Compliance Updates
Betting and Gaming Council Members Boast Record Compliance on Age Verification Checks
The members of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) have achieved record compliance rates for age verification checks, according to leading industry auditor Serve Legal.
Independent figures provided by Serve Legal, show bookmakers boasted a 91.4% age verification pass rate, across thousands of annual checks.
Meanwhile, casinos have a near-perfect pass rate of 98%.
This represents a 30% compliance increase across the audit volume since 2009, when Serve Legal began working with the regulated betting and gaming sector.
Regulated betting and gaming is now the leading sector in the UK for age verification compliance, better than supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol forecourts and delivering 10-15% higher compliance rates than the alcohol and lottery sectors annually.
BGC members take a zero-tolerance approach to betting by children and have significantly raised standards to protect young people.
The most popular forms of betting by children are legal arcade games like penny pusher and claw grab machines, bets between friends or family, and playing cards for money – not with BGC members.
BGC members enforce strict age verification on all their products to prevent underage gaming and will further strengthen age verification measures by increasing the checking age from “Think 21” to “Think 25” across betting shops and casinos. This policy will require anyone who is over 18 but looks under 25 to provide ID.
The BGC also funds the £10m Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme, delivered by leading charities YGAM and GamCare, which has reached more than two million 11 to 19-year-olds, and those working with them, in the UK.
Wes Himes, Executive Director of Standards and Innovation, said: “The BGC and our members are incredibly proud of these compliance rates, which put us ahead of our peers in every department.
“I am hugely grateful to Serve Legal for their work over the last 15 years, who have been instrumental in this change. Serve Legal, alongside our members and their dedicated staff, have led the charge in raising standards and setting a new benchmark for excellence.
“Bookmakers and casinos play a vital economic role on the UK’s hard-pressed high streets, as well as in the leisure and tourism sector. But economic contribution has to go hand-in-hand with the highest standards.
“We are delivering that, which should be welcome news to customers and communities across the country. Our work to raise standards goes on, and I expect these compliance rates to continue improving across the land-based betting and gaming sector.”
Serve Legal is the market-leading provider of ID and compliance testing services in the UK & Ireland. Providing extensive, independent audit services to national retailers, leisure operators and sports broadcasters, Serve Legal’s site audits help clients protect and improve operational and compliance standards.
Over the last 15 years, Serve Legal has conducted over 200,000 bookmaker and casino site audits, to ensure due diligence across a range of compliance issues for BGC members.
Audit checks were conducted at single-site businesses through to national brands with thousands of locations on UK high streets.
Serve Legal Client Manager Ali Deering said: “Compliance challenges can be greater for smaller independent bookmakers. The BGC have done admirable work in bringing them up to speed with the latest compliance support, to offer a level playing field with other big names in the industry. At Serve Legal we are proud to be supporting all of the BGC’s members, including casinos, with their due diligence and celebrate the tangible successes in each of them!”
The improvement comes as a result of new measures on customer interactions and improved “challenge on entry” standards for age verification.
Serve Legal CEO Ed Heaver said: “The Serve Legal team are incredibly proud of the work conducted by the BGC and their members. Their impressive dedication and work ethic has paid off in some highly impressive statistics, showing the 30% compliance increase across the industry over the time that we have worked in the sector. We thank the BGC for pioneering their mission of customer safety alongside ours.”
The BGC’s commitment to protecting young people extends beyond land-based betting and gaming, including recent commitments on advertising.
In 2019, BGC members introduced the whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting commercials during live sports before the 9 pm watershed, which led to the number of such ads being seen by children at that time falling by 97%.
BGC members have also introduced new age-gating rules for advertising on social media platforms, targeting ads to those aged 25 and over unless a platform can verifiably prove that its age-gating systems can prevent under-18s from accessing regulated betting and gaming advertising content.
The BGC has also written to the Government, asking them to urge social media companies to cooperate more closely with the betting and gaming industry in limiting marketing seen by young people and problem gamblers.
Recent data from the Gambling Commission published last year showed young people’s exposure to betting and gaming adverts and promotions had declined compared to the previous year.
Of 11 to 17-year-olds, 55% had seen regulated betting and gaming adverts offline, compared to 66% in 2022, and 53% had seen adverts online, compared to 63% in 2022.
The Government has previously stated research did not establish a causal link between exposure to advertising and the development of problem betting and gaming.
The regulated betting and gaming industry is determined to promote safer gaming, unlike the unsafe and growing online black market, which has none of the safeguards strictly employed by BGC members.
BGC members overall contribute £7.1bn to the economy and generate £4.2bn in tax while supporting 110,000 jobs.
Each month in Great Britain around 22.5m adults have a bet and the most recent NHS Health Survey for England estimated that 0.4% of the adult population are problem gamblers.
The post Betting and Gaming Council Members Boast Record Compliance on Age Verification Checks appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Aviatrix has received certification to offer its award-winning crash game to operators in Estonia.
It marks the latest regulated market that Aviatrix has entered into, with the game already live in the country with leading brand FenixBet.
Anastasia Rimskaya, Chief Account Officer at Aviatrix, said: “Securing certification in Estonia is another exciting step forward for Aviatrix as we continue to expand into regulated markets. We’re thrilled to already be live with FenixBet and look forward to delivering our innovative crash game experience to even more players in the country.”
Aviatrix has added a host of regulated markets over recent months, including Spain, Colombia, Brazil and Peru.
It underlines the team’s commitment to bringing the game to players around the world.
