Noam Kanfi's Blog

iGaming Services and Marketing Specialist

The Importance of KYC in Avoiding Fraud at Online Casinos

There is an argument that online casinos greatly rely on trust. Your players have to be able to trust that will not only treat them fairly, but also that you will protect their privacy, their money and that you will win pay them when necessary. As a result, fraud can be hugely damaging for an online casino. One of the key ways of combating fraud is with strong KYC policies.


What Is KYC and How Can It Help You Avoid Fraud?

KYC stands for “Know Your Customer” and it is a process of verifying customer identity. It is an essential part of your due diligence to ensure that you are working with legitimate customers and not criminals.


By performing KYC, you can vet your customers to ensure:
• That they are who they say they are.
• That they’re not on any watch lists or have criminal records (like fraud).
• That they aren’t using other people’s information to open accounts in your casino.


With online gambling increasing in popularity, fraud is also increasing.
Fraudsters are taking advantage of the anonymity that the internet provides to commit their crimes. They use many different methods to trick victims into sending money without receiving anything in return.
One method used by fraudsters is called phishing and another is called smishing (smartphone messaging). Phishing involves sending emails from fake websites that look like real ones so that people think they are logging into their accounts when they aren’t. Smishing works the same way but involves text messages instead of emails.
With KYC regulations implemented by online casinos, gamblers have more confidence knowing that no matter what happens during play, their funds are safe because they won’t be stolen or used for illegal purposes by either party involved (casino or player).
In turn, this helps prevent fraud, which decreases the costs associated with combating such crimes. It also maintains trust between both parties involved and provides peace of mind for players who want nothing more than some fun without having to worry about their online safety.


A strong KYC policy helps you keep out those who are likely to commit fraud.

KYC helps you to
• Identify high-risk users.
• Identify users who are likely to commit fraud.
• Identify users who are likely to commit money laundering.
• Identify users who are likely to commit identity theft.


By allowing you to better evaluate your users and their transactions, KYC can be used to help you detect fraud.

KYC is a way to verify the identity of a user. It can help you detect fraud and money laundering, but it also has other uses. For example, KYC can be used to help detect other types of criminal activity or illegal activity that may not have anything directly to do with your casino business.
If this seems like an abstract idea, let’s consider some examples:
If someone is using a credit card that has been reported as stolen, then their transaction will be flagged as suspicious by your financial institution (if they are operating within PCI DSS standards). This means that you will know about it before it happens!
Criminals can make up fake identities to get around this kind of thing-but even then they might still end up being caught thanks to things like facial recognition technology or voice recognition software. These technologies are becoming increasingly advanced year after year, making life harder for criminals.
Fraudsters often use multiple identities to commit fraud and then disappear into the ether once they have committed the crime.


Fraudsters are not always good at disguising themselves, so having good security and KYC policies can help you catch them before it’s too late.

The problem with fraud in online casinos is that it is hard to identify who might be trying to commit fraud. You don’t know who is going to try something until they have already made an attempt (successful or otherwise). This means that the only way for you to protect yourself from this type of crime is through prevention rather than after-the-fact detection methods used by traditional law enforcement agencies.
By implementing a system where all transactions are logged on your servers as well as any personal information about each customer (including name, address, phone number, etc.), you will have an easier time identifying suspicious activity if – or when – someone decides to try committing fraud against your organization!


Online casinos must do everything they can to prevent fraud from happening.

To reduce fraud and money laundering, online casinos must take several steps. These include the following:
• Implementing strong KYC policies that help you identify who you are dealing with.
• Having anti-money laundering (AML) systems in place so that funds can be tracked and identified.


Less fraud will mean happier customers, better reputation management, and overall better business.

• Customers will be happier and more satisfied with their gaming experience.
• Your business will benefit from a reputation of trustworthiness and honesty.
• Not only will you save on costs, but you will also save time spent on investigating potential frauds and dealing with the consequences of them (like unhappy customers).


Conclusion

At the end of the day, we all want to keep our customers happy. By having a strong KYC policy and implementing it properly, you can help prevent fraud from happening in your online casino. This will make your customers happier and give you better business!

Noam Kanfi

iGaming Services and Marketing Specialist

Noam Kanfi has more than two decades of experience in iGaming, working with some of the biggest names in the industry.

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A Move to Playtech

The next stop in Kanfi’s career was with one of the true industry giants, Playtech. He was CEO of B2C for just over five years between 2016 and 2021.
He had several responsibilities managing all areas of B2C relations in a newly setup company. This included managing several subsidiaries around the globe, including in Mexico, Spain, and the UK. Furthermore, Kanfi was in charge of technology and support teams in Bulgaria and Ukraine.
In this senior role, Kanfi had many other obligations, such as taking responsibility for revenues in relation to business plans in all PT B2C JVs and other partnerships. He also had to balance CPA costs in countries such as the UK, Spain and Mexico. At the same time he was continually working to innovate and find ways to scale the business in as cost-efficient a way as possible.

A Winning Career

Kanfi’s next major role was as Manging Director of Operations for Winner.com, which for many years was one of the leading gambling operators in the UK market and elsewhere. His extensive responsibilities included all product, CRM, CX, compliance and operations aspect of the casino and sportsbook business. He also oversaw the launch of new brands in regulated markets while working to implement new technologies in order to improve retentions, reduce costs, and so on. He also reviewed all on-site customer processes, leading to an increase in signups, deposits, and retention.
Before long, Kanfi became Winner.com’s COO. In his role, he delivered revenue growth in key joint venture operations including for brands such as Marca Apuestas, Caliente, and Maxbet.

Work with William Hill

Kanfi then went on to work with William Hill for several years. He was managing director of two subsidiaries, based in the Philippines and Bulgaria, where he had full responsibility for customer service, risk, VIP retention, CRM, and more. During this time, he established and managed call centres with more than 350 employees spread around three locations and spearheaded numerous advancements, such as the move to live chat customer support, and the automation of risk and payment processes.