John,
I understand that Rival is taking a lot of flak these days, some even from me. Specific casinos/group of casinos have been treated alike be they from RTG, MG or Playtech in the past.
On this issue, players get suspicious when asked for these notarized docs just when they are cashing out. It would have been better were it a standard procedure for ALL players within 2 weeks of opening their account/first deposits. If they did not comply then, they cannot argue that this is required when they make a cashout. Since this applies to everybody, there will also be no cries from them accusing the casino of having 'singled' them out.
I doubt whether any of us have a grudge against Rival in general but there do seem to be a host of problems with them recently ie the current one being with Simon Says in another thread.
Casinos have argued that asking for documents up front would deter players, and send them to other operators who would allow instant play. This argument, however, does NOT excuse letting a player play for weeks, maybe even YEARS, before asking for documents. As chuchu59 says, there is no reason not to request documents once the casino has received a deposit from a player, and they are playing. If they are unable to satisfy the casino, then they can be ejected before they have made more than a couple of deposits (which should be returned), rather than after a long history of believing they would be paid if they won, only to find they never could have been.
If ID theft is the issue, the casinos are wasting their time if they believe requesting copies of documents, notarised or not, is going to make a difference. Simply, they never actually SEE the player, and therefore can not check that they match the ID on the documents being presented. If a teen steals a parent's credit card and plays, they could also steal the parent's Drivers Licence and Passport, and a utility bill, to comply with the document check. Since the check is only done on cash-out, a teen could be playing underage for some time, especially as they know that cashing out could get them rumbled as any monies would be sent to the parent, who would then wonder what was going on.
For ID theft in general, the ID thief usually seeks to get enough documents to "prove" the stolen ID BEFORE they begin to use it. They will then register a utility bill or two, apply for credit cards and bank accounts in the stolen name, at which point it will be hard to tell that the ID is fake, especially when used online.
Solicitors and "swearers of oaths" produce "certified copies" of documents. This is pretty much the same as having them Notarised, and should cost 5 or so per document. Since procedures vary from country to country, and even within a country, online casinos will see no difference between a "certified copy" and a Notarised document. Banks can produce "certified copies", and may do this for free for their account holders as a gesture of good will. Tell the bank it is for "financial purposes/transactions" or similar, as they might not want, or need, to know it is for online casinos.
Many casinos ask for documents, but they are rather vague about the requirements, only having this buried in the small print, and simply stating "documentation may be required" without offering any real guidance. Many players read this and assume that what they currently have will do fine, which may be their birth certificate, which many believe to be absolute proof of ID.
If casinos are needing to implement more robust ID checks, they owe it to players to clarify, and make more prominent, what the requirements are likely to be. If the industry sees Notarised documents as becoming the norm, say so, as most members of the general public have no idea what "Notarised" is all about, having never encountered it in day to day life unless they have themselves been the executor of a will, or some similar functionary.
