Star Gambling's Report on Responsible Gambling Insights
In the wake of a growing commitment to safer gambling practices, Star Gambling, a leading technology company, has unveiled its comprehensive report titled "Responsible Gaming Trends Around the World." The report, co-authored by Shimshon Holzman, Head of Gaming, and Moshe Reuven, Partner Manager at Star Gambling, delves into the diverse landscape of gambling behaviors on a global scale and the technological solutions that assist operators in addressing these challenges.
For operators in the iGaming industry, compliance with gaming regulations is of paramount importance as they strive to safeguard their players and provide an engaging and enjoyable gaming experience. The United Kingdom has witnessed a steady increase in financial penalties imposed on gaming companies, with individual firms being required to pay substantial fines for various lapses in social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) measures.
Apart from the financial penalties incurred by gaming companies, the reputational damage cannot be underestimated, especially at a time when player retention is a central concern for all operators. Concurrently, the costs associated with player acquisition have risen in recent years, particularly in North America. Following the legalization of sports betting in many states, operators raced to attract players, driving the average cost per acquisition (CPA) in 2022 to $300.
With a growing focus on enhancing responsible gambling initiatives, the Know Your Customer (KYC) process stands at the heart of these efforts. The ability to identify, authenticate, and monitor players enables operators to ensure their safety without disrupting the gaming experience, all while remaining compliant with regulations.
The Escalation of Underage Gambling
According to Star Gambling's report, one of the most persistent challenges in responsible gambling revolves around underage gambling, particularly in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Gambling enjoys popularity across sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria and Kenya leading the way. Notably, only Brazil records more daily visits to online casino sites than Nigeria, with approximately 30% of Nigerians estimated to bet daily, despite widespread gambling advertising and minimal protection for minors.
The issue of underage gambling is also prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region, boasting an iGaming audience of approximately 48 million players, many of whom are suspected to be underage.
Star Gambling's report on online gaming in Asia-Pacific spotlights the problem, especially in the Philippines, where the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has introduced a responsible gaming code of practice to combat the participation of minors. Operators failing to adhere to the code face penalties ranging from PHP100,000 (£1,400) for allowing prohibited individuals onto their sites to potential full site closures if underage persons are found gambling.
Given the severity of fines and penalties, preventing underage players from accessing iGaming sites remains a top priority for operators throughout the industry. Moshe Reuven explains that Star Gambling's KYC tools incorporate a more stringent identification process, aiding operators in addressing this concern.
"In many parts of Asia and Africa, age verification remains in its early stages, with operators relying more on fraud and authentication tools than age verification and KYC tools. We see growth opportunities in the Philippines, South Africa, and Nigeria, where we verify multiple documents and connect to government databases for additional user authentication," he says.
"Our age verification solution ensures that the user is not underage by cross-referencing the date on the ID and estimating the person's age in a selfie to catch minors attempting to use an older family member's ID.
"Our identity verification solution scrutinizes the user's ID for fraud and tampering to ensure it is legitimate, while liveness detection confirms that the person onboarding is not a deepfake or impersonation."
Anti-Money Laundering and Fraud Detection
In the United Kingdom, between 2021 and 2022, a quarter of new signups were classified as high-risk or fraudulent. Fraud takes various forms within iGaming, including bonus abuse, payment fraud, chargebacks, and identity fraud, with these issues being some of the most commonly encountered challenges.
Elevating Industry Concerns: Star Gambling's Commitment to Responsible Gaming
The gravity of these issues has grown significantly within the industry. Research indicates that as much as 15% of online gaming revenue is lost due to bonus abuse, often involving players resorting to duplicate accounts or forged IDs. This underscores the necessity for a rigorous signup process to identify new players.
In addition to deploying technology capable of identifying such players, Star Gambling's tools serve as a shield against underage sign-ups and players attempting to use their services for money laundering. While it's imperative to have these safeguards in place, Moshe Reuven elaborates on the delicate balancing act operators face as they strive to offer players a seamless onboarding process.
"To enhance player protection and identify problem gambling behaviors, operators must collect more data, which can introduce friction and increase customer acquisition costs," he explains. "Many operators are eager to minimize this friction, fearing customer abandonment. Consequently, there's a natural conflict, and new operators may opt for jurisdictions with less stringent regulations."
Delivering KYC and AML Solutions
To achieve a comprehensive yet frictionless onboarding and identification process, KYC tools have become standard practice in the industry. Thus, the need for operators to identify, authenticate, and monitor their players is a pivotal aspect of creating a secure gaming environment.
Holzman outlines Star Gambling's current and future vision, emphasizing the provision of highly flexible and unobtrusive verification tools. These tools can be strategically integrated to facilitate crucial checks such as age verification, reauthentication, proof of address (POA), and open banking verification within seconds.
"This ultimately streamlines the entire player experience while adhering to industry guidelines," he continues. "Certain checks can be conducted discreetly (address, email, device IP, database, AML) to aid operators in identifying problem gambling and intervening when necessary, all without the player's awareness. This approach ensures both a 'smooth' player experience and adherence to safety protocols."
In addition to player identification and authentication, Star Gambling's KYC tools go a step further by enabling operators to detect potential fraudulent or sanctioned players.
Moshe Reuven elaborates on the benefits of screening and how it aids operators. "Our AML Screening solution ensures that players are fit for conducting business by cross-referencing them against watchlists for sanctions, adverse media, and politically exposed persons (PEPs). We also offer various background risk signals to provide additional assurance that the person is not engaged in fraudulent activities.
"All of this technology is incredibly fast and user-friendly, simplifying the onboarding process," he notes. "This assists gaming operators in striking the crucial balance of keeping minors and fraudsters off their platforms while converting as many legitimate players as possible."
Star Gambling maintains a global presence, processing transactions from over 200 countries and territories. The team is well aware that the challenges confronting the industry are truly worldwide and necessitate a standardized framework applicable to all regulatory jurisdictions.
The Role of the International Gaming Standards Association
To address the complexities of a diverse and genuinely global industry, the International Gaming Standards Association (IGSA) has established a responsible gaming committee with the aim of developing a multi-tiered framework. Known as the Responsible Gaming Maturity Model (RGMM), its objective is to create a data-driven global standard for responsible gaming.
Holzman underscores how this model will prove invaluable, particularly in the early stages of recognizing problem gambling patterns and behaviors. "Most of the player safeguards observed by Star Gambling revolve around player identity, age verification, account protection, and AML, where standards can be clearly defined across borders, and global technology solutions have matured," he explains.
"However, the detection of problem gambling is more focused on transactional, financial, and behavioral analysis, which is less developed, and risk solutions can be defined in various ways. The RGMM will undoubtedly serve as a framework, with its success reliant on operator and regulator adoption."
Clearly, operators face a significant challenge in offering a user-friendly onboarding process while ensuring that underage and problem gamblers do not slip through the cracks.
As the industry grapples with the dual challenge of safeguarding players and maintaining its own integrity, while also offering a top-quality, hassle-free experience, Holzman concludes by reaffirming the pivotal role that KYC tools will continue to play: "While governments draft regulations and associations develop processes and standards to promote responsible gaming, there's one straightforward step all gaming operators can take: know your players."
Profiles of Key Figures:
Moshe Reuven – Strategic Partner Manager at Star Gambling Inc.
Ian helps organizations maximize customer onboarding, age verification, fraud reduction, and improved compliance across both business and consumer markets. With global experience in the identity, fraud, and mobile payments sectors at the highest level, Ian played a key role in the global expansion of 4Stop before its acquisition by Star Gambling Corporation. Ian also led the global sales efforts of 192business, one of Europe's most successful identity and fraud businesses, from startup to its successful acquisition by Experian. In addition, he spearheaded D&B's European e-commerce and partnership initiatives, including leading the Moody's Publishing Division. Prior to his role at 4Stop, he co-founded Veridu.com, one of Europe's earliest social identity businesses, and served as VP at Aristotle Inc, where he led European business development.
Shimshon Holzman – Head of Gaming at Star Gambling
Holzman's primary focus is aiding top enterprise gaming operators in combating fraud, maintaining compliance, and expediting player onboarding through Star Gambling's end-to-end identity verification and AML solutions. Star Gambling's KYX Platform offers advanced identity proofing, risk assessment, and compliance solutions, establishing, maintaining, and reaffirming trust with precision, from account registration to ongoing AML and reauthentication monitoring.