A common database among online casinos?

[siilix]

Hi! Is it possible some online casinos cooperate with each others and share a common database where players data is recorded and from there they can get stats about new players? For example if a player join a casino, the casino gets immediate stats about the past of this person, if the player has been depositing or chasing losses in other casinos, in few words the casino gets some kind of information about what kind of player that one is and which games he/she usually plays.
I receive spam to my email (which I usually use for gambling) from casinos I absolutely have never visited (from where do they get my email and how can they know I gamble????) so I started to think about the possibility.....

 

[Nate]

The Casinos you signed up at:

1. Could be selling your information to third parties or spammers
2. Could Share a database like Rival does.

Or

It could be random Spam like the Viagra and Lotto emails

It ain't surprising. I have only signed up at Accredited Casinos in the last few years. But in my gambling infancy, I used to play at places I was not aware were rogue.

I still receive SPAM from Casinos I've never heard of.

Nate

 

[Balky]

My inbox is flooded with spam every day. I never heard about most of those casinos, leave alone having signed up there. Means that data selling is going on somehow. Its pretty annoying since its my main email adress that I also use for work.

B.

 

[Jelena]

As an affiliate manager, I have actually been offered some deals from "data suppliers" who claim to be able to segment their database not only by age/gender/location and other demographics, but also by the interest in gambling sites and even the value of the weekly/monthly transactions in particular casinos. Those seemed pretty suspicious to me, but the obvious is the fact that there are casinos that are involved in that kind of activities.

 

[conker]

It's crazy how data gets banded around in the online casino business. There seems to be little or no regard to people's privacy, which does not help the industry IMO. For players that have been playing longer we have grown to accept it, but it must be massively off-putting for new arrivals.

 

[siilix]

As an affiliate manager, I have actually been offered some deals from "data suppliers" who claim to be able to segment their database not only by age/gender/location and other demographics, but also by the interest in gambling sites and even the value of the weekly/monthly transactions in particular casinos. Those seemed pretty suspicious to me, but the obvious is the fact that there are casinos that are involved in that kind of activities.

Thanks for sharing! That is quite scary but it pretty much confirms my doubt, not surprising that there are companies selling that kind of solutions, considered the highly lucrative nature of gambling market niche.....

 

[Jinn]

I use a different unique email address every time I sign up for every site, and so far I have over 2000 active email addresses - it's easy when you own a website and can get all the emails forwarded to a single address.

So now I can see exactly where spam is coming from, and I can just block a single email address when it starts to receive spam. The interesting thing is where it's coming from - often I receive an email from one casino and it's being sent to an email address that I only ever used one single time to sign up for a different casino with different owners and different software.

Sometimes I contact the original place where I used that email address, and accuse them of one of two things :

(1) They sold my email address to their competitors (seems pretty dumb, giving away players) or they shared my email address with other casinos that they're friendly with.

(2) Their user database could have been accessed by hackers and sold on the blackmarket (I've found my email addresses on Russian hacker forums as part of database sales!)

Sometimes they actually respond, but usually they're in denial, even though it's not possible that a spammer got the unique email address from anywhere else.

I think a lot of the time it's not actually the company at fault, it's a single employee - for example an employee decides to make a little money on the side by selling client data, or they get fired and take a copy of the database with them to their new job. Or they have a virus or trojan on their computer when accessing the database, and some data gets copied and transferred to hackers without their knowledge. I've had that happen to me once.

Seems pretty hard to avoid this, as soon as you register on a site there's the possibility of information being shared, with or without the knowledge of the site.

 

[Casinomeister]

Some excellent observations and tips.

Operators keep their databases as secure as secure can be. It is the lifeblood of their business and any compromise of their database can spell disaster. But in this business you have all kinds.

There is a lot of thievery. Many email databases have been stolen by ex-employees and sold on the black market - this is much different than a player database since it only includes names and email addresses. Throw into the mix - business failures and merges, partnerships and newly launched sister casinos. It all turns into a plate of spaghetti after a while.

@Jinn - excellent tip on tracking your email. Some people have signed up in the forum with "casinomeister" incorporated into the email address in some form. et al [email protected]. Hope I never get hacked, but if I do I'm sure I'll find out about it

 

[phynqster]

can be face book and forums

Bryan thanks for defending the operators. Please take no offense to this post, but I have seen and heard from players who have been spammed by other casinos and one thing that I have seen is a lot comes from forums and portals. Players do not realize that when they think they are signing up to a casino they are actually going through a portal that only makes money from casinos if you sign up so once they capture your email address they send it to many different casinos. Same thing with players who post on forums, as forum operators now have your email address and can do with it as they please.
A new problem that is becoming huge is FaceBook! When a player "likes" a page that site captures your email address.
Lastly just a word of caution to those that do not all ready know it. Never never Never click unsubscribe from an email mailer. It is true that that company will stop sending you mailers, but know they know that your email address is real and that you do read emails so they now sell your address to other companies for a higher premium because it is a confirmed live address

 

[dazlazz]

Years and years ago when casino and poker were kinda getting off the ground, there was some co-operation between different operators when it came down to fraud and chargebacks, whereby information on these matters were shared (name /addresses etc). As anti/fraud procedures improved, this co-operation ceased. Not in a million years would we share information on players' game play etc - that would be ludicrous!!

