Alteration/ Treatments/ Spying:

Accessing supposedly secret information that should not be available to the cheater

Monitoring the network or computer to see other players’ secrets Extracting or modifying local game state information

Encryption and Transaction Security

Rules/Game State Manipulation:

Altering other players’ perception of the game rules and game state to alter the game outcome

Bluff, bullying, and intimidation to “change” the rules

Spoofing/Authoritative Clients - altering the end computer or network information/behavior in a way that changes the game rules or outcome

SecurePlay™ Platform

Collusion – Player/Operator:

Cooperation to give an unfair advantage against the Game Operator or against other players

Alter game play, payout, or spying

Significantly reduced in most electronic games by automating the dealer/games server (See Software Substitution) could be equivalent

SecurePlay Platform and Computer Security Techniques to Automate Server

Collusion – Player/Player:

Cooperation to give an unfair advantage against the Game Operator or against other players.

Cooperation between players — usually to share information.

Easier to cheat — the computer and network provide communications means that are not easily detectable (See Tells and Signaling)

Monitoring; Mainly a concern in player vs. player games such as poker and can be minimized by player rotation — Many computer games allow and encourage collusion between players and so this is not a problem

Optimal Game Play and Counting Cards:

Keeping track of previous game events (usually in card games) to determine the likelihood of future events and gain an advantage.

Various mental and technical counting and tracking systems.

Trivial to implement since a computer is available

Mitigated by Game Operator game event processing (limited solution) — Game operators and developers should assume some level of use of optimal game play tools in their game and system design

Race Condition:

Abusing time lags to manipulate game results or get superior knowledge

Difficult to implement

Usually Seen in Betting Systems

SecurePlay Platform, Careful Control of State, Time, and Synchronization

Tells/Signaling:

Observing behavior that indicates information that is supposedly secret

Player behavior observation

Tells — Mainly a problem if video or chat is supported

Signaling — via separate communication channel (telephone lines, for example)

Tells — via system implementation (various)

Signaling — Hard if not impossible to counter (See Player/Player Collusion) — best solutions are player rotation to minimize impact

Pot/Pay Out/Score Manipulation:

Theft from the pot

Stealing from the pot

Spoofing — altering the end computer or network data/behavior in a way that changes the game payout, score or perceived bet

Transaction Security in Game Contract

Payment Manipulation:

Altering the amount of a payment to improve winnings or reduce loses

Changing the amount of a bet or payments, Late bets, Chip Cups — false money stacks

Inherently more difficult because the bets/payments are recorded electronically (See Race Condition)

Transaction Security in Game Contract & E-commerce Security

Interruption– Departure:

Interrupting the game to avoid an adverse outcome by leaving the game

Not practical – getting up and leaving a game with your chips and not coming back

Leaving the game due to player “network interruption” or player “computer problem” to avoid loss

Transaction Security; Contract/Monitoring needed for multi-player Games

Theft/Theft of Service:

Stealing of game operator assets by game operator personnel or others

Raking — taking a portion of the pot or underpaying winnings and pocketing the rest

Robbing the Game Operator

Hacking into the E-Commerce System on an on-line game

Altering the game server software prior to installation or during operation — Trojan Horse, Virus, and other malicious software. Can also be implemented by Authoritative Client

Computer Security Techniques/Monitoring

Hardware Tampering/Software Substitution:

Altering game operator equipment to affect game outcomes or payouts

Slots problem — drilling and other machine manipulation techniques

Replacement/ modification of player or game server software — This is also a concern for game operators and game developers relative to each other

SecurePlay Platform, SecurePlay Infrastructure, Regulation, Monitoring, and Computer Security Techniques

Interruption– Server Shutdown:

Interrupting the game to avoid an adverse outcome by causing the game operator to shutdown

Shutting off the lights or starting a fire at the casino to avoid losses

Disabling the game operator computer or disabling the network connection to the game operator — Denial of Service Attacks

High Availability systems and network connections. As seen by recent news stories, this is a hard problem for all networked computers

Crooked Game Operator:

A game server set up to defraud players

Back alley or illegal game operation

Much worse — create a "fake" game server on the Internet or other network with the intent of defrauding consumers

SecurePlay Platform, SecurePlay Infrastructure, Regulation
Skimming:
Under reporting gaming earnings to avoid taxes
Various

Skimming:

Under reporting gaming earnings to avoid taxes

Various

Various

SecurePlay Platform by tying game outcomes to financial results

Hybrids:

Combinations of other techniques

Various

Various

Various

All Fantasy and Sci-fi Images. ©Amadei Cedric, www.3d-passion.com or ©Jeff Quick, www.Moodflow.com. These derivative works used under commercial license.