The time has come. The I's dotted and the T's crossed.
To think where to begin....perhaps a little bit of context and reasoning behind the investigatory work and subsequent actions.
So, I had been gambling online for a considerable number of years. Lost a hell of a lot of money and really had a big problem with it. I was in a bit of a mess and had some battles with online gambling companies and did some really silly things, like use different details to sign up and play. I had excluded my original details from every single operator out there and obviously used Gamstop as well.
This all changed in October last year when I had a chance meeting with someone from the UKGC and had a great conversation about some of the issues I, and other players, had faced with online Gambling. We agreed that Gamstop wasn't a saviour for excluded players and was actually incredibly easy to get round. I then contacted a media outlet who had also been covering Gambling quite heavily in recent years and they had asked myself and a couple of other individuals if we would be willing to investigate from a players perspective some of the issues discussed. The UKGC had advised as well that they would be willing to look at anything that was provided as part of this.
So, this was a 3 fold investigation.
1. Gamstop - To check the effectiveness of Gamstop and to see how easy it would be to get past this
2. Exclusions - To check the effectiveness of exclusion systems in place with the operators to see who could detect duplicate accounts and who couldnt
3. Verification - Not initially an area of concern, but as this investigation highlights, it was a massive part of things and would like to think some of the work provided to the UKGC helped make the recent changes possible.
Please note, all opinions stated in this are my own, the recorded evidence against each operator is factual and can be backed up if required to any operator, body or third party.
Method 1 - Correct Name, Correct Address, Correct Phone Number(match to Gamstop details), different date of birth and email address. Used in all cases attached.
Method 2 - Incorrect Name - Correct Address, Correct Phone Number, different date of birth and same email address. Used on top of method 1 cases where bypassed at first stage.
See the attached PDF document.
An explanation -
Green - Means excluded from opening any kind of account on registration.
Orange - Able to open an account and deposit funds but later excluded after 72 hours
Red - Able to open account(s) and deposit well after 72 hours so can only assume that auto verified or not verified at all. Docs never requested.
Purple - Able to open account but asked for docs, docs sent and still verified account with wrong date of birth despite ID clearly showing this.
Special mentions to Kindred Group and William Hill. Not only able to open 1 or 2 accounts but at least 4 within the groups using both methods. Some on the list may also surprise some and others not so much.
Key Points - This highlights that a majority of operators were doing the right things in terms of having appropriate exclusion systems and verification systems in place. Some though....well...for companies of the size they are really should hang their heads in shame.
A special mention to Betway who fully verified an account even though ID provided didnt match the account details and then had the audacity to send an email from Senior Management when questioned saying "Betway think first about customer experience, even though the DOB and ID did not match we believed we were acting in the customers interest by removing the restriction on the account".
Anyway, any comments, actions, anything else then please feel free to comment. All information has been provided to the third party and UKGC regardless and we have been working on post 7th of May as well in the past 2 weeks.
To think where to begin....perhaps a little bit of context and reasoning behind the investigatory work and subsequent actions.
So, I had been gambling online for a considerable number of years. Lost a hell of a lot of money and really had a big problem with it. I was in a bit of a mess and had some battles with online gambling companies and did some really silly things, like use different details to sign up and play. I had excluded my original details from every single operator out there and obviously used Gamstop as well.
This all changed in October last year when I had a chance meeting with someone from the UKGC and had a great conversation about some of the issues I, and other players, had faced with online Gambling. We agreed that Gamstop wasn't a saviour for excluded players and was actually incredibly easy to get round. I then contacted a media outlet who had also been covering Gambling quite heavily in recent years and they had asked myself and a couple of other individuals if we would be willing to investigate from a players perspective some of the issues discussed. The UKGC had advised as well that they would be willing to look at anything that was provided as part of this.
So, this was a 3 fold investigation.
1. Gamstop - To check the effectiveness of Gamstop and to see how easy it would be to get past this
2. Exclusions - To check the effectiveness of exclusion systems in place with the operators to see who could detect duplicate accounts and who couldnt
3. Verification - Not initially an area of concern, but as this investigation highlights, it was a massive part of things and would like to think some of the work provided to the UKGC helped make the recent changes possible.
Please note, all opinions stated in this are my own, the recorded evidence against each operator is factual and can be backed up if required to any operator, body or third party.
Method 1 - Correct Name, Correct Address, Correct Phone Number(match to Gamstop details), different date of birth and email address. Used in all cases attached.
Method 2 - Incorrect Name - Correct Address, Correct Phone Number, different date of birth and same email address. Used on top of method 1 cases where bypassed at first stage.
See the attached PDF document.
An explanation -
Green - Means excluded from opening any kind of account on registration.
Orange - Able to open an account and deposit funds but later excluded after 72 hours
Red - Able to open account(s) and deposit well after 72 hours so can only assume that auto verified or not verified at all. Docs never requested.
Purple - Able to open account but asked for docs, docs sent and still verified account with wrong date of birth despite ID clearly showing this.
Special mentions to Kindred Group and William Hill. Not only able to open 1 or 2 accounts but at least 4 within the groups using both methods. Some on the list may also surprise some and others not so much.
Key Points - This highlights that a majority of operators were doing the right things in terms of having appropriate exclusion systems and verification systems in place. Some though....well...for companies of the size they are really should hang their heads in shame.
A special mention to Betway who fully verified an account even though ID provided didnt match the account details and then had the audacity to send an email from Senior Management when questioned saying "Betway think first about customer experience, even though the DOB and ID did not match we believed we were acting in the customers interest by removing the restriction on the account".
Anyway, any comments, actions, anything else then please feel free to comment. All information has been provided to the third party and UKGC regardless and we have been working on post 7th of May as well in the past 2 weeks.