Online casinos have been providing entertainment for many years now. As a result, the online casino UK market has seen some hugely popular brands being launched. With the gambling sector being one of the largest in the entertainment industry. You can imagine the number of players that access online casinos. Therefore, keeping every single player safe can be a challenge. As a result, the Gambling Commission are in charge of this and work hard on enforcing safety measures. Similar rules and regulations are being implemented around the world too, like Japan, for example. If you were to look at the Know Techie article, you would find plenty of easy to use and safe Japanese gambling sites. Many UK gamblers like to use foreign sites because they often have different games, so it’s important to know what sites are safe to use.
All online casino UK platforms that offer their services in Great Britain must be licenced by the Gambling Commission. By being licenced, there are rules and regulations that must be followed. We can say that any casino following all the rules laid out by these guys is safe. Most modern casinos are great examples of safe online casino websites as they are thoroughly checked. These checks are done by the Gambling Commission. As they are the ones who regulate the rules, they are also the ones who make them and bring in new ones. As a result, with new regulation changes around the corner that affect player safety, we want to ensure you are prepared.
Age verification is a major factor in keeping people safe while gambling. In particular, this is to keep under-age people away from gambling. Nowadays, online casinos are given 72 hours to verify the age of a player, ensuring they are of age to take part in the gambling activity. However, during this time, the player can still do many things on the platform. This includes making a deposit and playing games and even claiming a bonus before this process is finished. However, the Gambling Commission want to make some changes to this process.
What Happens When Online Casino UK Rules Are Not Followed?
Usually, if an online casino is found to be breaking or not following the rules laid out by the Gambling Commission they will be fined. These fines can often quite hefty for the casino, and will range depending on how serious the rule failure is. As a result, you will find that many casinos have been fined in the past. Therefore, for failing to follow rules set out.
An example of a fine handed to an online casino UK platform, is in 2018. The very well known brand, 888 Casino was fined 7.8million for failing to protect vulnerable customers. When the Gambling Commission say ‘vulnerable people’ they mean people who have show signs of problem gambling, under-age gamblers and people who have no control over their finances. Another example of a fine the Gambling Commission has handed out in the past includes a 1million fine for Sky Bet. Again, this was for failing to protect vulnerable players from the harms gambling in excess can cause. From the previous fines that have been issued, it is evident with how big they are, the Gambling Commission takes this issue very seriously.
As a result of the numerous complaints made to the Gambling Commission, they have decided to change the rules when signing up to online casino UK platforms. This change has already been confirmed and will come into place on 7th May 2021, with the aim of making gambling safer and fairer.
What Change is Coming into Place?
The new change the Gambling Commission has agreed on affects the age-verification procedure. They want to make the process of having your age and identity details made faster. This means that with new casinos such as Yoju Casino that are being introduced, for example, there will be a quick process to go through when creating an account. This will ultimately benefit the player, allowing access to all the casino features much quicker. However, the new rules do have some changes that casinos will have to make. To further keep children safe from the risks of gambling, casinos have been asked to change what permissions players have.
Now, a new players age must be verified before funds can be deposited into an account. Also, players cannot place any bets either from their own money, a free bet or bonus funds until they have been verified. This can prove to have many positive effects for players, enabling the full service once the process is done. One of the biggest rule changes is to demo play games. Although these games are not classed as gambling because playing them is free and there is no prize involved. However, the Gambling Commission believes that there is no legitimate reason that these games should be available to children. Whether these are on a developer website or an online casino UK website.
As a minimum, new players to online casinos will now have to verify themselves. This includes their name, address date of birth before being able to gamble. It is also written that casinos must ask for additional verification information promptly. As well as, informing the player before they can deposit any funds, what types of identity documents are required. It will now be the responsibility of the online casino to ensure that information on their players’ identities remain accurate and up to date.
Other Changes Coming into Force
The changes laid out above are believed to help operators better prevent harm and detect criminal activity. Therefore, having more information held on their customers. This also helps prevent the casino from demanding ID before being able to withdraw funds. This comes as the new rule will require this information when signing up. Further protecting players from unsafe casinos that are reported to not pay out to winning players.
These changes also allow online casinos to help their customers. With social responsibility at play, the casino can identify potential problem gamblers with more information. With un-verified players being unable to play even free games. Therefore, this means that those who are registered on Gamstop cannot play until they provide correct details. It is this kind of database integration that gambling charities have been calling for.
To bring this all a step forward into the future. The Gambling Commission is going to be laying out their exact requirements when it comes to this new sign up process. In essence, they are going to explain their expectations on how to interact with a customer suspected of gambling-related harm. One of the next things that they are going to be exploring is the potential use of gambling-blocking software. However, this is a very controversial discussion. Many players, casino operators and even game developers are against the use of extra software working with the games. It is fair to say that they will ruin the integrity of the security the games offer. Allowing software access to block the games allows for other flaws to be found and exploited. Whether this kind of step is necessary is what the Gambling Commission are going to be discussing.