adapt.
Players are no longer simply looking for the biggest bonuses or flashiest interfaces—they’re gravitating towards operators who treat safety and fairness as non-negotiable. By reinforcing trust at every stage of the user journey, gambling platforms are aiming to rebuild confidence and maintain long-term sustainability in a fast-evolving market.
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