Geolocation is the act of identifying the geographical location of a person or device by means of digital information that is processed via the internet.
Although it sounds rather scary, it is something that is generally used to ensure safety and security as it can help protect users from a number of different things or help businesses to learn about specific pieces of data.
Indeed, geolocation is widely used by everyone, whether looking for certain businesses that are in the local area, or when looking to plot a route along a map.
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Geolocation has become incredibly important in the online gambling industry
Due to the capabilities that this particular technology contains, it has since become incredibly important within the online gambling industry. Countries across the world will each have different laws in regard to how betting is regulated, with states within the United States of America also being incredibly different. For example, the state of Nevada has always been available to bettors, however those based in states such as Utah, Idaho and Wisconsin are unable to place wagers at the moment. Bettors have an abundance of options available to them when looking for mobile casinos like mymobilecasino.com, which will show the best online casinos that can be used.
Thus, geolocation technology will allow companies to work out whether potential gamblers are in the position to be able to place deposits, play any of their online games or even visit their website. If they are not allowed, then they will instantly be blocked.
Technologies Used
With more laws having come in over the years, as accessibility to the internet and online casinos have become as easy as ever before, the technology surrounding geolocation has only become even more important.
In the past, sites would rely on a combination of a player’s IP address – which can now be illegally spoofed via the use of VPNs – and the GPS signal that is provided from a user’s phone. However, these methods had provided a number of problems as they did not always provide a reliable result. Players who were located near the border of a state may show up as if they are in another state, whilst those that did not have access to mobile phones would not be able to play; access to a mobile these days is not really an issue.
New Method was Introduced
With the continual expansion of the online gambling scene in the United States, new methods of geolocation were introduced to try and help determine a player’s physical location a lot more effectively and as precise as possible.
The method introduced would see wifi networks that were based near the player to be triangulated to determine their physical location. Of course, there were still some difficulties, however it has since become a little more effective as technology continues to develop and advance.
As mentioned earlier, there have been some instances where players would look to use VPN services to try and bypass the regulations, however operators have managed to come up with a way of making sure they do not fall victim to it.
The software that they deploy will check for whether a VPN or software that allows for remote access to be checked for before allowing the player to enter the site. If it is detected, then the player will be unable to place any bets.
