Underage gambling: Close the back door as well as the front door
There is a growing emphasis on preventing underage gambling. A 16-year-old boy managed to open an account in his father's name and lose thousands of pounds. Almost 1% of young people aged 11-16 are problem gamblers. A further 2.4% are considered to be at risk. Luciditi creator Philip Young gives some tips on how to prevent underage players from gambling online.
The challenge for online operators is that ID can be faked. Technology allows this to be done in a far more accurate manner using live selfies and facial comparison. Remote identity verification technology is still in its infancy. 3.8% of the ads displayed on the personal devices used by children were for alcohol, gambling or other age-restricted products. The majority of these were gambling ads. The Advertising Standards Authority’s recent 100 Children Report found that over a one-week period, 3% of ads were displayed for gambling. It is not clear if the companies were deliberately targeting underage consumers.