Online Gambling Has New Age Verification Rules
In the fight to prevent under-age gambling as well as in an effort to make online gambling fairer for customers, new age, as well as identity verification rules, have been implemented on Tuesday.
The new rules state that an operator has to complete verification of a customer by verifying their name, address and date of birth before allowing the customer to participate in gambling activities. Online operators have been granted 72 hours to carry out age verification checks.
The Gambling Commission has also issued a warning to the industry stating that operators aren’t allowed to confiscate a customer’s funds based on not being provided ID in time.
All of these proposed changes will make it more difficult for operators to sign up new customers. At the same time, it will also open up avenues which were previously closed such as new potential fines as well as license reviews if the rules are found to be broken.
What the officials have to say
The new rules were announced in February by the Gambling Commission. The cultural secretary, Jeremy Wright, went on to describe the changes by saying that these changes help shut down a possible gateway to gambling-related harm.
The remote Gambling Association chief executive, Wes Himes, said that the new identity verification rules would work to create greater assurance for customers who frequent their operators as well as go further in preventing underage access to these sites.
In addition to the above, Wes Himes said that the association would like to call upon the government as well as the Gambling Commission to accelerate work in areas such as digital identity to ensure that weaknesses in the present system don’t result in customers turning to unregulated options.
Warwick Bartlett, chief executive of the Global Betting & Gaming Consultancy, commented on the rules by saying that they were fair and reasonable. However, he added that teething troubles were inevitable and called upon the Gambling Commission to provide some latitude.
Bartlett also said that while the new regulations are desired and reasonable, they come at the cost of implementation which means that new account sign-ups might be slower.
There are plenty of other opinions on the matter. However, only time will reveal whether these new rules have positive or negative implications. All of the current data suggests that these rules will hurt gambling operators but protect underage customers.
