KYC, which stands for Know Your Customer, is an important aspect of playing at any new casino.
If you're from the United Kingdom and you open a new account at an online gambling company, that company needs to verify your identity.
The Three Main Reasons for KYC
1. To check you're old enough to gamble
2. To check whether you have self-excluded from the group
3. To confirm your identity
The gambling company can often do this by looking at a huge database that holds a range of information on people and they can match this with the information in your account.
But there are occasions when the information you have provided is not enough to verify who you are.
An example of this is if any information is spelt incorrectly or people with similar names living at the same address. In this scenario you will be asked to provide copies of documents that prove who you are and this could include passports, driving licenses and utility bills.
Checking You're Old Enough To Gamble
If you have opened a new account on a casino and have deposited money, the casino must verify you're old enough to gamble within 72 hours. If it can't verify you're old enough in this time frame then your account must be frozen.
You will not be allowed to withdraw any money from the casino ie winnings until your age is confirmed. If the company checks show that you are underage the money staked or deposited must be returned, but all winnings are void.
Checking If You Have Self-Excluded
If you have a gambling issue or no longer want to play on a specific casino you can self-exclude. If you do that the casino must take the necessary steps to prevent you from gambling. These steps can include checking that someone creating an account is not previously self-excluded and is trying to gamble under a different identity.
Spending Illegal Money
There are laws to prevent criminals from spending money gained through any crime and turning it into legitimate looking funds ie money laundering. A person may attempt to use gambling websites for this purpose and gambling companies must deal with that risk by checking the identity of their customers.
The UKGC state that gambling companies must identity separate accounts that are held by the same person. It is for the casino to decide whether they allow customers to have more than one account, and in most cases this is not allowed.
Offers created by the casino such as deposit bonuses are often limited to one per customer.
I recommend you avoid setting up multiple accounts using the same identity to avoid having any winnings confiscated.
Freezing Your Casino Account
When a casino is checking your identity it can freeze your account until it has confirmed who you are, this is completely normal and there is no time limit on how long this can last.
I always mention on stream that if you're from the UK and you signup to a new casino make sure you get your documents in straight away to verify your identity otherwise the casino will freeze your account.
This is the case for all casinos i promote and stream at with Rizk being an example.
All casinos that i promote require that your documents are in order if you create an account to avoid any disruption to your activity.
