The businesses working in gaming and online digital industries have a global clientele and their source of risk is also this huge customer base. People from several countries and regions use the gaming platform for entertainment purposes. But it is not the sole usage of the online gaming industry. Criminal entities also exploit the global coverage of this industry, especially when money is involved in games. At times children misuse these open sources. That’s why regulatory authorities have implemented KYC screening and age verification regulations on the gaming and gambling industry.
What is age verification?
Age verification is the process that the gaming and gambling websites are required to perform on their customers before onboarding customers. Most of the time it comes in the form of a message asking to check the box saying “I’m above 18 years of age”. But the technological evolutions have reduced the efficiency of such checks that minors can easily manipulate.
Why age verification is important for the gaming industry?
The gaming industry is often scandalized due to their risky products and the exploitation of minors on these platforms. Many problems occur due to a lack of age verification of customers on gaming platforms.
Regulatory obligation
It is a regulatory obligation of the gaming, gambling and lottery websites to verify the identity of their customers in real-time. Heavy fines and penalties are imposed on the businesses in case of non-compliance. And those penalties also affect the brand reputation of the gaming platform.
For instance, gaming websites in the UK are required to verify the identity of their customers before onboarding them. At least the name, address, and date of birth of the customer must be verified before allowing them to enter the gaming platform.
Gaming addiction in children
Children are often referred to as the future of a nation and gaming addiction among the minors affects their mental peace and causes financial loss of their parents. Gaming addiction is the primary source of some mental problems among children.
In some regions, gaming websites, especially the ones that involve money are required to take concrete measures for reducing addiction and child exploitation on their platform.
Merchants can use identity verification to reduce addiction on their platform. It’ll help them onboard only the mature people. Or they could take measures such as allowing just one hour daily to the minors. It helps them grow while onboarding only the targeted audience and induce healthy competition on their platform.
How identity verification solutions can help
Identity verification solution is a software that verifies the identity of an individual through verification of their identity document such as ID card, driving license, etc. It performs online verification’s and delivers results within 30-60 seconds making customer on-boarding friction-less. Outsourcing is very easy as a single API integration is required to start verification of the customers. Most of the gaming websites are small to medium businesses or startups, so their risk prevention and due diligence budget are low. Outsourcing helps them in this as it is a cost-effective method and doesn’t require hefty technical resources.
Using the age verification solution helps gaming, gambling, and lottery websites experience friction-less customer due diligence and risk prevention. Age verification is a regulatory obligation of the gaming/gambling websites so it is inevitable for them.
To wrap up, the gaming industry has a lot of potential and growth prospects, virtual games are the current trend. But controlling addiction and player exploitation on the gaming platform is also important for the benefit of the players and the gaming platform.
