Hold on—this matters more than most ops realise. A two-hour outage during a peak night can wipe a week of margin. In plain terms: prepare now so a volumetric or application-layer DDoS doesn’t turn your live games, payment rails, or loyalty systems into a bricks-and-mortar queue.
Here’s immediate value: three actions you can implement in the next 72 hours. 1) Confirm your ISP has an active black-holing and rate-limiting playbook. 2) Turn on CDN + WAF rules for web logins and account endpoints. 3) Arrange a post-incident contact with local emergency partners (charities, communications hubs) to manage customer communications if your storefront or apps are down.
Why gambling sites are obvious DDoS targets (and what that actually costs)
Something’s off when game sessions drop and chat goes silent — often it’s not just bad luck. Attackers target gambling platforms for leverage (extortion), to mask fraud, or simply to create reputational damage. A measured DDoS peaking at 100 Gbps is no longer rare; 2023 vendor reports recorded multi-hundred Gbps bursts impacting Tier-1 providers.
Operational hit — quick math: if your platform normally handles AUD 40k/hour in gross gaming revenue (GGV), a two-hour outage can cost AUD 80k in GGV plus ancillary losses (hotel, F&B, ad spend). Add emergency mitigation spend: emergency cloud scrubbing for large volumes can be AUD 5k–25k per incident depending on throughput and duration. Plan budget and SLAs accordingly.
Core defensive architecture (actionable blueprint)
Alright, check this out—defences stack. You don’t pick one; you combine.
- Edge filtering (ISP+Peering): Work with your transit provider to enable traffic shaping, rate-limits and black-holing thresholds. Negotiate pre-approved scrubbing agreements and escalation contacts.
- CDN + WAF: Protect login, cashier, API endpoints. Ensure WAF rules distinguish bots from legitimate clients and enforce progressive challenges (CAPTCHA, JavaScript challenge) only for suspicious signals to avoid UX damage.
- Cloud scrubbing services: For volumetric floods, route traffic through a scrubbing centre (BGP announcements). Validate how fast the cutover is — 5–15 minutes is typical for an automated provider; less than that should be contractually required for gambling platforms.
- On-premise mitigation: Stateful inspection and SYN flood protection at the edge routers; good for smaller attacks and to reduce noise to backend systems.
- Application hardening: Rate-limit bets per IP/account, enforce session tokens, and implement throttles for sensitive endpoints like withdrawals or deposit callbacks.
Comparison: common DDoS mitigation approaches
| Approach | Best for | Typical cost (AUD/month) | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISP edge filtering | Baseline protection | Included / low | Fast, near-source mitigation | Limited against large application attacks |
| CDN + WAF | Web front-ends, login pages | 200–2,000 | Improves performance + security | Requires careful rules to avoid blocking players |
| Cloud scrubbing (MaaS) | Volumetric floods | 1,000–25,000 (burst pricing) | Handles large bandwidth attacks | Can be costly during long events |
| On-prem appliances | Low-latency games with control needs | 5,000–50,000 (capex) | Granular control, no egress routing | Limited capacity vs cloud |
Mini-case 1 — A small casino’s two-hour outage (hypothetical, instructive)
My gut says operators underestimate indirect costs. Example: a regional casino platform processes AUD 30k/hr GGV online and AUD 20k/hr on-site cross-sales during peak. A DDoS causes two-hour app outage; direct GGV loss = AUD 60k. Add lost F&B and hotel cross-sales AUD 10k, emergency mitigation AUD 7k, reputational recovery (ads/PR) AUD 5k. Total immediate hit: ~AUD 82k. The lesson: SLA and insurance should be modelled around these realistic loss numbers — not just bandwidth ratings.
How partnerships with aid organisations help during incidents
Here’s the thing. Partnering with local NGOs and communications groups gives you credible, independent channels to help affected patrons. If payments are disrupted, customers look for trust cues: an official third-party statement from a known community organisation reduces panic and keeps disputes manageable.
Practical partnership tasks:
- Agree a communications protocol: who issues statements, on which channels and in what tone.
- Designate an independent helpline partner to receive complaints and triage customers if your lines are down.
- Run joint drills twice a year to test message delivery and redundancy.
