Beginning May 7, 2019, all the affected gaming operators should not allow any player to make deposits and play betting games without completing the process of verifying his/her name, age, and address. With this, the three-day grace period given before to new players signing up no longer applies.
The laying down of this stricter rule is part of the commissions goal to get children out of the gambling sphere. In a report by UKGC, it was found out that the number of children with gambling-linked issues quadrupled in the past two years. Now, there are more or less 55,000 children aged 11 to 16 recorded with compulsive gambling issues.
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UK GAMBLING COMMISSION IMPLEMENTS STRICTER IDENTITY VERIFICATION RULEAll online casinos licensed by the UKGC implement the KYC rule, now even stricter. Any thoughts on the changes made by the commission to the age & identity verification process?
It's a difficult question. I think it's important to be strict about children not having access to gambling, but at the same time to leave more freedom to adults... I don't really know how to make sure that both requirements are satisfied. In case of physical presence it's possible not to ask for an ID if a person is clearly looking like an adult.. Perhaps something similar could be implemented online.
I don't think it's fair to ask people for ID when there is no suspicion of violations.