The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) announced on Wednesday that the latest data by age audit company Serve Legal has revealed record numbers surrounding the age verification checks conducted by the BGC’s member operators. For bookmakers, the age verification pass rate across thousands of annual checks stood at 91.4%. BGC casinos, on the other hand, achieved a rate of 98%.
Serve Legal began conducting such assessments in 2009, and the above figures show a 30% increase in total since that year. As stressed by the BGC, the British gambling sector is the best in the UK at complying with age verification standards. In contrast, the alcohol and lottery sectors have an inferior annual rate, which is 10 to 15% worse than the BGC’s figures.
The BGC’s member operators are fully committed to preventing children from partaking in gambling. With this in mind, the organisation also enforced a rule according to which companies must perform mandatory checks on individuals who appear to be under the age of 25. This contrasts with the previous system, which mandated such requirements for businesses with potential clients who seemed to be under 21. The group has also had an influence on social media since, as per BGC rules, platforms looking to show gambling ads to individuals who are at least 25 must prove that they are able to reliably determine the ages of their users.
The BGC Strives to Prevent Gambling Among Children and Achieves This Via a Range of Measures
Executive Director Standards and Innovation Wes Himes expressed the BGC’s pride in its members being able to achieve such results, and he also thanked Serve Legal for the organisation’s work. Mr Himes added that bookmakers and casinos have a “vital economic role” in the UK, but stressed that this economic contribution must also be accompanied by standards of the highest calibre. “We are delivering that,” he added. Mr Himes also went on to put an emphasis on Serve Legal’s conduct and how more than 200,000 audits of gambling websites have been achieved by the company.
Serve Legal’s client manager, Ali Deering, commemorated the results and how the BGC has been successful in “bringing its independent bookmakers up to speed” so that they do not fall behind industry giants when it comes to compliance. The company’s CEO, Ed Heaver, said the Serve Legal team was proud of what the BGC has done.
Besides being committed to age verification, the BGC has done much more for the protection of children from gambling. The group is the benefactor of YGAM and GamCare’s £10-million Young People’s Gambling Harm prevention programme, and around five years prior, it was behind the implementation of an advertisement ban that now ensures that no gambling promotions are displayed while sporting events are live on television if the given game is being aired before 9pm. While neighbouring Ireland is planning a similar ban that will encompass more forms of advertising, it should be stressed that the results of the BGC’s own measure were quite impressive. Namely, data revealed in 2020 showed a 97% decrease in children’s exposure to these types of gambling ads.
- Author
Daniel Williams
