July 07, 2006
Securing Online Gambling With RFID
With the all the attention right now on online gambling and its legality in the US, someone somewhere must be considering a technological means for securing gambling online. By that I mean not only authorized online casinos but age-of-majority players. RFID technology can play a role in this security without violating individual privacy.
Part of the solution lies in the use of a biometric device that would:
- Ensure that players are who they say they are, at least in terms of being of legal age.
- Protect their privacy by not storing their personal information in a casino database - beyond any data a bricks-and-mortar or online casino would store anyway.
- Communicate authorization information to a casino website.
It's not entirely necessary that a biometric device combined with RFID technology is used to implement this solution, at least from the point of view of authorizing the player. However, to ensure that only authorized casinos are accessed, an additional component is necessary.
Looking at this from just a localized perspective for now, let's take the case of the issues in the US. Many or even most bricks-and-mortar casinos are already implementing RFID technology in their poker chips, both to prevent fraud, and to keep their chips within their own casinos. (Players have been known to take chips from one casino to another.)
If the collective poker chips of all US bricks-and-mortar casinos were programmed with an additional casino-specific code provided by state Gaming Commissions (but authorized in tandem), those very same chips could be used as the second component in a gambler authorization system.
For example, all casinos wanting to do business with citizens of a state would apply to that state's gaming commission. Approved casinos would supply RFID-enabled poker chips to the gaming commission, who would then program the RFID tags in the poker chips with a casino-specific code.
Each state gaming commission would then make available for sale to citizens - or for a cash deposit - a combination biometric and RFID device. Upon proof of age, the device would be programmed with the gambler's fingerprint at authorized outlets and not be reprogrammable outside of the outlets. None of the citizen's personal data would be stored with the commission, ensuring their privacy.
The commission would also issue to the citizen one RFID-enabled chip from each casino authorized in that state to offer online gambling. Costs of devices, poker chips, and RFID tag programming equipment would be borne by casinos. As incentive to gamblers who would otherwise use illegal gaming sites, casinos could offer cash bonuses.
This solution protects the privacy of online players, verifies that they are of age, and simultaneously authorizes casinos. The same solution could be augmented to allow for-money online backgammon, which may be the next big thing.
Of course, such a solution still wouldn't stop illegal online gambling. However, gaming commissions can hope that people are more likely to go with the name of a casino they are familiar with - i.e., US bricks-and-mortar casinos - rather than some site they stumbled across. To enforce this method, if it doesn't take hold naturally, poker advertising on TV may have to be regulated - but hopefully only as a last resort.
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« Combining RFID and Biometrics For Security | Main | I Am Not A Number - Using RFID in Identification Systems »
