Are Android or Apple iOS devices safer for gambling online?

As a gambler, you are used to taking risks. That might be a Saturday football accumulator, a punt on the horses, some time spent playing roulette or slots or a game or two of bingo online.

But one thing you don’t want to gamble with is your security when betting online.

The Android versus Apple iOS devices is a commonly debated mobile phone subject, anything from battery life to the speed or size of the screen. It also a very legitimate debate when it comes to online gambling too. Which of the operating systems is best if you spend time using apps or websites to gamble online?

But it is not just about which has the best performing apps – although that is a pretty strong requisite gamblers look for when choosing where to bet or play online. It is equally about whether it is Android or iOS devices that provide the most security too. And it is a debate we will attempt to answer.

The facts and figures

Despite the popularity that Apple enjoyed during the last decade, Android users far outweigh iOS devices now. In fact, almost three-quarters of all mobile phones and tablets use an Android operating system compared to only two in every ten being iOS.

What does that tell us other than the fact Android devices are favoured by far more people than Apple? It also tells us that hackers have a much bigger target audience among Android users if they decide to target gambling devices.

Password Protection and Device Logins

We get told it all the time, but protecting passwords is a must. The same applies to your phone and betting accounts as much as your email account. After all, your phone is where you do the vast majority of your gambling, and the betting accounts have money in them and bank cards associated with them and saved. Changing passwords regularly is crucial to your own protection.

But what do Android and iOS’s own security features provide? Both offer passcode security on a locked screen, while Apple now have face recognition as well as fingerprint login. Android users can now download apps to perform the name facial recognition.

The operating systems themselves

A big question, and it doesn’t relate to the gambling side of the argument one bit, is how safe are the operating systems. And how easy is it for technological scammers to hack into them? One thing you should always be doing is updating your software whenever there is a new release, because in it are additional security features to protect you and your data.

Apple is particularly good at keeping a secret of the source code it uses for the operating system, which therefore makes iOS devices have a good level of security against being hacked.

Loopholes can be found in the Android Open Source Project (ASOP) slightly more easily (although it is still a heavily protected system) because of the need to have it available to developers creating apps and the like for multiple different devices. Anything that has to be left “open” has slightly more of a risk with malware more likely to succeed in this environment that via iOS devices.

Apps over Mobile Browser provide trust

Our final recommendation is to always use apps over mobile browser. All major bookmakers, online casinos and gambling hubs have apps. The smaller, shall we say slightly more shady operators, will rely only on mobile sites which can be accessed via your browser. Now, there is highly likely to be a serious amount of security provided if you choose not to download an app and use the mobile site of every the biggest bookmaker.

But using an app provides an added level of security because any hackers would have to find a way into the well-guarded app rather than harbouring virus and bugs through internet browsers. That’s not to say they can’t do it, but it does add that extra level when it comes to peace of mind. Apps have traditionally been designed as iOS App Store versions first with Android following afterwards.

In fact, despite the numbers we gave you at the beginning of the article, some bookmakers and gaming operators still choose to go without an Android option. If that is the case, then the using the mobile site is your only option and you’ll need to perhaps add your own layers of security where you can.

The one real negative for Android users is that the security is spread across various stores from which the app can be downloaded. Google Play, Amazon and Getjar are among the places that an app could be downloaded and the very fact makes it harder to protect with hackers having multiple sources to access the apps.

Conclusion

It’s an age old debate in the modern mobile world over whether Android or Apple devices are better. You could ask 10 different people in the street and they would give you 10 different reasons behind just why they have the phone they do, and also the reasons why they chose it over others.

Probably what hasn’t come into it is the element of security that each provide. If you are a gambler, you want to do that on a casino table or the latest football matches or horse races…not with your personal data and hard-earned cash.

With everything compared and contrasted, there still remains very little to separate them in the Android versus iOS debate even where the security element is the key component. But the one thing that does stand out is the Android Open Source Project operating system which provides slightly more opportunity for techies to hack into devices. That gives us enough reason to sway our decision and say Apple iOS devices offer the extra comfort for gamblers betting online.