From 7 May operators will be required to verify a customer’s age before they can deposit money or access free-play games, and verify their name, address and date of birth before they can gamble.

At present, online gambling businesses have been allowed 72 hours to carry out age verification checks. The operator cannot permit customers to withdraw winnings until age verification has been completed and must return stakes if the person is found to be underage.

But to guard against the risk of children gambling, new rules that comes into effect on 7 May, mean operators must verify customer age before the customer can:

• deposit funds into an account
• gamble with the licensee with either their own money or a free bet or bonus.
  
  In addition, the Commission is now also insisting that customers must be age verified before they are able to access free-to-play versions of gambling games on licensees’ websites.
  
  The new rules will also require remote licensees to:

• verify, as a minimum, the name, address and date of birth of a customer before allowing them to gamble
• ask for any additional verification information promptly
• inform customers, before they can deposit funds, of the types of identity documents or other information that might be required, the circumstances in which the information might be required, and how it should be supplied to the licensee