Gambling is a game in which players place their money at stake over uncertain chances of winning. Poker, Big Six Wheel, and Roulette are examples of gambling games.
As digitization modified daily businesses, the gambling games also digitized. Now there are gambling mobile apps in the market, where players can bet without a physical meeting. Now there is no restriction of casinos or gaming studios for gambling. Players can gamble with the click of their phone globally. As the gambling means are developing, businesses are looking forward to regulating it. One of the most important controls on gambling is verifying players’ age or online age verification. According to Statista, 32.2% of UK citizens gamble every week.
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Why Age Verification?
- As gambling games are multiplayer and support globalization. This means that a player of Asia can gamble with a player of Australia without any check. Possible predator attack is much higher in this case. Without any age check, an adult can easily play a game with a kid and can harass and bully him during the gameplay.
- Most of the kids gamble using their parents’ accounts without their consent. This unauthorized use can lead to credit card scams. Also, kids are not mature enough to place a bet smartly. This results in losing the wager multiple times and causing funds to lose for the parents.
- As gambling is done over online accounts and online bank accounts are also associated with it, it can lead to identity theft also. Minors are aware of how to protect their information and accounts. They easily become a victim of social engineering tactics and phishing. They can lose their accounts and also the money in them.
- Frauds and scams are everywhere nowadays, and gambling is also at risk. From financial frauds to account takeover frauds, gambling sites need to protect their channels. Kids being most vulnerable to prevention and protection methods, can fall prey to these crimes
- Some sites contain adult-related content like images, videos, or other activities. If this content is exposed to minors, it can affect their mental health. Additionally, they can get addicted, and it will be tough to restrain it.
- Age verification is expected to be a regulation for gambling platforms. The UK Gambling Commission obliged gambling platforms that they have to verify their users’ identities and ages before onboarding.
Robust Age Verification – The Way Out
As gambling is robust and online, the procedures for verifying players’ ages need to be digitized and robust. Luckily there is an age verification solution in the market that can comply with the requirements of the digital procedures.
The age verification is performed remotely through online software. The software is powered with AI and ML algorithms that help it to verify age efficiently. The age is verified through id documents, the gambling platforms can trust on id document data. The reason is the id card is issued by the government and the issuance authority issues it after keen physical verification. A person has to visit the government office multiple times to get his card.
Here is the process of age verification conducted by software:
Data Insertion
This is the first step of age verification, and it is performed when a player tries to open an account on the gambling website. He inserts the required data (Name & DOB) into the webpage.
ID Document Uploading
The user clicks the picture of the id document and uploads it to the webpage. Images can be clicked through a normal mobile phone or webcam.
Data Capture
The data which needs to be verified i.e. name and death date is captured through OCR. It first locates data and then extracts it.
Verification
The extracted data and the information given in the first step are cross-matched in this step. If the data matches and the age falls in the particular range, the user is allowed to open an account on the website.
Summing It Up
Gambling businesses can save kids from being involved in adult-related gameplay and betting. Online Age verification solutions can save their time and resources being spent on traditional-age verification procedures. By doing so, they can build a trustworthy gaming environment and comply with age verification regulations.