What is KYC and how do you verify your identity for NJ online casinos?

Though the industry has technically existed since the 1990s, the New Jersey online casino scene didn’t become a viable, globally profitable industry until it started booming in the early 2000s. Now, all of the major casinos in Atlantic City have a hand in the online gambling pot with their own branded online casinos. In addition, these casinos have many partner companies that operate their own online gambling with varying degrees of success.

As someone interested in entering the online gambling scene of New Jersey, or a casino operator yourself, there are a few things you need to know about the security conditions required of this unique form of gambling. This is a guide to one of the biggest security topics: the KYC or “Know Your Customer” process.

Anyone planning on getting a piece of the virtual gambling action has to know what KYC is and what you have to do to become a legal online gambler in the state of New Jersey. This guide will help you follow the proper procedures to avoid legal issues whether you’re a gambler who wants to get started enjoying the Atlantic City gambling scene from the comfort of your own home or a casino that wants to protect itself from potential fraud.

What is KYC?

“Know Your Customer,” or KYC, is a process that accredited gambling institutions go through to verify a person’s identity when they input personal information on the casino’s site.

These procedures are important because the amount of money that passes in and out of these online casinos makes them high-value targets for fraud. Know Your Customer identification checks are how casinos eliminate players who may want to take advantage of the site by laundering money, faking information, or committing fraud in other ways.

The simple process of gambling sums of money can be a form of money laundering because of how the money exchanges hands. By buying credits, gambling, and then cashing in, the original money is gone and replaced with different currency authorized by the casino.

KYC checks are just one way that online casinos try to prevent their sites from being used for these purposes as much as possible. This is because forcing customers to input their personal information into a player account not only gives the authorities a trail to follow to reclaim stolen or laundered money, but it also deters these dishonest gamblers in the first place.

Why Should Casinos Use KYC Procedures?

Not all casinos are victims of obvious fraud or are negatively affected by their gamblers’ illicit illegal activities using illegitimate money to play on their sites. There are still other reasons to enact KYC procedures.

The first is that KYC laws are mandatory by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. There are two reasons for this. The obvious first one is to protect gambling sites from fraud, as mentioned. However, these procedures also protect gamblers by impeding the creation of scam gambling sites that take your money and then shut down without having to consider any legal ramifications due to the anonymous nature of the transactions.

Identification is what keeps you as a gambler safe by keeping the casinos accountable to you. If you research the most legitimate and secure online casinos with the best reputations, they all got to that point by following the arduous KYC procedures for every new gambler to keep themselves and their honest customers safe. KYC compliance should tell you that a casino is safe to use and secure to give your identifying information to.

These procedures make it much more difficult for gamblers to use someone else’s personal information to gamble with their money on online casinos. It prevents minors from being able to create accounts on online casinos, which helps the operators stay out of legal trouble. It also allows casinos to see if a new gambler has reported themselves for self-exclusion because of gambling addiction and should not be admitted onto the site.

Finally, KYC identity verification prevents people from creating multiple accounts on the same site to throw the odds in online casinos by gambling against themselves in games like poker. Despite these advantages for the casinos, the Division of Gaming Enforcement still charges fees to casinos that do not comply with KYC regulations. Even though these regulations have obvious advantages for everyone involved, the authorities still need to push the legislation to ensure compliance.

How Do You Become KYC Verified?

The purpose of KYC procedures is to connect the activities of individual gamblers and their transactions to their legal identities. This is how the KYC procedures ensure fair play on the part of the gamblers and accreditation on the part of the casinos.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ensures that the procedures are submitted so that a verified third party with access to a database can substantiate the information and make sure that the gambler is allowed to gamble, the proper age, a legal citizen, and is not on any self-exclusion lists.

The information you will have to provide includes anything that provides proof of identity. This could be your driver’s license, state or national ID, or your passport. If you live in the state in which you intend to gamble, you may also provide a proof of address, such as a utility bill, to verify the benefits you get as an in-state gambler.

New Jersey online casinos process this information directly from the site and pass it on to the New Jersey Gaming Division. Your information then gets sent to a third party, which could be a credit agency or an immigration office, for verification.

The Takeaway

KYC regulations and procedures are significant additions to the safety and security of gamblers who sign up as players at online New Jersey casinos. They also exist to safeguard the casinos themselves, protecting them from fraud by verifying their customers’ identities through a system of third party checks and verifications.

By enforcing these procedures, casinos can save themselves from fraud and legal trouble. By complying with the regulations and providing all requested information, you can make online casinos in New Jersey a safer place to play.