Net Security – A new report by McAfee sheds light on the underground world of online gambling. It identifies the proliferation of online casinos, an industry set to grow nearly 30% over the next three years, and how their use is fuelling cybercrime by making it easy to “cash in” on illegal activities.
Online gambling involves huge volumes of transactions and cash flows that can obscure and disguise money laundering. Players are not dealing with a tangible, physical product; physical currency does not change hands. As a result, illegal proceeds can be laundered by wagering them on one end of a transaction and receiving the payouts as gambling wins on the other end.
Furthermore, gambling winnings are tax free in many jurisdictions, making official reporting to governments unworkable and authorities often incapable of monitoring transactions. Online gambling sites facilitate money laundering while the number of unlicensed sites is over ten times that of licensed operators. This trend, combined with the many sites now operating on the Dark Web and leveraging virtual currencies, shows the extent of the challenge for law enforcement.
Troels Oerting, the Head of the European Cybercrime Centre comments: “Since the days of prohibition – in Al Capone’s Chicago – ‘follow the money’ has long been the key to getting criminals behind bars. In the ‘old days’ the money trail was easy to follow, but today, money flows inside and between countries, regions and globally at lightning speed, which is a necessity in our global interconnected world. Taking advantage of this, more and more cybercriminals are turning to cyberspace to seize a new ‘business opportunity’ with endless income and limited risk. Cybercrime also presents the ability to be unidentifiable on the dark net and on stealthy services.”