Aviatrix is a constantly evolving game, with regular feature updates for partners, including the recent launch of free bets, now available through in-game promo codes.
The post Aviatrix granted certification in Estonia appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) has for the first time imposed a fine of €734,000 on one of its licensees because the company failed to adequately protect young adults against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.
Gambling companies have a duty of care and must protect players as much as possible against excessive gambling and gambling addiction. According to the KSA, the provider in question has not sufficiently complied with this duty of care and will be fined for this.
The KSA started an investigation after signals about large losses suffered by young adults. In this investigation, a selection of 10 of the player files with the largest losses were examined at the provider, whereby violations were found in all files. These were young adult players (18 to 23 years old) who gambled away tens of thousands of euros in often a relatively short period of time.
Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the board of the KSA, said: “We have a licensed gambling market based on the idea that anyone who wants to gamble can do so safely. That is why providers have a duty of care towards their players and must respond adequately to excessive gaming. Major losses are an important signal of that. We have intensified our supervision of the online duty of care and we take tough action against violations such as those we find here, because we really do not want to see providers continue to fail in their duty of care, especially for vulnerable young players.”
The post KSA: Fine of €734,000 Imposed for Breach of Duty of Care appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Mobile online sports betting would be legal in Nebraska under a bill advancing in the Legislature, but trouble could still lie ahead for the proposal.
Sen. Eliot Bostar introduced the proposed state constitutional amendment that would let people make sports bets on their phone from anywhere in the state. Bostar says Nebraskans are already betting, either by going to a casino, a neighboring state or using illegal, unregulated platforms.
“I introduced this not because I think gambling is a great thing, not because I want everyone to do it, not because I think you should like it, or anyone should, but fundamentally because it’s already happening. Our prohibition on mobile sports betting here in save Nebraska is not stopping anyone from engaging in that activity,” Bostar said.
Sen. Jason Prokop has made the proposal his priority this session. Prokup talked about Nebraskans who cross the Mormon Bridge into Iowa and congregate at the first off I-680 to place bets during the football season.
“There’s no reason why a corn field in Iowa, just off the interstate, should be touted as the busiest corn field in America. Senators, those are your and my constituents using this product, spending their money and paying taxes in another state, simply because our Constitution does not provide for it,” he said.
Bostar said Nebraska is losing tax revenue.
“Nebraska is currently missing out on a $1.6 billion state online industry and $32 million in annual tax revenue, which instead goes to neighboring states like Iowa, Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming. Legalizing online mobile sports betting through LR20CA could significantly boost state revenues dedicated to the property tax credit fund, helping to address the burden of high property taxes,” he said.
Sen. Jared Storm seemed unmoved.
“I’ve been in the body for three months. I’m a freshman senator, and it seems like the common thread I keep seeing here is, if you want to pass your bill or get something through here, you say it’s going to lower property taxes. That’s kind of the buzz word,” he said.
Strong offered a different interpretation of any tax revenue.
“I would view this as taxation by exploitation. We’re going to exploit people to get tax revenue out of them, mainly young men. So you’re going to have students at UNL, students at UNK, other universities, who are going to gamble away their tuition on online sports betting. They’re going to gamble away their rent online sports gambling. I think as state senators, we have to stand up for those people,” he said.
Sen. Rob Clements read a letter from a mother whose son got in financial trouble from sports betting and died by suicide last year.
“The $10,000 bet my son frenetically placed on a losing NHL Stanley Cup game during the last 48 hours of his life, was followed by a series of still more frenetic bets placed in isolation on his phone as he tried to win back his massive loss. It is clear that he died alone,” Clements read.
But Sen. Ben Hansen argued incidents like that should not be enough to prohibit sports betting.
“How far do we restrict people’s liberties and their rights? This is always a tough one, because we do see some of the ills, the pitfalls some of our citizens can fall into. But do we take that right away from them for that reason? If we take away that right because of addictive factors, we better get rid of alcohol. We better get rid of smoking. We better get rid of refined sugar, one of the most addictive things that we legalize here in Nebraska. We better get rid of a lot of addictive behaviors in the state of Nebraska,” he said.
Sen. Rick Holdcroft read a letter from former Congressman Tom Osborne, former Gov. Kay Orr, Sen. Pete Ricketts and State Auditor Mike Foley opposing the proposal.
“Legalizing online sports betting in Nebraska would turn every cell phone, laptop and tablet into a gambling device available 24 by seven, online sports betting can lead to new people developing gambling disorders, puts young men in the addiction bulls eye and will take money away from the main street Nebraska businesses,” he said.
Gov. Jim Pillen has supported legalizing online sports betting in the past. And Sen. Tom Brandt said the proposal should be approved.
“In Nebraska, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, guns, whether you wear a helmet, we let grown ups decide that. We let our people decide that. Does everybody make a good decision? They do not. There are consequences to some bad decisions, but we let them decide for themselves. Mobile betting should be the same way,” he said.
But Sen. Brad von Gillern said mobile betting was an especially threatening form of gambling.
“My opposition to LR20CA is not from a moral position against gambling as a whole. I provided tons of data to you that illustrates that this is a predatory process that primarily pursues young men,” he said.
After about three hours of debate, senators voted 27-16 to give the bill first-round approval. But von Gillern vowed to filibuster it at the second round of debate, when opponents need only talk for four hours, instead of eight, before supporters can try to cut off debate and vote on the bill itself. That takes 33 votes, and von Gillern predicted it would be close.
The post Nebraska: Proposal to Legalize Mobile Sports Betting Advances appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
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