Alastair Graham: “Everyone is on board when it comes to affordability checks”

Alastair Graham, CEO of GlobalCheck, talks with Casino Guru about the new affordability checks in the UK, how operators are dealing with them, and whether this is a sign of more to come. In today’s interview, we navigate this new challenging landscape and how businesses are adapting to demanding changes that ultimately seek to protect consumers.

Q: The UK Gambling Commission recently introduced new affordability checks. How is this impacting the market?

The first thing to say is that we’re still very early in this process. The affordability check pilot was launched at the end of August, so we’re still very much taking the temperature at this stage. The checks are currently required on players losing more than £500 per month, but that figure will drop to £150 per month from February next year. That will expose a significantly larger share of players to the checks.

Everyone’s onboard with putting the appropriate measures in place to ensure players are not gambling more than they can afford. The biggest concern with these checks is that the friction they introduce will cause operators to lose players who are enjoying responsibly and within their limits.

Thankfully, there are solutions now on the market to conduct these checks in a way that isn’t too intrusive. We launched our own recently, that uses multi-bureau identification verification, modernising how affordability checks are conducted while ensuring leading match rates. Such tools are absolutely vital for operators looking to comply with their requirements without damaging the experience of the player.

Q: We’re seeing regulators in markets around the world demanding operators conduct more rigorous checks on their players. Is the trend likely to continue?

I expect so. Age, AML and identity verification are already standard in most markets. Responsible gambling and affordability checks are the next frontier. There’s now far greater awareness and political pressure around these issues, so operators need to be prepared, even if their core markets aren’t currently requiring these checks.

Looking at highly regulated markets like the UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands, we often see trends and standards that are likely to influence other regulated markets in the years ahead. Operators can’t afford to be caught off guard as these practices spread.

Q: You launched GlobalCheck back in August. What was the thinking behind the launch and why the need to expand beyond your original AgeChecked brand?

When we launched AgeChecked a few years ago, we were focused on solving one particular challenge around age verification that many sectors, especially online gambling, were facing.

The solutions we offered proved very successful, and it’s enabled us to build strong relationships with operators around the world. We speak with our partners regularly, and it quickly became clear that age checks are only part of the picture for them. We’ve been building out a full suite of products and services, covering ID verification, PEPs, sanctions and document scanning, KYC, AML, due diligence and responsible gambling tools. It soon became time to spin out these services under their own brand.

Q: How can operators navigate the complexity of complying with varied global regulations?

You are right to say that there’s a huge amount of complexity when operating in multiple jurisdictions. Requirements differ on a market-by-market basis; at GlobalCheck we’re supporting gaming businesses across more than 50 jurisdictions, so we understand the challenge very well.

A central pillar of GlobalCheck is a focus on providing global solutions to meet the needs of clients with diverse, international customer bases. We lean on cutting-edge technology to achieve this. By using international data sources and biometric verification techniques we can accurately confirm the identities of customers wherever they are in the world.

Another important factor is understanding that every business has its own unique requirements and ways of working. We’re not here to impose a system onto our partners. We build our solutions in a way that’s flexible, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing workflows. When operators are already juggling requirements across different jurisdictions, we understand we need to be able to adapt to our partners.

Q: Aside from affordability, how are the challenges facing operators around identification verification evolving?

The technology is advancing really quickly, but that can be a two-edged sword. Obviously it is fantastic to introduce new tools to the market that help operators verify their players’ identities. But the flip side is that we are also facing sophisticated attempts from bad actors looking to obfuscate these identities.

Artificial intelligence is one really interesting area. Deepfake fraud wasn’t on most operators' radar a couple of years ago, but it’s now a very real problem for many. We recently partnered with IDVerse to integrate advanced biometric authentication, computer vision, and AI-driven fraud detection to help our partners fight back.

It’s an ongoing battle, and if you stand still, you’ll soon be left behind.

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