William Terry manages and promotes a number of projects including NonStopCasino and provides consultancy for gambling businesses too.
What do You Think About the Latest Changes Brought in by UKGC?
The UKGC are becoming stricter, with their ban of credit cards as payment options in the gambling industry coming into effect from April. Obviously, this prohibition will not only affect the operators but also the entire UK gambling sector.New rules on ‘Knowing Your Customer’ before withdrawal came into force last year.
Gambling operators must confirm a player’s identity before allowing them to cash-out any winnings. This KYC verification process can seem like a waste of time. However, it will reduce the risks of children and vulnerable people gambling. So, these UKGC’s schemes protect the customers as well as making the industry fairer and safer overall.
In Your Opinion, Are Self-Exclusion Schemes Like Gamstop and SpelPaus Effective?
Problem gamblers are often able to find ways around Gamstop. There are some examples out there that not all casino online brands are not part of the Gamstop system, so players signed up can continue gambling. Undeniably, a program like Gamstop is useful for some gamblers though. However, for others, the scheme is not that effective. This is all also the case with the Swedish self-exclusion program, Spelpaus.
This project has shown good results among some gamblers who want to be banned from their chosen gambling platforms. However, it is not effective enough to support society overall in Sweden because some self-excluded gamblers continue gambling. What I’m trying to say is that some self-exclusion schemes need to be reviewed to become more effective.
In your opinion, what is the best way to quit online gambling?
There a few self-blocking programmes available to help players here in the UK. In my personal opinion, Gamban is the best one to use for quitting online gambling as it provides effective measures for blocking platforms. GambleAware’s software is a good option as it focuses on supporting and helping compulsive gamblers.
Also worth considering is that addiction therapist support can also really help gamblers overcome their addiction and I think that these support services should be easy for gamblers to access.
From Your Experience What do players Dislike About The New UKGC Rules?
New UKGC rules are disappointing for some players, especially the KYC procedures. Know Your Customer is a policy applied by operators to identify gamblers’ financial information. With this procedure, and before cashing-out is approved, players must withdraw their gains. Similar to other rules imposed by UKGC, this procedure protects the customers from financial risks related to gambling. However, as KYC requires them to provide their sources of money and identity; it can be a challenge for them to be willing to supply this sensitive information.
What Actions Would You Recommend Gambling Regulators Take?
I suggest gambling regulators follow the example of Spelinspektionen. The Swedish Gambling Authority is a good example of policy despite its young age. Similar to the UKGC, Spelinspektionen often launches new programmes to ensure safer gambling and it doesn’t hesitate to penalise operators who fall foul, not protecting players or promoting responsible gambling.
These gambling regulators should also cooperate with Trustly’s Pay N Play, the most innovative product I’ve ever seen. This concept combines the most important features in a gambling website such as deposit, withdrawal, and KYC.
