Security at Online Casinos

Players submit a lot of personal information to online casinos. This includes their address, their bank account number, their credit card number and a lot more. Some of this information is required to ensure that the players' transactions are separately identified and that the players are paid their winnings. And some of the information has to be collected because of legal requirements. However many potential players are hesitant to furnish this information because they fear that it may be misused. Identity theft is a commonly heard phrase in this connection, which refers to stealing of credit card numbers from databases.

However the fact is that online casinos are as safe as banks and considerably safer than using credit cards in restaurants and shopping malls. Everything that online casinos put down in the security section it true and not marketing hype. A simple argument is that if online casinos were not secure then millions of people would not be transacting billions of dollars every year on online casinos. However a more convincing explanation than this can be provided.

Whenever any information, financial or personal, is transmitted to or from the online casino over the Internet it is encrypted or coded. This means that anyone who, in the worst case, may intercept will get a garbled message that will make no sense. The security systems are so strong that even such interception is not possible. Over the years the degree of encryption has been enhanced. Earlier the industry standard was 128-Bit SSL encryption; today most online casinos use 258-Bit SSL encryption. This is an ongoing process. Hence there is no chance of stealing sensitive information while it is being transmitted or intercepting and diverting payments meant for the players. There are expert independent agencies like VeriSign and Thawte that inspect and certify that the online casino's security systems are perfect and working. Most online casinos engage the services of such experts and display their logo in the lobby. Players should look for these logos so that they are assured that everything is in order.

Data kept on the online casinos' servers is also made secure. The same degree of encryption is used. In addition firewalls are used to prevent unauthorized entry into the server. They act like moats around castles did in ancient times. Only a few of the online casino personnel are authorized to access the information on the casinos' servers. And when they do, every transaction they perform is logged into the system with the date and time.

As a final safety measure the online casinos ask players to provide a log in name and a password. On their part they provide a code. All three put together identifies the player. Unless all three are correctly provided no one can carry out transactions on the casino.