SECURITY IN IGAMING
Bot swarms in online gambling
Gambling bots are highly controversial software that some players love but most online gambling operators detest. Elay Elazar, VP Presales at AU10TIX tell us more.
WHAT IS A GAMBLING BOT? Developed with innovative software, bots are programmed to use neural networks, which allows them to simulate human-like actions and learn with every game. The bots interact with an online casino’s Application Programming Interface (API), and players use them to accelerate the betting process and place bets without human input. Importantly, they persistently operate even as players engage in other activities, ensuring continuous gaming action. The unwavering persistence and immunity to human fallibilities, such as tilt or fatigue, endow bots with the potential to accumulate substantial wealth over extended gameplay periods.
Bots calculate and place bets on a gaming site on a player’s behalf while they are playing at the casino, completing their daily tasks, or even sleeping. Unlike humans, bots never succumb to tilt, misplay a hand, or get tired of playing. Bots can play indefinitely, making lots of money in the long run.
Why should an online gaming platform 8 DECEMBER 2023 GIO
operator care about players using bots? For one thing, the presence of bots can annoy legitimate players and impact reputation. Bots are often illegal too; many regulators have banned their use. Finally, certain types of gambling-specific gaming bots, like scraper and arbitrage bots, are designed to scam platform operators and are considered a form of online gambling fraud.
WHAT IS A BOT SWARMING ATTACK?
In the context of fraud, it’s easy to launch bots and multiply attacks. Instead of multiple players using bots, a single criminal can control the software. As such, it isn’t difficult to imagine how casino bots can lead to trouble when manipulated into a swarm. Bot swarms are automated attacks orchestrated by criminals and enabled by scripts that mimic humans. They can be deployed through the API mentioned earlier. Since bots are scalable, automated, and easy to launch, it is easier for bad actors to breach a platform.
Gaming is one of the most targeted online industries in the US, Europe, and the UK. Nearly 99% of all attacks are automated bots and 87% of fraudulent activity is account fraud.
A TECHNICAL DIVE
The technical intricacies of bot swarming attacks and their profound implications for business are vast. This phenomenon is not confined to the gambling industry alone; it resonates across sectors like crypto, financial institutions, content and media networks, and banks. Bot swarms represent an evolved form of attack wherein a single actor orchestrates multiple bots to operate in concert. This technique, often enabled by AI scripts, allows cybercriminals to simulate human behaviour in a coordinated manner. By leveraging the APIs provided by online platforms, attackers can launch multi- pronged assaults that scale rapidly. This poses an elevated risk to platforms, especially in the context of online gambling, as the sheer volume and coordinated nature of the attacks overwhelm traditional security measures.
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