UKGC Officially Introduces New Age and Identity Verification Guidelines

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has confirmed that their new age and identity verification procedures have officially become effective following an open consultation aiming to ensure operators verify their customers' identity details in quick and robust fashion.

These LCCP changes will affect remote betting and gaming operators and some remote lotteries, and they include several key points which must be adhered to by operators at all times.

All Must Comply

Among those key points, these three will be most crucial:

• New license condition 17 that will set out minimum requirements for identity verification
• Changes to Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.2.11 for age verification for remote betting and gaming
• Changes to Social Responsibility Code Provision 3.2.13 for age verification for some remote lotteries

The Commission has released a consultation responses document that provides an in-depth explanation of LLCB changes' background and nature. In a nutshell...

...all operators who are affected by these changes are expected to comply and cooperate with the new LLCB – from Tuesday, May 7th, all are expected to verify the name, address and date of birth of any customer. Also, they will have to complete the verification before they allow the particular customer to gamble.

Any unverified customers will need to be prevented from gambling until they've gone through the full verification process.

Another important thing to note is that operators will not be able to confiscate customer's funds in case they did not provide ID in time. According to 2018's Competitions and Markets Authority's action in the remote sector...

...all consumers have the right to claim the money deposited in their own account, as well as to winnings made with money they have deposited and gambled, just like the winnings made from a “bonus where the relevant conditions have been met.”

£4.5M in Penalties For Online Gambling Businesses

Elsewhere, there has been a continuation of regulator action against operators found guilty of breaching the online gaming sector's rules...

...with a further £4.5 million in fines imposed against several businesses. InTouch Games Limited will need to pay £2.2 million, Betit Operations Limited are ordered to pay £1.4 million, MT Secure Trade need to pay £700,000 and BestBet Limited got off comparatively easy, with a £230,972 in fines.

This package of penalties relates to business failings of putting the necessary safeguards in place in order to prevent money laundering. These operators also failed to protect their consumers from gambling harm.

The Gambling Commission's Executive Director, Richard Watson, says: “We have been working hard to raise standards in the online industry to ensure that gambling is crime-free and that the one in five people in Britain who gamble online every month can do so safely. [...] We expect operators to know their customers and to ask the right questions to make sure they meet their anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations.”

Underage Lives at a Stake

Recently, the UKGC began working on improving the monitoring system that should help prevent bad influence of gambling on underage groups. The detailed strategy was laid out in cooperation with Advisory Board for Safer Gambling, GambleAware and Ipsos MORI.

Source:

“New age and identity verification rules – changes to the LCCP from Tuesday 7 May”, gamblingcommission.gov.uk

“Widespread regulator action results in further £4.5m in penalties for online gambling sector”, gamblingcommission.gov.uk