The importance of KYC technology for online gambling and gaming companies

KYC & AML compliance is at the forefront of various industries. What can your company do to stay competitive & in compliance in 2021?

Upstream
3 min readJun 21, 2019

By Vanessa Malone

The global online gambling market is experiencing unprecedented growth, anticipated to double in size from 2016 to more than $94 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. (Statista)

A combination of factors is contributing to this growth. One key reason is that our world is becoming increasingly more digitized every day. Smartphones and other advanced technology provide users with a plethora of experiences that simulate real-world experiences all while introducing convenience, variety, and low-cost options that are now accessible from the palm of your hands.

Almost 4.4 billion people globally are active internet users as of April 2019. This means that nearly 60% of the human population has the means to connect and interact with the online world around them.

It’s no surprise that these combined factors have fueled the market for online gambling and gaming. In an already heavily regulated marketplace, this rapid growth is bringing Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) to the forefront of regulators’ agendas around the world.

With a wide range of options for users to gamble online, it makes sense that the companies that will come out on top are going to strike a balance between compliance and user experience. The question is, how can companies maintain compliance without sacrificing an incredible gaming experience for their users?

First, what are online gambling and gaming companies responsible for regarding KYC?

Companies in the online gambling and gaming industries are legally obligated to verify user identity, age, location, and source of funds among other categories in order to protect their users and platform from bad actors and fraud.

Just as reputable companies prioritize trust when it comes to providing users with fair play and a secure environment, users must be able to trust that information being collected from them is being handled appropriately and safeguarded.

Companies looking to stay both in compliance and competitive are seeking advanced onboarding & identity verification solutions to…

  • Protect the company and users from bad actors and fraud
  • Continuously comply with the latest global regulations
  • Deliver a seamless, trustworthy, and user-friendly experience

How technology can solve for this

It’s not easy to balance all of this at once, which is why we put our team of Wall Street and Silicon Valley professionals to work on Horizon’s KYC/AML onboarding app called KYCware.

Horizon’s solutions and methodology have been utilized by issuers in securities offerings in the US and Europe, so we know a thing or two about staying compliant and pride ourselves on going beyond the standard KYC identity verification methods to ensure your users and your brand reputation are safe.

A few KYCware highlights:

  • Advanced ID, document and identity verification technology includes antigaming features, MRZ scanner, and liveness detection
  • KYCware is white-labeled, ensuring an on-brand experience for users
  • App questions and forms auto-adjust according to user entries to meet compliance needs globally across jurisdictions
  • Automated AML screening against a proprietary database of global sanctions, Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and watchlists
  • All KYC/AML transactions are logged with a permanent unalterable hash on the Ethereum blockchain
  • Data is never saved to disk on our servers and never outsourced to third parties, period

KYC and AML compliance isn’t going anywhere, in fact, it’s getting more and more crucial for companies to integrate technology in order to stay ahead of the game.

You can learn more by visiting https://kycware.com/ or check out our KYCware features here.

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Upstream

A MERJ Exchange Market. Ethereum-powered trading app for digital securities and NFTs. Learn more at https://upstream.exchange/.