Given the patchwork footprint for online gambling legality in North America, it is understandable that gaming regulators are increasingly focused on 3 key questions:
Much like Netflix is focused on detecting streamers who use VPN services to mask location detection OR cybersecurity experts analyze crypto transactions to prevent nation states from evading economic sanctions, the common denominator in these concerns is the emerging tech of Location Intelligence.
The mass migration of financial transactions online has placed an ever-greater burden on government and financial regulators tasked with authenticating the geographic source of funds to ensure regulatory compliance. Typically regulators have relied on IP addresses to determine transaction location. However, IP addresses are often inaccurate and prone to manipulation, providing fraudsters the opportunity to bypass security measures with spoofing techniques and/or VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
For gambling regulators and licensed gambling operators, this creates the potential for fraud on numerous fronts:
To combat these threats, both regulators AND operators are increasingly relying on location intelligence solutions to accurately locate and verify transaction sources to ensure the utmost regulatory and financial compliance.
Location Intelligence is the collection, verification, and analysis of a myriad of disparate location data sources to provide coherent and actionable insights for fraud and risk management. A properly robust location intelligence solution includes 3 critical components:
The net result is a multidisciplinary technology solution that strengthens existing fraud detection measures by quickly and accurately detecting and stopping attempts to spoof a transaction’s point of origin. In doing so, location intelligence tools work to detect suspicious behavior during customer onboarding, mitigate transactional fraud while reducing false positives, and prevent account fraud and identity theft takeovers.
To stay one step ahead of cybercriminals looking to spoof their locations, today’s gambling regulators and the operators within their licensee portfolio, are increasingly augmenting their existing KYC best practices with location intelligence tools to achieve improved customer verification and fraud detection results.
Dovetailing seamlessly within a highly robust and relatively non-invasive customer onboarding process, enhanced customer verification techniques may include the following:
By pinpointing a bettors’ true location to within meters using accurate geolocation data, location intelligence tools help to facilitate a more robust risk management model yielding significant advantages for today’s gambling regulators and operators.
With regards to the integration of geolocation data and business intelligence, the casino industry has long been at the forefront of merging these two disciplines with organizations from Nevada to Ontario all leveraging the insights gleaned from geolocation data to optimize profitability across a diverse array of customer engagements, including:
As opposed to sifting through rows of data, gaming regulators can now utilize intuitive GIS map interfaces to achieve a visual interpretation of emerging risks AND opportunities. This leads to improvements in data quality as the ability to visualize such information allows inaccuracies or anomalies to be expediently identified and corrected.
Inevitably when the subject of location intelligence is raised, corresponding questions arise about the potential privacy issues involving such technologies. However, with businesses as diverse as streaming platforms, restaurant delivery apps, eBike rentals, and bricks-and-mortar casinos, all reliant on efficient geo-tracking to facilitate their respective service models, today’s modern consumer is increasingly willing to trade privacy for modern conveniences with suitable terms and conditions to match.
Given the broad capabilities of location intelligence, especially when used in conjunction with robust KYC processes, this rapidly evolving technology toolset is rapidly gaining widespread traction within the online gambling industry. Is it any wonder why when it can so effectively answer the questions uppermost on the minds of government gambling regulators and their licensed operators alike.
At the operator level, location intelligence solutions such as GeoComply and Radar are increasingly being dovetailed into the initial account registration process to ensure a comparative range of location sources and signals are gathered from the new registrant’s device to simultaneously authenticate the end user, their device(s), and any related financial transactions.
At the regulatory level, player location checks are typically enforced through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing agreements, and compliance monitoring. However, a truly robust leveraging of location intelligence techniques by licensed operators is still very much a work-in-progress with recent advances in this rapidly evolving technology sure to impact regulatory requirements in the future as all parties strive to increase jurisdictional compliance while simultaneously reducing fraud.
A sufficiently equipped Gaming Control Software platform is the firm foundation required to capitalize on the opportunities of the former while minimizing the risks of the latter.
To learn more about POSSE GCS, our streamlined regulatory and compliance solution for the government gaming enterprise, visit our POSSE Gaming Control Software page for more information OR contact us today to schedule a no-obligation demo.
