Inspired by some recent experiences with GG Poker and 888 Poker I want to talk a little about, how verification has traditionally been handled by most sites, and how I believe, it should be handled by all sites going forward. The traditional way is, that players can open an account, deposit and play without proving their identity in any way. Players need to provide their name, age, adress and so on, but there is no verification, if this information is actually true or not. Only if and when the player ask for a withdrawal, are they then met with requirements for verification like for instance the 888 Poker T & C cited below:
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According to the withdrawal policy, members may be required to prove their identity before a cash withdrawal can be made from their account. This verification process is to prevent online fraud.
Main verification documents
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The problem with this is, that fake accounts can be allowed to play for month or years, as long as they dont ask for a withdrawal. Which open up for multiaccounting, collusion and other forms of cheating. I will not go into details, but I know, that a ring of more than 100 connected accounts played on 888 Poker back in 2021 for a long time without 888 doing anything about this.
One can also point to the Duthweiler case on the GG Poker network back in 2020. Duthweiler is a german cash game pro, who got banned from GG Poker, because he won to much. GG Poker call this "bum hunting". He then signed up on another skin using his real name and the same email adress, and GG Poker allowed him to do so, deposit large amounts of money and play high stakes games for more than a year.
Only when he requested a withdrawal, because he had started winning, did GG Poker suddenly remember, that they actually banned this player, and then they kicked him out again and stole his winnings. Duthweiler was not without fault in this, because he must for sure have known, that this other skin was part of the GG Poker network. But he is back and playing on GG Poker now with their full knowledge and accept, so clearly they had no good reason to ban him in the first place, or to steal the money, he had won from other players without cheating.
By contrast when I opened an account on the recently created GG Poker for players living in Sweden, part of the sign up process was, that I had to identify myself with an online signature called Bank-ID. And then I also had to answer some questions very similar to those asked by a bank, if you want to open a new account. Like my source of income, expected monthly deposit and if I am a professional or recreational player.
And when I recently asked for a withdrawal, no further questions were asked, and no documents were needed. I deposited with Luxon Pay and withdrew to Luxon Pay, and that was it. It only took 3 hours, before the money was in my account. And this is, how it should be. Maybe all countries dont yet have digital signatures like the swedish Bank-ID. But for sure more and more do. And in those countries, that dont, sites need to ask people to send photo-ID and proff of adress before allowing them to play.
They should not ask for this, only when people are trying to get their money out. And they should especially not ask for repeated verification from people, who have already verified their identity before. For responsible gambling reasons it should not be significantly more difficult to withdraw from a gambling site than to deposit to the same site, especially if people are sending the money back, where it came from. As another forum member put it:
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According to the withdrawal policy, members may be required to prove their identity before a cash withdrawal can be made from their account. This verification process is to prevent online fraud.
Main verification documents
- Photo ID: A copy of the current photo ID is required for your first withdrawal request. This ID can be a copy of your passport, driver's license, or national ID card. What we specifically need is the page with photo of the ID card for our verification check. Make sure that all the details, including your name, photo, and signature, are visible on the document.
- Credit and debit cards: A copy of the front and back of the credit card that you use as a payment method. Please make sure that all details are clear so that we can carry out the verification quickly and accurately. For security reasons, please mask the middle eight digits on the copy of the front of the card and the three-digit security code on the copy of the back of the card.
- Proof of address: This can be sent in the form of an electricity/gas/phone bill or a credit card statement. It must be an up-to-date document, where your full name and address, which you have registered with us, is stated. If you provide a credit card statement, please mask the middle eight digits of the credit card number.
- Electronic identification via Bank-ID.
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The problem with this is, that fake accounts can be allowed to play for month or years, as long as they dont ask for a withdrawal. Which open up for multiaccounting, collusion and other forms of cheating. I will not go into details, but I know, that a ring of more than 100 connected accounts played on 888 Poker back in 2021 for a long time without 888 doing anything about this.
One can also point to the Duthweiler case on the GG Poker network back in 2020. Duthweiler is a german cash game pro, who got banned from GG Poker, because he won to much. GG Poker call this "bum hunting". He then signed up on another skin using his real name and the same email adress, and GG Poker allowed him to do so, deposit large amounts of money and play high stakes games for more than a year.
Only when he requested a withdrawal, because he had started winning, did GG Poker suddenly remember, that they actually banned this player, and then they kicked him out again and stole his winnings. Duthweiler was not without fault in this, because he must for sure have known, that this other skin was part of the GG Poker network. But he is back and playing on GG Poker now with their full knowledge and accept, so clearly they had no good reason to ban him in the first place, or to steal the money, he had won from other players without cheating.
By contrast when I opened an account on the recently created GG Poker for players living in Sweden, part of the sign up process was, that I had to identify myself with an online signature called Bank-ID. And then I also had to answer some questions very similar to those asked by a bank, if you want to open a new account. Like my source of income, expected monthly deposit and if I am a professional or recreational player.
And when I recently asked for a withdrawal, no further questions were asked, and no documents were needed. I deposited with Luxon Pay and withdrew to Luxon Pay, and that was it. It only took 3 hours, before the money was in my account. And this is, how it should be. Maybe all countries dont yet have digital signatures like the swedish Bank-ID. But for sure more and more do. And in those countries, that dont, sites need to ask people to send photo-ID and proff of adress before allowing them to play.
They should not ask for this, only when people are trying to get their money out. And they should especially not ask for repeated verification from people, who have already verified their identity before. For responsible gambling reasons it should not be significantly more difficult to withdraw from a gambling site than to deposit to the same site, especially if people are sending the money back, where it came from. As another forum member put it:
Brigistul said:
