These days, gambling at a regulated online casino offers more protection to players than doing so at a brick n' mortar casino. Not just the sentiments of those who have a stake in the online gambling industry, well respected groups like the Interactive Gaming Council, eCOGRA and GamCare are all advocates of the sophisticated technology used to spot and prevent problem gambling. A large contributor to this technology is the data-sharing fraud management company, Ethoca, who was recently praised by both the IGC and GamCare, for their comprehensive self-exclusion service.

As many gamers know, well regulated online casinos and gaming sites offer self-exclusion as well as deposit and gambling time limitations for players to give themselves if they feel their gambling habits are getting out of control. What is special about Ethoca's self-exclusion service is that not only does it keep a player from logging back in at the gaming site which they are signed up with, it prevents the player from opening accounts with other online gaming sites using the Ethoca service.

IGC CEO, John Fitzgerald, said the work that Ethoca is doing is a testament that fraud prevention, problem gambling and other issues that tinge the casino gambling industry at large are best dealt with by the use of online technology. GamCare CEO, Geoffrey Godbold, expressed similar sentiments. GamCare understands that problem gambling is an "industry-wide problem", yet it is a very small percentage of players who contribute to this phenomenon. By making self-exclusion protocols industry encompassing, players with a penchant for gambling addiction will be prevented from betting at other online casinos and thereby help to nip problem gambling in the bud.

The work that Ethoca is doing, certainly makes this a feasible possibility. Considering they have only been in operation since 2005, Ethoca has come a long way to make its fraud management and data sharing service available to the online gambling industry. Ethoca also provides risk assessment to all of their member sites on several transaction fronts, including new player registration, deposits, withdrawals, refunds and audits (made available through Price Waterhouse Coopers).