Social security number

Anyone who has ever tried to withdraw their winnings at an online casino knows that there is a step between requesting and receiving your money: providing personal data. For new players, it may be strange that casinos want a copy of your passport or driver's license before transferring money to you, but (reliable) casinos they are required by law to verify that you are who you say you are. So there is nothing unreliable about this practice – quite the contrary.

Why online casinos want to see a copy of your passport

This rule does not come from the casinos themselves, but is imposed by the government. Which government that is depends on the gambling license which the casino has. By and large, these rules are always the same and set up from the same idea. For example, in dollarpa, all countries must establish laws that combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Because (online) casinos are eminently places that are susceptible to money laundering, parts of these laws explicitly focus on online casinos and the users.

The verification of personal data is therefore a consequence of the laws against money laundering and terrorism. The idea behind the practice is that both money laundering and terrorist financing are anonymous practices, with which people do not want to be associated individually. Sending a copy of a passport or driver's license should then discourage people from abusing online casinos for these practices. Casinos that do this are not unreliable, but more reliable than casinos that do not.

Why does the casino need a passport or driver's license? That's because of the Social Security number depicted on these official documents. This Social Security number (also called BSN for short) is unique to everyone and is generally only on official documents issued by a government (or government agency). An ID card also has that BSN, but another document, which may well have a passport photo, name and date of birth, will not have a BSN.

If you ever get the question whether someone else can use your passport or driver's license to create an account in a casino, you should never do that. Not only is there a high chance that these people will use your data for criminal purposes, but if this actually happens, you will be seen as a zodiac for this.

Process of verifying personal data at online casinos

The moment you make a request to withdraw money from your online casino account, you will probably get a message that there is additional documentation to comply with your request. As we have already discussed above, there is nothing strange or suspicious about this request. Casinos are obliged to check your personal data.

Exactly how much information is needed to withdraw your winnings depends on the casino (and sometimes the license the casino has). To check your identity, a passport, driver's license or ID card may be enough; if only a BSN is on it. However, some casinos also require you to check your address details. You can do this by sending a (copy) of an account; an account from an electricity supplier or the tax authorities works best for this.

In general, you can take a picture of these documents with your mobile and send these photos as an attachment in an e-mail to the casino. If you prefer to make an official PDF document of your copies, that is no problem. After reviewing the documents, the casino will approve the transaction or, in exceptional cases, request more information.

Since sharing personal data online (and certainly documents with your BSN) is a sensitive issue, you should make sure that you only visit online casinos with a good and reliable gambling license. These gambling licenses not only take into account the fairness and reliability of the games , but also in the way personal data is handled. In any case, this information must be transmitted encrypted, but its storage must also be strictly defined.

Personal data and BSN for the New Zealand gambling license

In February of 2019, the Remote Gaming Act was passed, along with other, related laws that are going to change the gambling landscape in New Zealand. One of the points on which the New Zealand gambling license will differ from other countries is the introduction of a central register in which all players are stored.

Although participation in this register is a prerequisite for the provision of online gambling in New Zealand, not only the players of online casinos are included in it, but also players who play in physical casinos or arcades are recorded in this register. This registry also works with Social Security numbers, making it easy to recognize players. This registry allows players to exclude themselves from all ways of gambling at once, which allows gambling addiction must be prevented .

In this future rule, it is easy to see that using a Social Security number is the best way to identify players. For this, casinos are already asking for a passport, driver's license or a similar document. While this is only possible with other gambling licenses if players want to withdraw their winnings, this will already be the case with casinos with a New Zealand license at the time players create an account.