Online casinos used to launder cybercrime money

Cybercriminals are using online gambling sites to launder their ill-gotten gains and to pay for specialist hacking skills and cyber attacks, research from McAfee shows.

The criminals are using online casinos to make their illegal proceeds virtually untraceable by wagering them on one end and claiming the payouts as gambling wins on the other.

Gambling wins can also be used as payment for illegal goods and services such as contracted cyber attacks, the research shows.

McAfee said that because online gambling sites were set up to operate across jurisdictions, in a trade illegal in many regions, they have evolved to emphasise anonymity for their customers.

This, coupled with the sheer number of online casinos, has left money laundering through the sites very difficult to identify.

According to McAfee, efforts to crack down on money laundering through online gambling sites must leverage cross-border and public-private partnerships. Collaborations should combine the capabilities of law enforcement, ISPs, security vendors, academia and the financial institutions that process the transactions.

While it is illegal to host an online gaming operation in Australia, it is legal for Australian gamblers to bet on international gambling sites. McAfee estimates that about 8% of Australians participate in some form of interactive or online gambling.

Image courtesy of Lachlan Donald under CC