Cybercrime debate leaves audience fearful over risks; Talking Shop.

Byline: Jim Cremin reports from ICE

THERE are more than 500 stands at the annual combined Earls Court betting and gaming exhibitions - headed by ICE, the International Casino Exhibition - and they drew a wide international clientele at the start of a three-day event that opened yesterday and ends tomorrow.

Bookmakers will be interested in the ever-expanding virtual racing possibilities and other games on show. However, nothing surpasses the upgraded SIS virtual racing that is undergoing testing and expected to launch this spring.

The first day featured the traditional curtain-raiser 'Combating Cybercrime in Betting and Gaming'. Chaired by Jim Noakes, head of transactional services for Gala Coral, much of the debate left the audience fearful over the risks the industry faces.

Given the perceived poor performance of the police in recent racing-related proceedings, the words of Mark Davis, a Detective Inspector in the Met's computer crime unit, were refreshing to hear.

He is on the ball and a good contact for the industry. More depressing is that the muchheralded Police Central e-crime Unit, intended to better collate information, still awaits funding.

Patric Marshall, of screening company World-Check, highlighted the need to know both your customer and employee, particularly as 60 per cent of fraud emanates from the latter.

Rule one is "assume no-one is innocent". In addition, he detailed the threat posed by terrorists and hardcore criminals. He gave an example of how one jailed terrorist was discovered to have 37,000 credit-card numbers, which he attempted to use on gambling sites like Party Poker and Betfair.

Scott Olson, of iovation, fraud protection consultants, discussed velocity analysis - determining if the same person is using different credit cards. He explained how fraudsters are far better organised, and employ multiple accomplices when using cards online.

He gave an example of a "top online gaming company" initially losing ten per cent of its revenue through fraud. But, by stopping thieves from continually opening new accounts, partly through behaviour pattern analysis, that loss had fallen to below 0.43 per cent.

CHRIS WELCH, former marketing director of Coral, was spotted at ICE. Now MD Europe of Aussie bookmaker Centrebet, he says their biggest European market is the Nordic countries.

THE IBA, celebrating its first birthday as an organisation for radical independents, holds its agm at 12.30pm today in the Westminster Room. Cyberview will be presented as the IBA's preferred FOBT supplier. Rival FOBT operator Global Draw has an enormous stand, double last year's size, and is worth a visit.