By: Ivan Sawchuk

With over 25% of the global population using online gambling sites or apps to play slots, card games and bet on sporting events, it’s safe to say that there’s lots of people that are affected by online gambling frauds (Cameron, 2024). Online gambling fraud can be explained as any sneaky or abnormal activity related to any online gambling apps and sites. This can include stealing credit card information to fund gambling accounts, rigging the outcome of sporting events and casino games, stealing personal information, etc (Cameron, 2024). Since online gambling isn’t face to face it allows scammers to find loopholes in the gambling service taking money from the operator and the customers. Online gambling sites will also custom code their scripts in games like blackjack so their odds are higher of winning and more of the players’ money. 

Since COVID there’s been a spike in online gambling users with three times the amount of users in 2021 compared to 2018, that lead to the online gambling fraud rate to go up by 80% (Cameron, 2024). The online gambling and betting industry brought in over 500 billion dollars in 2023 and projections say it will keep going up from here (Cameron, 2024). This will ultimately result in more scammers and fraudulent activity that could ultimately affect the expansion of the industry. 

Sources:

Cameron, S. (2024, September 3). What is online gambling fraud, and how can it be prevented?. ComplyAdvantage. https://complyadvantage.com/insights/online-gambling-fraud/