Crime and gambling: a brief overview of gambling fraud on the Internet.

Abstract

Although there is an association between crime and gambling there is relatively little information and research on the topic. One area that appears to have become more prevalent over the last five years is that of fraudulent gambling activities on the Internet. This paper briefly outlines how many frauds and scams have moved into technological media such as the Internet and overviews a number of these including: (i) lottery scams, (ii) fake gambling site scams, (iii) betting software scams, (iv) gambling ‘bonus’ scams, (v) ‘twofer’ scams, and (vi) prize scams. It is concluded that gambling fraud on the Internet is a growth area because many gamblers themselves want to get a huge reward from a small outlay (just as the fraudsters do). As long as there are people who are prepared to risk money on chance events, there will be those out there who will want to fraudulently take their money from them. Given the complete lack of empirical data on these fraudulent practices, there is a need for research to be initiated in this newly emerging area of criminological concern