US to follow UK lead as affordability checks “very topical” in the country

It has long been touted that more stringent affordability checks were a major factor in the review of the Gambling Act in the UK. 

The Gambling Act review has raised eyebrows in the industry, affecting how operators engage with their customers over onboarding, verification and affordability. 

Adam Doyle, Head of Gaming at RiskNarrative, believes these policies will only become more stringent within the US as well. He recently spoke at an SBC Summit North America conference on RiskNarrative being acquired by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, whilst also offering a broader picture of its plans for the US. 

On the changes to rules affecting gaming firms around communicating and interacting with customers, he outlined that at some stage US operators should anticipate more stringent policies coming their way.

“The traditional onboarding and verifying of customers – who they say they are – and things like affordability is very topical,” he said. “So I think measures are being put in place. As we typically see the UKGC is normally the early adopter of these rules and changes. 

“It will happen (in the US) and a lot of these operators are actually standardising it, so what they’re doing in the UK – I think we’re looking at a very similar process.

On the wider outlook for RiskNarrative in the US, he said: “We were acquired by LexisNexis in August of last year and obviously LexisNexis is a North American business. So we already currently have a significant amount of operators that use the service. I think what you’re going to see with RiskNarrative is us bringing in additional solutions for operators.

“Currently with LexisNexis you’ll see the traditional onboarding of players. What you have with the TruNarrative (RiskNarrative) platform is that it’s giving operators the ability to continually monitor players with all these different rules and regulations. It’s going to give operators the ability to have more access to solutions and services.”