The gaming landscape of Canada has witnessed a rampant change over the last few years. Gamers have moved away from land-based casinos to online platforms like casino Vulkan Vegas to play slots, blackjack, poker, and lotteries and engage in sports betting. However, online casinos, along with all other online platforms, are highly vulnerable to criminal activities. To maintain the integrity of their gaming platforms, regulators and private industry must come together to regulate the activity.
At the heart of all this, identity verification plays an impressive role. It is at the core of everything, starting from onboarding to payment verification and further to network security. However, the current state of digital identity is still at its nascent stage. Hence, the gaming industry is quite vulnerable to digital attacks. Let us check out the present ID verification techniques, which are widely followed across Canada, and examine their future.
Problems with the Current ID Verification Processes
Enclosed are the problems which have handicapped the current identity verification processes:
- Digital dependence on physical documents
While offering digital gaming services, online casinos verify the following:
- Age
- Identity
- Location
- Payment
All gambling enthusiasts must abide by the provincial regulations to continue seeking services. However, the existing system still depends on physical IDs to complete transactions. The process is manual, with gaming consumers scanning and uploading copies of their ID proof like bank statements, driver’s license, utility bills, etc. This entire process is not just an administrative overhead but also a high fraud risk.
- The in-person verification process, susceptible to fraudulency
Despite setting the minimum age for gambling, fraudulency has penetrated the iGaming sector. This is mostly due to the practice of manually reviewing government-issued photo IDs. The clerks responsible for the job are amateurs in verification and document forensics. From what can be deciphered, there is a huge demand for complete digital identity options to ensure manual identity attribute checks which are free from errors and fraud.
- Lack of interoperability
One of the greatest drawbacks of all time is the inability of gaming sites to share verified identity attributes with each other. Consequently, customers must create a new account with every online gambling site with separate log-in credentials and resubmission of documents. There is little wonder why the breach risk and network liability are so high!
Research also reveals that over 25% of online gamblers have dumped online casino sites mostly due to the lengthy sign-in process. 39% of the respondents expressed a strong preference for mobile gaming to avoid it. Similarly, 29% of the same group of respondents were highly discouraged by the new account opening process.
There is a grave requirement for a service that would allow gamers to share personal information once and the same would be distributed to multiple gaming platforms. This would not just save time and money but also alleviate stress.
What Does the Future Hold for ID Verification Techniques?
The future of iGaming is quite promising as institutions are prioritising a secure and streamlined experience for gamblers. Let us check out the how from the discussion below:
Improved Onboarding
Physical documents would soon be replaced by innovative digital identity verification and authentication. It includes sharing the digital age and verifying residency to eliminate the heavy reliance on government-issued identification. This is possible as the digital gaming industry is growing in popularity with market capitalisation taking place.
Lower Compliance Risk
The process of verifying age and residency shall soon automate in not just Canada but all around the world. This modernisation of digital infrastructure is a change we all are looking forward to!
Decline in Security and Fraud Risks
The future is all set to witness the growth of institutionally backed identity attributes, which will lower the chances of monetary loss and restore customer trust in iGaming providers. A word of advice to all providers is to embrace robust cybersecurity measures to eliminate gaming fraud risk and network security vulnerability.
More Portability and Better UX
To deal with the account creation abandonment, gaming providers shall soon implement transferable identity attributes. This will eliminate the manual process of scanning documents and speed up the onboarding process. Optimised authentication is the way forward whereby a single set of credentials would unlock all gaming services.
AI and Biometric Data
The government is working hard to shape the future of ID verification. For instance, facial recognition technology is underway, where AI plays a significant role in revealing if a selfie is matching an ID. Biometric data has also a massive contribution to accelerating the ID verification process.
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and eID
This previous technology could go outdated if SCA comes into play. It has already made its presence felt in e-commerce and financial services and is yet to make it large in the iGaming sector.
eID or digital ID has also smoothened all financial transactions for European gamblers. It is universally accepted and allows them to share electronic documents. The iGaming Industry expects its expenses to dwindle with its introduction. A lot of changes are in progress, and some have already made their presence to improve the ID verification process in the iGaming sector. The future is bright as gaming providers are looking to embrace the robust digital identity infrastructure to fulfil the enlarged demand for mobile and online gambling. Fortifying their platforms could secure their systems against malicious schemes like account takeover and synthetic identity fraud.
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