UK bookmakers and casinos are beating other sectors when it comes to age verification

Bookmakers and casinos achieved record compliance rates in the latest audit.

United Kingdom.- Industry lobby group the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has praised record compliance rates reported for age checks by UK bookmakers and casinos. Independent data provided by auditor Serve Legal shows that the percentage of people passing age verification is 91.4% for bookmakers and 98% for casinos.

The numbers represent a An increase of 30 percent since Serve Legal began auditing performance in 2009, the betting and gaming sector has become the UK’s leader in age verification compliance, beating supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations. Compliance rates were 10 to 15 percent higher than in the alcohol and lottery sectors.

Wes Himes, BGC Executive Director of Standards and Innovation, said: “I am extremely grateful to Serve Legal for its work over the last 15 years, which has played a key role in this change. Serve Legal, together with our members and dedicated staff, have led the way in raising standards and setting new standards of excellence.”

He added: “Bookmakers and casinos play a key economic role on the UK’s busy high streets, as well as in the leisure and tourism sectors. However, economic contributions must go hand in hand with the highest standards.

“We are delivering what should be welcome news to customers and communities across the country. Our work to raise standards continues and I expect compliance rates to continue to improve across the land-based betting and gaming sector.”

The BGC stressed that members take a zero-tolerance approach to underage betting and that the most popular forms of gambling among children are legal games of skill such as penny pushers and claw machines, betting with friends or family, and card games.

It said: “Our members enforce strict age verification on all its products to prevent underage gaming, and will further strengthen age verification measures by raising the screening age from ‘Think 21’ to ‘Think 25’ across all betting shops and casinos. This policy will require anyone who is 18 years of age or older but appears to be under 25 to provide identification.

Serve the legal director Ed Heaver said: “The Serve Legal team is extremely proud of the work carried out by BGC and its members. Their impressive commitment and work ethic have paid off with impressive statistics, showing a 30% increase in compliance across the industry during our time working in the sector. We thank BGC for pioneering the mission of ensuring customer safety alongside ours.”

The BGC recently welcomed the publication of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) response to its land-based gambling consultation. DCMS has announced that it will proceed with permitting plans gambling with debit cards and updating slot machine indicators for land-based facilities.