Real-time identity verification – new regulatory rules for gaming operators

Staying abreast of the changes unfolding in today’s regulatory environment is no easy feat. For those operating in highly regulated sectors, such as the gambling and gaming industries, it proves to be a particularly difficult challenge.

Earlier this year, gaming and gambling companies operating in the United Kingdom were tasked with rescoping their existing identity and age verification practices due to a change implemented by the UK Gambling Commission.

Gambling is a particularly lucrative industry in the UK; in Great Britain upwards of £14.5 billion (USD $18.8 billion) was spent on gambling between October 2017 and September 2018. That figure includes activities such as betting on horse racing and other sports and purchasing lottery tickets. Online gambling, however, accounts for the majority of revenue (£5.6 billion).

The Gambling Commission’s rules, which came into effect on May 7, were created in order to ensure that operators verify the age and identity of players quickly and robustly, and they apply to all remote betting and gaming operators, as well as a portion of remote lotteries.

Prior to the implementation of these new rules, operators had 72 hours to verify a player — now, verification must be done immediately.

Reconfiguring compliance procedures

One party affected by these changes was Broadway Gaming, an online gambling operator that oversees seven online gaming brands.

Not only is Broadway Gaming, like all other operators, now required to verify the address of new players (as well as their name and date of birth) prior to gambling, they are also obligated to retroactively verify existing players. This is a particularly hefty task, with upwards of 1.6 billion people estimated to gamble at some point during any given year. Due to the prevalence of online gambling — the global market for which was valued at approximately USD $45.8 billion in 2017 — this number is only set to skyrocket.

With the volume of transactions increasing rapidly, Broadway Gaming fraud and payments manager Conor Glavey concluded that they needed to revamp their current processes in order to remain compliant. To do so, they were in need of a smarter, more agile identity verification solution. While compliance was his first priority, Glavey was cognizant that user experience should not be negatively impacted.

Thanks to GlobalGateway, Broadway Gaming was able to offer a seamless digital onboarding experience to its players, in line with the updated regulations, and began verifying players in real time before the May 7 deadline.