Surely, you will have been asked to verify your identity at a bookmaker , such as those with which BetHunter works. You know, in that ” you can’t deposit more than €150 before verifying your account ” pop-up. This identity verification is mandatory from April 1, 2019 (before it was already a common procedure, but now it is perfectly regulated). At the time, in fact, many bookmakers launched promotions for those players who verified their identity, such as bonuses and freebets. But, what is identity verification? What happens if I don’t verify my account? How is it done? Let’s see it here.
What does identity verification consist of?
The famous Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) decided to introduce identity verification as a mandatory requirement to “protect the player and avoid fraud in online gambling” . Of course, this measure protects the bookmakers, who make sure that their customers are who they say they are. As we have said, they already applied measures to ensure themselves before, but how does this measure serve to protect the player?
If you know a little about the sector, you will know that traffic from third-party accounts is common in it. That is, it is possible to buy an account online in a bookmaker in the name of another person. This practice becomes illegal when the person to whom the account belongs has not given their consent to sell it. This, sadly, is the most common. With such a measure, it is intended to make it difficult for a person’s identity to be supplanted, demanding very high verification requirements from bookmakers. We will talk about buying and selling bookie accounts in another post in the future, so now you know, don’t forget to subscribe to our blog.
Well, to what we are. In reality, this measure means that, when registering at a bookmaker, we will have to provide personal information such as our ID number, and provide photos of these documents to ensure that the registration data matches the personal data of the user . That is, you have not invented them and you have registered with a fictitious identity.
What if I don’t verify my account?
In reality, not verifying your account does not mean that you cannot continue placing sports bets. You can continue playing as if nothing had happened… except for two exceptions, which are key for any player. The time of entry, and the withdrawal of funds.
When you make your first deposit, you will receive a notification that you cannot make deposits greater than €150 until you have verified your account. This figure is important, because in many cases it is the amount needed to access the famous welcome bonuses . Some bookmakers or online casinos, on the other hand, have reduced their bonuses to require users to deposit less than this amount.
The second time you will need to verify your identity at a bookmaker is at the time of withdrawal . If you have not verified your account, you cannot request any withdrawal of funds. Never. Without exception. You know, entering money is easy, withdrawing it is not so much. Finally, the bookmakers will apply mechanisms to guarantee that the money will not end up in the hands of third parties. For example, money cannot be withdrawn to a bank account that is not in the account owner’s name.
How to verify your identity
Verifying your identity at a bookmaker is very simple. By sending your DNI or NIE to the bookmaker (scanned or through a photograph) you should be ready. Important detail: the photograph must be on both sides of the document, and with a good resolution. There are two options:
- By email : you just have to attach the images on both sides of the DNI or NIE and send them by email to the support email address of the bookmaker on duty.
- From your user area : Generally, the bookmaker will enable a section in your user area to access online verification. As in the previous case, you only have to upload the two images of the identity document and the operator will confirm them.
After submitting these documents, the online bookmaker will check them against the details you provided at the time of registration. Once this is done, you will receive a confirmation email , and all the restrictions that we have mentioned in the previous point will be lifted.
Can’t verify your identity?
If you don’t get the confirmation email, don’t get impatient. The verification process may take a few days . Just because it takes a while doesn’t mean there’s a problem. If they really couldn’t verify your identity, it would be normal for the bookmaker to contact you to solve the problem. When there are verification problems, these are the most common causes:
- Invalid format – Images in JPG, PNG, or even PDF format are fine, but if you sent them in another format they may be unreadable, and cannot be verified.
- Cropped or poor quality image – If a part of the document was cut off when scanning or the photo has poor lighting or poor resolution that makes it difficult to read, the account cannot be verified.
- Expired document : they will also not be able to verify your identity if the DNI or NIE is expired or even if it does so a few days after you send it.
The good part is that these kinds of things are fixed very easily. If there is a problem, you will be asked to re-send the document with the problem resolved. And that’s it.
