Gambling DNA software launched to fight online fraud
5th March, 2008
Poker players do their best to read their opponents at the poker tables, but now a piece of software will be attempting the same to try and battle online gambling fraud.
Online casinos, just like online banks, can be victims of scams where names and account details are stolen. The details are then used to lose the victims money when playing against accomplices. There are also people who use bots to play their poker for them, and they will usually beat all but the most experienced players.
A professor from the University at Buffalo in New York has developed a piece of software which picks up on poker players’ characteristics, monitoring how each user plays. It can measure how much and how often a player bets, increases bets, bets certain cards, folds and so on. All this information in processed to form a players gambling DNA. This DNA can be used to confirm each players’ identity, and any deviation from their usual behaviour will flag up the player as suspicious. The creators think the software is 80% accurate, and this improved the longer the player plays.
It does however raise the point that the better players will be more consistently flagged as suspicious as they become less readable!
