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Online Sting For My Casino

It's the Wheel of Misfortune for Australian casino

An Australian online casino, My Casino, has announced that it has been the victim of a "sting" operation that cost it A$4.3 million (£1.5 million). Fake credit cards were used in the scam but the chairman, Michael O'Donnell, gave few details on how the fraud was carried out.

The theft, which the Perth-based company said had "severely undermined the marketing position of the casino in international markets," took place between April and July last year. The casino offers all the usual online casino games like blackjack, baccarat, and roulette.

The credit card fraud resulted in a statement being made to the Australian stock exchange: "The past year has seen the rise and fall of the share prices and confidence in many dotcom companies and My Casino has been no exception. However, unlike other dotcoms, our problems were not due to over-optimistic expectation, but from a well-organized fraud."

Last July, My Casino had to disable its credit card processing system in order to upgrade to something better. The company had thought the rapid increase in the number and value of the transactions it had been handling over its website was a sign of business growth but it was down to the crooks, and not a rush of new gamblers signing up.

The casino recorded a betting turnover of over $1 million in the last quarter. On their website, under "Computer Security," it reads:

"Our members can take comfort that our servers are securely located behind the best firewall currently available. Our architecture ensures that nobody can access the databases. The integrity of the financial transactions is ensured by means of a 128 bit VPN connection to our front end processor. All financial transactions are handled 'offline' and players' credit card data is not stored in the system."

Customers were protected as only fake credit cards were used and it looks like the casino that had to stand the losses.

Most online betting companies have gone to extreme lengths to make betting secure and safe. Some of the technically inferior sites must be worried, however Three directors have already resigned from the board of My-Casino.com.au since August.

The company made A$3.5 million for the year ending December 31 so the size of the fake credit card scam exceeded the company's revenues!

Gambling Magazine would like to know more:

Who were the crooks?
Have they ever worked for online casinos?
Did they ever work for gaming software suppliers?
Can they be traced or have they simply disappeared?
Where did the frauds originate, from which country?
Who received payment, into what accounts?
Did the purported bettors just play for a while, then cash in?
Was there any recognizable pattern to the frauds?
If the transactions were carried out over four months, why wasn't the scam noticed?

Many people have been worried about disclosing their credit card details over the Net for fear of the information getting into the wrong hands.

If it was so easy to use fake credit card numbers and walk away from the online casino with several million dollars, there is always the chance that valid credit card details may be stolen and used to open an account, and start gambling.

The good news for customers is that so far it has been easier to use fake credit cards than real ones.