SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has announced that its members have achieved record compliance rates in age verification checks, according to an independent audit.
The trade body for UK gambling was provided with independent data by Serve Legal, which reported that members had secured a 91.4% age verification pass rate across thousands of annual checks.
Serve Legal is recognised as the leading auditor of ID verification, age-approval, and compliance testing services for businesses and authorities in the UK and Ireland.
Of particular note, UK casinos achieved a near-perfect pass rate of 98%. Overall, the BGC states that members have garnered a 30% compliance increase across the audit volume since 2009, when Serve Legal began working with the regulated betting and gaming sector.
The results of the audit underline BGC members’ zero-tolerance approach to engaging with underage audiences.
The BGC emphasised that its members are now leading other UK sectors in age verification compliance, outperforming supermarkets, convenience stores, and petrol forecourts, and delivering 10-15 per cent higher compliance rates than the alcohol and lottery sectors annually.
Wes Himes, Executive Director of Standards and Innovation, said: “The BGC and our members are incredibly proud of these compliance rates, which put us ahead of our peers in every department.
“We are delivering results that should be welcome news to customers and communities across the country. Our work to raise standards continues, and I expect these compliance rates to keep improving across the land-based betting and gaming sector.”
BGC members enforce strict age verification measures and have gone beyond just technical solutions. They have raised the checking age from “Think 21” to “Think 25” in betting shops and casinos, requiring anyone who looks under 25 to provide ID.
The trade body also funds the £10m ‘Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme‘, delivered by YGAM and GamCare, which has reached more than two million 11 to 19-year-olds and those who work with them across the UK.
Over the past 15 years, Serve Legal has conducted over 200,000 audits of bookmakers and casinos to ensure due diligence in compliance issues for BGC members. These audits cover everything from single-site businesses to national brands with thousands of locations on UK high streets.
Serve Legal CEO, Ed Heaver, praised the BGC members: “The Serve Legal team is incredibly proud of the work done by the BGC and its members. Their dedication has resulted in a 30% compliance increase across the industry since we began working together. We thank the BGC for pioneering their mission of customer safety alongside ours.”
The BGC’s commitment to protecting young people goes beyond land-based betting and gaming. In 2019, BGC members introduced a whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting commercials during live sport before the 9 pm watershed. This led to a 97% drop in the number of such ads seen by children during that time.
BGC members have also introduced new age-gating rules for social media advertising. Ads now target those aged 25 and over, unless the platform can verifiably prove that under-18s are blocked from seeing regulated betting and gaming ads.
The trade body has urged the Government to push social media companies to cooperate more closely with the betting and gaming industry to limit marketing seen by young people and problem gamblers.
