Using smartcards to secure a personalized gambling device
William A. Aiello, Aviel D. Rubin, Martin J. Strauss · 1999
We introduce a technique for using an untrusted device, such as a hand-held personal digital assistant or a laptop to perform real financial transactions without a network. We utilize the tamper-resistant nature of smartcards to store value on them and perform probabilistic computations based on user input. We discuss an application of this to gambling. The technique has the properties that the user is guaranteed to make money when he wins and the house is guaranteed to make money when the user loses. 1 Introduction We are currently experiencing a proliferation of lightweight handheld devices, such as the 3Com palm pilot, windows CE devices, and even laptops that weigh under three pounds. Many of these devices are so portable that people have them in their pockets and use them at all times. Our goal is to enable people to utilize these devices during otherwise dead time perhaps at the doctor's office, or in line at the supermarket. We are interested in utilizing the time when the us...