Have Your IDs Ready When Leaving for a Game Night
Those who like to gamble may know the drill of presenting their identity documents when entering the casino. ID verification is an obligation casinos have to perform – and it’s their responsibility to inform their guests, making sure they have the right IDs when arriving at the casino. Because without having your ID verified – you cannot play.
For example, a casino in Liechtenstein published the following statement on its website:
“From 10.10.2019, only identity cards or passports are valid for entry into our play area. We do not accept driving licenses, residence permits, confirmation of cross-border commuters, visas, or other ID cards.
Citizens from the Principality of Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the European Union, and the European Economic Area can be granted access to the casino with their identity card or passport. For all other nationalities, the passport must be presented.“
There are similar governmental regulations in many other European countries. This one is by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission:
“If an operator has not yet verified the name, address, and date of birth of any customer, they will need to have completed verification before allowing that customer to gamble. Operators will therefore need to prevent any unverified customer from gambling until they have gone through the verification process.“
Hungarian casinos – such as this one in Sopron – apply very similar rules for those who wish to enter:
“Hungarian guests need to present their national identity document or passport and their local address card (because, unlike other national IDs, the Hungarian card does not include the address – they have a separate card for that [the editor]).
In the case of guests from the EU, they need to present their travel document – which can be their national ID as well depending on the country they are from – while guests from outside of the EU have to carry their passports to the casino. In all cases, casinos register each guest’s name, mother’s name, place of birth, date of birth and face portrait, and the identification document number.“
An online gambling service is not an exception either. Such organizations also have to perform a careful ID verification of each player before making any transaction. Pokerstars, for example, states:
“As part of our license and legal requirements, we are obliged to obtain certain information from our customers to ensure that we have documented proof of their age, identity, and address. By providing your documents, you will have additional benefits as a player, such as faster processing of transfers, deposit limit increases, and withdrawals.“
As we see, the casino sector also applies those compliances we got familiar with from the banking industry. That’s because the two environments have one thing in common: the transferring of large amounts of money between the organizations and their clients. This is why the Anti-Money Laundering and Customer Due Diligence processes are present at both organizations – and these procedures all require efficient verification of identity documents.
ID Verification: From Obligation to Enhancement
What do these obligations mean in practice?
- If you are a player: when you arrive at the casino, the staff will require you to present your identity document – and they will register your name, date of birth, and some other personal data.
- If you are a casino owner: you have to insert the ID verification task into your check-in process.
Such extra administration may slow down the check-in process, you may think. However, several casinos have already discovered a smart way that will not let you wait in queues. This is an ID/passport scanner device like our most compact ID scanner Combo Scan, a small desktop unit that automatically captures the ID document and extracts its data. What was once a manual process became fully automated…and the best part is that it takes only a few seconds, so practically it does not slow down the process.
Such a solution comes in handy at any reception where guest registration takes place. As the scanners come with an SDK, it is easy to connect them to the visitor management system – in this case, the casino system. Thus, the extracted data will automatically populate the software/database without any manual input.
Further usage of identity verification
In addition to the quick process, casinos can benefit from other functions as well:
- The scanner performs an automatic age verification as well, this way complying with the regulation of age limit.
- Casinos can keep a blacklist of visitors whom the casino will not allow to enter. At the moment when such an ID is presented, an alert comes up to notify the staff.
- Fraudulent ID detection. Besides performing Optical Character Recognition, these devices scan the IDs using various illuminations and the sophisticated software performs in-depth authentication. As a result, fake and copied documents are easily detected.
Could ID scanners help your business?
If your business also registers guests – but without such automation, make sure to review the customer experience. We do not like to wait in queues. We all want a smooth process. And it doesn’t matter if it’s renting a car, going to the bank for credit approval, or playing in a casino.
Many casinos already realized it in Europe and they do not just offer a smooth check-in – their system is well prepared to comply with the local regulations, too.
Any questions or inquiries? We’re here to support you every step of the way:
