The next few years are poised to bring significant developments to the gambling industry and a potential tidal wave of growth as well. In fact, growth projections for the international gambling industry have been projected to rise to $647.9 billion by 2027 from an estimated $443.2 billion in 2020–representing an annual growth rate of 5.6%.
Different sectors within the industry can expect to be met with a unique set of challenges and opportunities.
Regulators monitor online platforms in the gaming space closely in an effort to combat safety and transparency issues as well as limit illicit activity in the industry. As a result, AML and KYC processes need to extend into the digital realm alongside emerging gaming services to ensure they remain compliant.
Regtech assists with AML and KYC compliance needs as well as determining the risk of working with identities that businesses encounter. Some Regtech solutions take behavioral data into account to further refine risk-based decisions. However, without ensuring participants are who they claim to be before allowing them access to your platform, even the above Regtech solutions are likely to be ineffective.
Social responsibility has taken center stage, making it imperative that these online gaming organizations operate in conjunction with special programs intended to help vulnerable individuals engaged in addictive spending activities. Responsible gaming departments are becoming the norm among gaming platforms, helping curb the issues surrounding always accessible gaming services for those with unhealthy spending habits.
For casinos, Age and KYC regulations aimed at preventing underage gambling and money laundering, can also introduce compliance procedures and friction to the onboarding process. The Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) enacted in 2020 further raised the stakes for casino owners across the country with augmented fines and prison sentences for failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports and Customer Transaction Reports being just the start.
To comply and avoid putting off potential customers, physical and online casinos need to be able to quickly and accurately validate their customers’ identities.
Mobile betting app providers are subjected to the same intense scrutiny the rest of the gambling industry receives. Organizations offering these kinds of app-based services are expected to secure customer identification information, utilize geolocated tracking of users to ensure legality and more.
Preparing for regulatory scrutiny by adopting technology-based techniques and protocols today is the only way gambling organizations, as well as the money transmitting businesses that service them, can move forward with confidence and clarity.
The specific tasks that follow should top the list of leadership within the gambling space:
Your compliance strategy is only as strong as your staff. Implementing a comprehensive training regimen that consistently provides your organization’s personnel with the knowledge needed to power your compliance protocol is key to keeping risks at bay.
Engaging dedicated compliance staff in conveying important information to the rest of your company is a great place to start when fleshing out a detailed compliance training program.
Auditing can be especially helpful in understanding whether compliance procedures are being followed, and are effective. Engaging in scheduled audits of your processes, staff, and infrastructure can help highlight areas in need of improvement before legitimate problems arise.
With that said, consider randomizing your audit schedule as bad actors can learn the standard audit schedules effectively circumventing being caught for a period of time.
Software not only helps lessen the overall investment required to keep up with changes in legislation, helps you improve your accuracy, and allows you to keep up with the speed of the internet. By leveraging purpose-built software, your organization can offload the technical requirements of in-house development, while benefiting from advanced convenience tooling.
Additionally, capable software can reduce or even eliminate the risk of human error during key validation and reviewing procedures, lowering your business’s susceptibility to non-compliance risks in the process.
Remaining compliant does not need to be an uphill battle for your company to shoulder, alone. Instead, you can choose to partner with security and validation service providers with proven experience in the gambling space.
Intellicheck is your best bet for accuracy and reliability when it comes to validating users’ identities on the spot or online.
Intellicheck offers ID validation designed to meet KYC compliance requirements while preserving your customers’ onboarding experience. Simplicity, speed, and unbeaten accuracy add up to Intellicheck your best bet. You can count on 99.9% accuracy of every result received through the system, delivered in under a second for practically instant onboarding.
Getting started with Intellicheck is as simple as adding the online portal to your processing workflow.