Getting your first email from a bookie or casino about asking for your ID, utility bills, and other sensitive documents might scare most beginner bettors.
If you were not prepared for these kinds of messages, you might easily become skeptical about their reasons for asking for such documents.
By reading this article, you will figure out why they have and want to ask for a photo of an ID or driving license.
Why do gambling sites need verification?
If you never used betting sites the first and most obvious question you can ask is this. The answer might be different on a case-by-case basis but there are several reasons why betting sites need the verification of your identity.
Below you can find the top possible reasons you face a verification:
1. Age Verification: Betting sites licensed in your country are required by law to verify that you, as their user, are of legal gambling age, which varies by jurisdiction. By verifying your age based on the documents you send in, a gambling site can avoid allowing underage users to access its services.
2. Fraud Prevention: By verifying your identity helps to prevent fraud and other illegal activities, such as money laundering. They are not suspecting you of these activities, but they are forced to make sure you don’t fall under these circumstances. By verifying your identity, a gambling site can ensure that you are who you claim to be and prevent any fraudulent activities.
An exception might be the Ethereum betting sites, where anonymity is the main goal of both the users and the site as well.
3. Responsible Gambling: Verification is also important for responsible gambling purposes. By verifying your identity, a betting site can monitor your gambling activities and intervene if they suspect that you are engaging in problem gambling behaviors. Believe me, if you would ever fall into the gambling addiction trap, you would be happy to be excluded from betting sites.
4. Compliance with Regulations: Many jurisdictions have strict regulations in place for online gambling operators. If these bookies have a license, they don’t have the opportunity to avoid this step. By verifying your identity based on the photos of the personal documents you send in, even most offshore betting sites need to ensure that they are complying with these regulations and avoid any penalties or fines.
5. Bonuses and Promotions: The majority of betting sites often offer bonuses and promotions to their users. By verifying your identity, they can ensure that are eligible for these bonuses and promotions and prevent any fraudulent activity. Many bettors try to abuse bonus offers with multiple accounts so bookies need to take further steps to block these users.
Why do gambling sites ask for ID?
Most betting sites will ask for a photo of your ID for several reasons, including:
1. Age Verification: One of the primary reasons why the majority of betting sites ask for your ID is to verify that you are of legal gambling age. By law, they are required to ensure that their users are above the legal age to gamble, which might be different in many countries. When they ask for ID it is one of the most effective ways to complete this kind of verification.
2. KYC Verification: KYC (Know Your Customer) verification is the process used by betting sites to verify your identity.
By asking for a photo of your ID or other similar documents, they can ensure that the owner of the betting account is who they are to be and by this, they can prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities. We need to understand that these steps were created to protect us as well.
Betting sites without verification (mostly crypto-based bookies) don’t have a strict verification process. In most cases, simple bettors might get away without sending in any documents.
3. Responsible Gambling: As I earlier mentioned, many bettors struggle to stop gambling and many might even lose their whole wealth. By this verification process of your identity, betting sites can monitor your previous and present gambling activities and intervene if they suspect that you are engaging in problem gambling behaviors.
Of course, you have many opportunities to skip these filters, but if I would have similar problems, would be happy to a strict exclusion.
4. Payment Verification: Gambling sites also ask for ID to verify your payment methods. This step can ensure that your info/card was not stolen and you are the authorized owner of the payment method. By this step, they can prevent many fraudulent activities. After you complete these steps for the first time, the majority of fast payout betting sites won’t bother asking for additional documents.
Do all gambling sites require an ID?
The majority of gambling sites require ID or have a similar verification process, but not all of them do. The requirements for ID verification vary depending on the site and the jurisdiction in which betting sites take place.
It’s a general rule that larger and more established betting sites are more likely to require your ID for verification than smaller or newer sites. But it’s not unusual to face strict verification at a small bookie that wants to make sure as a final step that you are the true owner of the betting account.
Some bookies may start an ID verification process after certain activities, such as making withdrawals or claiming bonuses. Others may require ID verification for all users right after opening an account.
It’s important to note that even if a gambling site does not require ID verification at the time of account creation, it may still require it at a later time. For this, you might come prepared right from the start by not depositing from bank cards that expire sooner or later.
How do betting sites verify you?
Betting sites use various methods and steps to verify your identity. Here are some of the most common methods I faced or heard about:
1. ID Verification: The majority of betting sites will require you to submit a government-issued ID, such as a passport or driver’s license, to verify your identity. This helps to confirm your name, age, and address. Most bookies will ask for these documents in the first or second email right after you open the account.
2. Address Verification: Some gambling sites may also ask for proof of address, such as a utility bill or bank statement, to confirm your address. I still don’t understand why this is needed when the ID includes the address (in many countries). On the other hand, how realistic it is to ask an 18-year-old for a utility bill? This type of verification caused me issues many times even though I was the true owner of the betting accounts.
3. Payment Verification: Betting sites may also ask for information about our payment methods, such as a credit card or bank account, to verify that the user is the authorized owner of the payment method. This will be a photo of the front of your bank card where you need to hide some of the digits of the card.
Anonymous betting sites might skip this step because of accepting crypto payments. In these cases, payment verification is not possible or relevant.
4. Social Security Number Verification: In some cases, betting sites may ask for a user’s Social Security Number (SSN) to verify your identity and prevent fraud. However, this is less common and only applies to users in certain countries/states.
5. Geolocation: most betting sites use geolocation technology to verify your location. This is to ensure that the user is accessing the site from a jurisdiction where online gambling is legal. And to spot bettors with suspicious activity. An account opened in France while the player is actively betting from Egypt might be pretty suspicious. Many bettors try to avoid this situation by using VPNs for betting, but the true solution is being fair and betting from the country you are from.
6. KYC Verification: other types of verification might include asking for additional documents when the user is suspicious. They might ask for the source of income, and documents besides your face, in rare cases they might even ask you to personally visit one of their physical betting shops.
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FAQ
Betting sites use various methods and steps to verify your identity. The main methods are ID verification, address verification, and payment method verification. In some cases, they might ask for other documents such as proof of income.
Betting sites are asking for a photo of your ID for age, KYC, and responsible gambling verifications. Some other reasons why gambling sites ask for your ID or other documents are for compliance with regulations and fraud prevention as well.
