Insider Q & A in the works. Suggestions?

[bernynhel]

Maybe you could address the requirements for identity proof.

Not everyone drives, and even among those that do drive, many UK residents don't have a photo license. And passports are not as common as many casinos think they are. Some members have expressed concerns about Identity theft when they are not allowed to mark passports VOID or leave out issuing numbers or such as well.

They don't have gov issue ID cards available for non drivers? Ours look just like the photo driver's licenses, use the license's number (if the individual ever had one, I don't know what they do in the absence of a prior driver's license) but it just has "Identification Card" across the top and issued through the Dept of Motor Vehicles.

[bernynhel]

Sorry bernynhel, I don't see your specific question(s)...

Me neither.

[vinylweatherman]

They don't have gov issue ID cards available for non drivers? Ours look just like the photo driver's licenses, use the license's number (if the individual ever had one, I don't know what they do in the absence of a prior driver's license) but it just has "Identification Card" across the top and issued through the Dept of Motor Vehicles.

Unfortunately not. If we did, this would be a great solution, as it would be available to EVERYBODY who ever found they needed a proof of ID up to latest internationally accepted standards.
Because we don't have this, the only way a UK citizen can get an "ID only" drivers license is to LIE to the DVLA that they are "medically fit to drive", as this is a condition for the issuance of ANY type of license, provisional (learner) or full.
The ONLY other thing we have in the UK is the passport, which is certainly NOT something that everybody has. Most people apply for a passport when they book a foreign holiday for the first time, which is EXACTLY the circumstance that lead me to get my FIRST EVER passort at the age of 45 in 2006.

There is absolutely NO REASON why the mere absence of a photo should render OUR government's version of a common document any less acceptable than the SAME document issued by another country whose government has decided they will use photos on them.
The UK government has actually decided to NOT issue these various documents to individuals in favour of using a centrally collated database to be used for ID verification purposes. This system is being designed to suit the needs of OUR COUNTRY, and at the LOWEST COST possible. The fact this design does NOT suit casinos is TOUGH - LIVE WITH IT.
The UK government has stated before that COST has been a MAJOR factor in the decision NOT to issue every citizen with a PHOTO card since plans for a national ID card were shelved because of arguments about COST OF IMPLEMENTATION, as well as serious concerns over individual rights to privacy.
Even a VOLUNTARY ID card scheme has been shelved, again due mainly to COST. If a voluntary scheme DID suit our government, then casino players could use this route, which would have been the equivalent of getting the "ID only" drivers license.

I don't think the UK government would have been any happier with these ID card images being sent to casinos than they are about passports being sent.
Their concern would be over WHO processes the images, and WHERE - casinos often don't say, and some even refuse to say if asked - which is ILLEGAL under data protection laws here, since without knowing this, we cannot know what data protection laws apply to our data. Online casinos could well find that they are frequently in breach of our Data Protection laws, but both they, and UK players, are unaware of this, so no complaints are made.

The incredibly lax way casinos handle OUR account details is proof of this, today YET AGAIN a casino sent me a promotion BEARING ANOTHER PLAYER'S USERNAME - this error is SO COMMON it's almost ROUTINE.
The weakness, or at least one of them, has been revealed as an "Excel cell" being deleted, and all the others in that column shifting up one row, this weakness should be LOCKED OUT of the mass mailing systems casinos use - and is down to a simple matter of setting defaults on Excel to ensure that rows are LOCKED, and CANNOT be fed data by accident from other rows when a cell is accidentally deleted.

[GrandMaster]

The UK government has stated before that COST has been a MAJOR factor in the decision NOT to issue every citizen with a PHOTO card since plans for a national ID card were shelved because of arguments about COST OF IMPLEMENTATION, as well as serious concerns over individual rights to privacy.
Even a VOLUNTARY ID card scheme has been shelved, again due mainly to COST. If a voluntary scheme DID suit our government, then casino players could use this route, which would have been the equivalent of getting the "ID only" drivers license.

The ID cards plan and the National Identity Register are going ahead, cost no object. From this autumn residents of Manchester will be able apply for ID cards (if this government stays around till then).

[vinylweatherman]

The ID cards plan and the National Identity Register are going ahead, cost no object. From this autumn residents of Manchester will be able apply for ID cards (if this government stays around till then).

This currently only helps players in Manchester, the rest of us may still face trouble if we can't drive & don't have passports (or don't want to use them).

Casinos are ASSUMING this has been up & running nationally, and will hear nothing to the contrary when a player tells them there is no ID card.

Are Manchester residents being charged for the cards? When the government first announced this, they said they would charge for voluntary schemes, even though they faced serious problems charging for a compulsory one (poor people, etc).

The national database has many opponents, but the governments inability to keep the data they already have secure has not helped their cause.

I believe the Tories will shelve this whole scheme if they get in (almost a certainty), since it is unpopular, except maybe among online gamblers

[bernynhel]

Unfortunately not...

That is so lame and totally sucks! I could go blind attempting to read the thousands of words on CM [I]alone[I] generated by this void!
There's gotta be countless Brits who'd benefit from a photo ID only card. You'd think someone would lobby MPs to get something shakin' on this.

In regards to cost, the applicant pays a fee of around $20 which more than covers cost. And you can see that they're engineered identically to the Driver's Licenses with all the same security bells and whistles like holograms, watermarks, etc.

Excuse the photo on left, I wasn't available for a photo that day so I sent along a wax facsimile of my head to the Dept of Motor Vehicles. Excuse the one on the right, just because.

[liquuid_fusion]

You can get something called a "Citizencard" in the UK which is a photo card supposed to be used for proof of age (for buying alcohol etc) when people don't have a driving licence or passport. I suppose it wouldn't suffice for online casinos ID verification requirements though. I don't think it includes your address on it.

[binshakindown]

I would like to know why on-line cards games don't play like card games at a B&M casino, or when playing with friends, or microsofts blackjack, or even solitaire in real life? Why does the impossible always seem to happen?

Should on-line card games really be seen as slots type play and not a lame attempt to make people think that there is a deck of cards that was really shuffled (virtual I mean).

[AussieGambler21]

Hiya, Again......

OK, Ask This. Some Casino's, "Bodog" as example, will return money to your account if you lost it all. I never keep tract of how much exactly, but i think it is like, lose $800, and a day or so later you have $80 or something like that back in your account. This being the case,

Is that a set % of the money lost, or a set % of the total money bet? thanks.

Where i play it is usually a set % of the money lost.It would get too costly for the casino if it was the % of the total money bet.

[same_old]

Hi Max,

I have a couple of questions if I may,

(1)- would the casino/s consider taking on AUD as a currency.

(2)- how would they feel if we had a promotoins section here where we the people could think of some great promo's that possibly the casino's would take on board. Maybe a monthly best promo or something and the casino takes on that for a month.