Responsible Gambling with ID Verification
As the gambling industry continues to grow, authenticating customers has never been more important. From minors gambling online to criminals laundering money at slot machines, knowing a customer’s true identity can help prevent businesses from breaking laws and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Challenges of Hosting Gambling
Running a casino, installing gaming machines at a pub, or providing betting services comes with responsibilities. Especially as regulations tighten up around gambling, monitoring the services provided should be at the core of responsible management.
Underage Gambling
The impact of irresponsible gambling is reaching very young generations. In a study conducted by the Gambling Commission, they found that 39% of young people (aged 11-16) had taken part in gambling in 2018. Of those, 4% used scratch cards, 3% used slot machines and 6% used their parents online gambling accounts. The challenges of ID verification of minors are occurring both on licensed premises and online. All they need is a fake ID and a relaxed security guard, or the login details for an adult’s gambling account, and they can gamble. This can have a profound effect on children’s lives, with 1.7% of the surveyed minors classified as problem gamblers, while 2.2% were at risk of becoming a one.
Gambling and Fraud
Gambling has long been a means of turning dirty money into clean money. But with billions of dollars gambled every year, it’s hard to identify and criminals are continuing to take advantage of it. And it’s not just money from criminal activities that could be placed on the betting table. Stolen money through fraudulent activities is a common currency for compulsive gamblers. In a recent report on gambling-motivated fraud in Australia, $100 million was stolen in just 265 reported criminal cases. Over half of these accounts were employees stealing from the employer. But fraud can be spotted. Most of the convicted criminals were caught with intersecting reports from banks and the licensed venue, and 19% already had a criminal record.
CTF and AML Compliance
To protect Australian interests, AUSTRAC requires businesses in the gambling industry to register with them. Their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) program support CTF and AML activities and work to expose criminal activities. Businesses who provide gambling as a service will need to report the suspicious behaviour of customers to assist with CTF and money laundering detection.
The Role of Biometrics in Gambling
With biometric authentication, gamblers can seamlessly log into online betting apps just by taking a selfie. And casinos and other licensed venues can rely on facial recognition at the front door to let them confirm the identity of their customers. By using a camera and Liveness technology to capture identity attributes, which is then compared with official documents online, businesses can keep minors and criminals away from their services.
This electronic customer verification checks countless databases to also perform an identity fraud check and a police check online. This helps flag reported criminals to be denied entry and also identifies people on gambling bans or AML watchlists, so bouncers and management can better protect their business.
Along with the rise of online gambling, the misuse of gambling services is becoming a serious issue. And it’s costing billions. But with help from biometric authentication, companies are better avoiding cases of fraud and keeping up with CTF and AML compliance.
