More than 20,000 Australian gamblers have signed up to the government’s self-exclusion register, but some have still been able to place bets and receive marketing due to a flaw in the verification process.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) wrote to wagerers on Tuesday advising that a series of “concerning trends” have been uncovered since BetStop launched last August.
Some problem gamblers have found loopholes in the government’s self-exclusion register.Credit: Getty
The communications watchdog has asked wagering groups to make sure prospective customers are required to provide their first and last name and mobile phone number when signing up for an account, and not use shortened or other variations of their name– including middle names– or a landline.
“The issues we have raised with industry are based on information we have about a relatively small number of matters that have occurred to date,” a spokesperson from the ACMA said, without disclosing how many people have been able to continue gambling despite being on the self-exclusion register.
“In the main, industry compliance has been good ... The ACMA expects very high standards of compliance by industry. The ACMA will not hesitate to take action against gambling providers when non-compliance leads to real or potential consumer harm,” the spokesperson said.
Online wagering operators are required to verify the age and identity of a customer before they can make a transaction, as per the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. But how they do this can vary.
Some wagering groups require a person’s full name as it appears on their driver’s licence or passport and their mobile phone number, but others do not. This is because operators can still verify the identity of a person by using their passport details or licence if their nickname is similar enough to their first name, a process known as “fuzzy matching”.
If the information provided to the wagering group is not an exact match with the data provided to the self-exclusion register, they may not be flagged as unable to open an account or receive gambling marketing.
For instance, a customer may register with an operator under the name John Guest but appear on the self-exclusion register as Johnathan Guest.
It also means people who have self-excluded, but have since got a new phone number or changed their last name since opening a betting account, may not be picked up.
Multiple wagering executives who spoke to this masthead under the condition of anonymity said they had feared these kinds of issues could occur with BetStop, and had advised ACMA of the potential problems during the inception phase of the register.
The chair of the Northern Territory Racing Commission, Alastair Shields– who oversees more than $50 billion in betting turnover each year– told the House of Representatives online gambling harm inquiry last year it was important to make sure the system was robust enough to pick up on these loopholes.
“The majority of complaints made to the commission about the opening of new betting accounts by persons who are self-excluded involve some level of deliberately altered information, such as an altered name, date of birth, address, mobile telephone number or other personal detail,” Shields said in his submission to the inquiry last year.
“It is the commission’s experience that self-excluded persons who are in the grip of a gambling addiction will go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent a system designed to prevent them from opening an account and using it to gamble.”
A spokesperson from Responsible Wagering Australia– a coalition of some major wagering companies including Sportsbet and Pointsbet– said BetStop was an important tool to stop problem gambling and any modifications should be developed with input from industry to stay effective.
“[Our] members are fulfilling all obligations that were set by the ACMA when developing BetStop and are doing everything that is possible within the confines of their regulatory obligations to ensure the system works effectively,” a statement from the group said.
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