 

[Jinn]

A new problem that is becoming huge is FaceBook! When a player "likes" a page that site captures your email address.

Just to clarify, that's not usually the case - you have to specifically give permission for that to happen.

For example I have Facebook pages, and I also have Facebook 'Like' buttons on my sites, and I don't have access to anybody's email address. It's completely impossible for me to see anybody's email address even though they have clicked 'Like' on my site or on my Facebook pages.

But yes it is possible for Facebook to share your email address when you give permission, for example at the top of the Casinomeister site there's a Facebook 'Connect' button and if you click it then a Facebook window appears and asks for your permission to share your email address with the forum. You can test it right now, don't worry - if you click 'Cancel' then nothing is shared. This type of sharing never happens automatically with the regular 'Like' buttons.

Same thing with players who post on forums, as forum operators now have your email address and can do with it as they please.

I think it's important to check the Privacy Policy of a forum before registering. For example here on Casinomeister it says :

The email addresses are used to notify visitors about Casinomeister's newsletter or forum announcements. They are not shared with any other organizations for commercial purposes.

Of course a forum operator can do anything they like, they might not comply with their own privacy policy - but you may be surprised that some forums actually admit to sharing your email address with 'partners' and then you'd definitely want to think twice, or use an alternative email address that you won't be using regularly.

If a forum says they don't share your email address then you have to try to figure out if the forum operator seems to be a reliable and honest or not. I don't think you need to worry about that here though

 

[sattty]

read a book called the blue nowhere..will scare the pants off you..its about data mining

this book must be 6-10 years old now..god knnows what is possible these days

 

[Casinomeister]

...But yes it is possible for Facebook to share your email address when you give permission, for example at the top of the Casinomeister site there's a Facebook 'Connect' button and if you click it then a Facebook window appears and asks for your permission to share your email address with the forum. You can test it right now, don't worry - if you click 'Cancel' then nothing is shared. This type of sharing never happens automatically with the regular 'Like' buttons...

Actually what it does is connect your forum account with your Facebook account. I never see anyone's email address except for the one that members have listed in their forum account.

There are around 130 members connected to Facebook from here. In the backend, all I see is that they are connected to FB. I don't see their FB account or know who they are on FB.

 

[justelite]

I use a different unique email address every time I sign up for every site, and so far I have over 2000 active email addresses - it's easy when you own a website and can get all the emails forwarded to a single address.

So now I can see exactly where spam is coming from, and I can just block a single email address when it starts to receive spam. The interesting thing is where it's coming from - often I receive an email from one casino and it's being sent to an email address that I only ever used one single time to sign up for a different casino with different owners and different software.

Sometimes I contact the original place where I used that email address, and accuse them of one of two things :

(1) They sold my email address to their competitors (seems pretty dumb, giving away players) or they shared my email address with other casinos that they're friendly with.

(2) Their user database could have been accessed by hackers and sold on the blackmarket (I've found my email addresses on Russian hacker forums as part of database sales!)

Sometimes they actually respond, but usually they're in denial, even though it's not possible that a spammer got the unique email address from anywhere else.

I think a lot of the time it's not actually the company at fault, it's a single employee - for example an employee decides to make a little money on the side by selling client data, or they get fired and take a copy of the database with them to their new job. Or they have a virus or trojan on their computer when accessing the database, and some data gets copied and transferred to hackers without their knowledge. I've had that happen to me once.

Seems pretty hard to avoid this, as soon as you register on a site there's the possibility of information being shared, with or without the knowledge of the site.

Can you share the casino list from your black list of spam? It is happen to me also but I don't have so many email address to track them...

 

[luckyjay]

I believe that there is a common database...

There is definitely some kind of common "security" database that is being shared by online casinos. Because for some reason I've been added to it as a "security risk" and am now having trouble signing up at most any casino. For instance, I just used a new-user bonus for Lucky Club, and was into my 5th spin when I got a "progressive balance error".

I immediately contacted their live support and chatted with "Alex" who told me my account was reviewed by management and didn't pass the security check and my account was being cancelled. No offer to allow me to verify, etc.

This has happened at about 6 or 7 casinos now, and they are not in the same ownership group.

I would love to find out how I got on this blacklist and how to get off of it!

 

[Mousey]

There is definitely some kind of common "security" database that is being shared by online casinos. Because for some reason I've been added to it as a "security risk" and am now having trouble signing up at most any casino. For instance, I just used a new-user bonus for Lucky Club, and was into my 5th spin when I got a "progressive balance error".

I immediately contacted their live support and chatted with "Alex" who told me my account was reviewed by management and didn't pass the security check and my account was being cancelled. No offer to allow me to verify, etc.

This has happened at about 6 or 7 casinos now, and they are not in the same ownership group.

I would love to find out how I got on this blacklist and how to get off of it!

If you're on the up and up, have no chargebacks, multiple accounts, etc. you might want to do a PAB for one of the accredited casinos that have you 'blacklisted' if you wish to continue playing online. That will probably be the only way you'll get any idea as to what's up. Send a PM (private message) to MaxD and/or Bryan to get an opinion as to how to proceed.