For venue-level coordination (hotels, integrated resorts), publish an operational status page and a post-incident remediation FAQ—this transparency shortens post-event dispute cycles. See an example of an operational front that combines hotel and gaming status on the crownmelbourne official site for a model of how to present status and visitor guidance during service incidents.
Quick Checklist — what to do now (48–72 hour playbook)
- Confirm transit provider DDoS support and emergency contacts.
- Enable CDN + WAF for all web-facing endpoints; test false-positive rates.
- Contract cloud scrubbing with a defined RTO and agreed burst capacity.
- Instrument backend telemetry (RPS, error rates, auth failures) and alert thresholds.
- Prepare customer communications templates and pre-authorised spokespeople.
- Set up an alternate helpline via an NGO or community partner; test routing.
- Ensure KYC/AML platforms have redundant connectivity — they’re often the gating point for payouts.
Operational playbook (roles & timings)
Short checklist of who does what and when:
- 0–5 minutes: Ops identifies anomaly; invoke mitigation runbook; notify execs.
- 5–15 minutes: ISP/CDN routing change or BGP announce to scrubbing provider.
- 15–60 minutes: Apply WAF rules and progressive throttles; monitor false positives.
- 60–120 minutes: Customer messaging live; escalate legal/AML if fraud suspected.
- Post-incident: 24–72 hours: forensic review and public summary with timelines and remediation steps.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Mistake: No scrubbing contract — reactive buys are slow and expensive. Avoid: Pre-contract mitigation with defined handover procedures.
- Mistake: Overly aggressive WAF rules causing player lockouts. Avoid: Staged rule deployment and whitelist known player agents.
- Mistake: Single point of contact for communications. Avoid: Two spokespeople and an NGO helpline as backup.
- Mistake: Underestimating legal/AML implications when payment callbacks fail. Avoid: Predefined contingency procedures with finance and compliance.
Mini-FAQ — common beginner questions
Is DDoS mitigation required by regulators?
Short answer: not always spelled out in gaming licences, but regulators expect robust operational risk management. For AU operators, the VGCCC and analogous state bodies require resilience and financial crime controls; DDoS can be the vector that allows fraud or failure to payout, so it’s effectively part of compliance posture.
How much scrubbing capacity do I need?
Start with traffic baselines. If normal peak egress is 1 Gbps, purchase scrubbing that can absorb 5–10× that as a buffer. For larger operators, aim for 50–200 Gbps depending on threat models and threat intelligence.
Can a CDN replace a cloud scrubbing service?
CDNs mitigate many Layer 7 attacks and improve resiliency for static content, but pure volumetric attacks often require specialised scrubbing providers with upstream capacity and BGP-handling. Use both for layered defence.
Post-incident KPIs and review
After an event, measure these metrics: Mean Time To Detect (MTTD), Mean Time To Mitigate (MTTM), customer complaints per 1,000 active sessions, payout dispute resolution time, and remediation cost vs. predicted loss. Aim for MTTM under 15 minutes for automated scrubbing handoffs and under 60 minutes for full containment.
Vendor selection quick rules
- Demand published scrubbing capacity and real-world incident case studies.
- Check SLA: RTO for BGP reroute, time to scale, and packet-loss guarantees.
- Confirm transparency: logs, sample pcap exports, and signed NDAs for forensic work.
- Practice failovers in a non-peak window twice a year.
Final echoes — risk, responsibility and reputation
On the one hand, DDoS is a technical threat you can mostly plan for. But on the other hand, it’s a reputational threat that hits customers’ trust first and regulators second. Being proactive — contracts, drills, and a community helpline — reduces both the technical impact and the customer churn that follows an outage.
18+ only. If you or someone you know needs help with gambling-related issues, seek support from local services and consider self-exclusion tools. Operators must comply with KYC/AML rules and ensure secure, transparent payouts.
Sources
- https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/guidance-materials/denial-service-ddos
- https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/what-is-a-ddos-attack/
- https://www.netscout.com/blog/asert/2023-ddos-threat-landscape
About the Author
Chris Malone, iGaming expert. Chris has 12 years’ experience across casino operations and platform security, advising operators on resilience, incident response and player protection.