 

[luckyjay]

If you're on the up and up, have no chargebacks, multiple accounts, etc. you might want to do a PAB for one of the accredited casinos that have you 'blacklisted' if you wish to continue playing online. That will probably be the only way you'll get any idea as to what's up. Send a PM (private message) to MaxD and/or Bryan to get an opinion as to how to proceed.

I may do that, but doesn't this counter everything that has been said in this thread about online casinos NOT sharing information? Apparently they do share in some ways. It makes me wonder what else they are sharing?

 

[zanzibar]

A few years ago I signed up at a Playtech casino - Casino King or Swiss - one in that old IGT group before PartyGaming acquired them. I was testing them out for a review for my website and it was the first time I had played at any casino in the group.

I deposited some money and was given a sign up bonus and then was promptly booted from the casino and my account locked before I could even play a game. The casino tried to keep my money but eventually relented and refunded my deposit after some persistent pestering. Their explanation to me was that they thought I was an advantage player and they didn't want me to play there.

There is no way they could have suspected this, nor acted on it so quickly, without having access to a shared database that was being checked automatically and immediately upon player registration. So yes, such databases do exist (and we know Rival casinos use one) but they are not likely to be used for spamming players - more for casino "protection".

 

[P.V.]

igaming centralized database

Hi! Is it possible some online casinos cooperate with each others and share a common database where players data is recorded and from there they can get stats about new players?

There's always been fraud databases, credit card, chargeback's and so on. I wouldn't think it would be good business for gaming sites to sell their players names and email addresses as this would take customers away from them.

Most likely it's what's been suggested, data miners, disgruntled employees and on and on. Your information can even be gathered and sold from an ISP if it's not encrypted. That's uncalled for because it results in spam.

Monday at the Nevada gaming policy committee addressing online fraudsters and minors, they discussed the need for a shared database.

Quote from article - However, both Ryan and MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren — whose company has a partnership with Bwin.party to eventually run games — admitted that they’d like a “centralized list” of individuals who, for whatever reason, shouldn’t be eligible to play online. The list would include “fraudsters” and those who have self-excluded, for example.


Little do they know I've already done this.

A centralized self exclusion database just makes since, a centralized fraud database too but players need to know who's running the database and have the right to dispute fraud allegations if they're in fact entered into the database.

 

[Cristian]

To answer the OP , my answer would be yes , however it is very hard to prove it . It is common practice and pretty normal for casinos using the same software provider to keep and share information about players . Users could be getting their account "flagged" for example . It`s a good thing in a way as they will know that an user might be a bonus abuser , cheat or whatever . On the other hand you might be flagged as beeing a "whale" . So they could know your tendencies , betting patterns , how much you would be able to deposit , what are your limits , how often do you chase bonuses and could use that kind of information against you . What they actually do with that information ? well i don`t know , i guess it`s up to them . However most of the online casinos out there don`t need to share / buy / that information .

Let me give you an example :
Some casinos use tracking software . Once you opened your browser and went to their homepage they already know alot about you. Some information that you might be giving :

1. date, the country flag for your country , your city , ip adress ,etc .
2. the browser that you are using .
3. your operating system and other info like such .
4. the search engine used ( if any ) and maybe the search term (Query) the you used to get there .
5. Referrers - shows where visitors were prior to coming to the site. The addresses can be links and (in some cases) may be clicked on to go backwards to the site the visitors were on prior to coming to the website. You have no ideea how valuable that piece of information is..


Imagine that a casino staff member could see what you saw prior to clicking the link that brought you to their casino website .
And most important imo , some advanced tracking software have the ability to gather info about your computer and it`s vulnerabilities , like not beeing behind a firewall , lack of malware removal software and much more . So im not saying that they are doing it , but some rogue casinos could install keyloggers , trojans and other crap on your system without you having the sligthest idea about it .
Alot of you maybe wondered how in the name of God you are getting spam emails with roguish casinos on a new email account that you are not using for gambling , have never registered an account at an online casino using that email and also never registered at any suspect gambling forum using that email adress . Well go figure ...

Don`t get me wrong here ... what they do with that information is their business and i cannot prove they do shady things with it .
My best advice would be not to visit rogue casinos / casinos that you have no knowledge of , and don`t register an account before you find out more about a certain casino website / software , because you are also giving away all your personal information .

I hope my post helps in some twisted way ...

 

[quber]

unlimited gmail accounts

you can use gmail accounts to have a different one at each casino.

if your address for example is '[email protected]' then you could use '[email protected]' and it will still go to your inbox. if you click the little arrow under your name when you open the mail it will show the address used.

some places don't allow a '+' in an email address, in these cases use full stops '.' within the name eg. [email protected] will still get through, if your address was casinomeister you can use as many . as you like and have [email protected] and it will get through.

just use a different combination at each signup and you will soon see who is selling.

the 'om' are removed from .com so no one gets spammed

 

[milemaster]

I receive 1-2 cdroms in the mail per week from various casinos I've never done business with.

Information is most certainly sold.