Pay N Play Casinos

Know Your Customer Regulations (KYC)

In order to be able to set up and run an online casino, the owners and operators must comply with the relevant government’s licencing and regulatory requirements. In order to operate in the United Kingdom, online casinos must comply with regulations as laid down by the UK’s regulatory body, the UK Gambling Commission. [As an additional complication, the UK government also recognises other regulatory bodies and territories, such as Gibraltar, Malta, and will accept casinos licenced via these regulatory bodies too].

One of the most important of these requirements is the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. These are designed to ensure that online casinos’ customers provide them with detailed information in order to ensure that they are not involved with corruption, bribery, or money laundering. Gambling is a well-known method which criminals use to ‘launder’ their money by converting it from a potentially suspicious form and transfer it into a legitimate account.

For these reasons, when you register with a new casino, you have to prove that you are who you say you are, providing a traceable source for the relevant government to follow if illicit or illegal activity is suspected.

In practice, what this means is that new players can be expected to supply a name, date of birth, address and some kind of proof of these. This will include documents such as a passport, driving licence with photo ID, and / or a utility bill which includes the customer’s name and address. You may find on occasion that you are not required to provide these documents when you register, but you certainly will when the time comes to withdraw your winnings.

Of course, all this essential additional admin slows things down considerably, and is a bit of a pain in the *rse when you have to scan and upload these documents and wait for authorisation. It also represents an additional risk of these details being intercepted in some way, and used for identity theft type fraud.

If only there was a way to simplify all these additional regulations… Well now there is!

How does Pay N Play work?

Pay N Play is powered by the popular and reliable Trustly payment service. Trustly enables you to make online payments directly from your bank account, without having to disclose personal financial details such as your account number or debit card information. You don’t usually have to pay any charges or fees when you use Trustly to make online payments.

The advantage of using Pay N Play is that this payment method enables you to sidestep much of the form filling and identification verification requirements usually required to start playing at a new casino. You may still have to fill out a simple registration form, usually including your name, e-mail address and perhaps your home address. What you won’t have to do is submit any additional identification documents such as your passport, nor any utility bills provided as evidence of your address.

This is not because of any sneaky loophole or dodgy dealings, but simply because your bank will have already carried out these checks when you opened your bank account. Or, if it is a long held bank account, you will have built up a proven track record of historical use. By using Pay N Play you won’t have to comply with any additional KYC requirements. This is because you are using your bank account to make your payments, the details of which have already been verified.

This procedure is not just more convenient for players, it’s better for casino operators too. This is because so many prospective new players simply give up with all the mass of bureaucracy and abandon their registration. Even those that do battle their way to the end often fail to make an actual deposit – up to a third of customers fail to go on to play any games at all, despite having gone through all the form filling, probably because they have become frustrated and bored with all the waiting, and have returned to a previously used casino.

In effect, what Pay N Play actually does is it combines both registration and payment into one process. This speeds everything up, so you can just get on with the games.

How does it work in practice? Well, when you visit a new casino site, instead of beginning with the usual registration form, you make a deposit from your online banking current account. There will usually be an option to start straight away. This is usually indicated with a statement like “Deposit And Play Now”, or there will be a link / button called something like “Play Direct”.

This will send you directly to the Trustly payment service. Here, you simply select your banking service (for United Kingdom based customers, this will most likely be banks like Barclays, HSBC, Nat West, Santander…) and enter your mobile banking ID number. You will be then redirected to your own bank to verify your identity and authorise payment by entering your usual online banking PIN. You then decide which account to use (if you have more than one), enter the amount you wish to deposit, and then follow your usual payment procedure.

Trustly will then pass on all the required KYC data directly to the casino operator, so you don’t have to go through the whole laborious process every time you wish to try a new casino. Your new player account is also created automatically, leaving you free to start enjoying your spins straight away. You don’t need to go through all that registration form filling. You don’t even need to pre-register with Trustly, because the service simply re-directs you to your own bank’s online service to complete the transaction. All you need to do is simply make a deposit!

Needless to say, casino operators love this service too. It makes it much easier for new players to get started, and cuts those pesky drop-out rates massively, yet all the while ensures that the casino is fully compliant with all the Government’s KYC requirements. More and more casinos are signing up for this convenient service, which is great news for players.

You might think this is all too good to be true, but it gets even better! Things are even simpler when the time comes to withdraw your winnings. You can seamlessly return your prize fund direct to your bank account with just one click. The transfer happens virtually instantaneously, as all the necessary details are already submitted, when you made your deposit.

Now I suppose the cynical amongst us would question if this bit is really favoured by casino operators, who usually take days or longer to transfer your withdrawals to your personal account. Before, casinos could hang on to your money for days, whereas now they have to pay up straight away. But to be fair to online casinos (I know, it’s tough, pass the violin), that wait was at least in part a legal requirement: previously they had to go through the required KYC checks and individually authorise each payment. Now it’s all done automatically, payments can be made straight away. Although casinos have to pay out more quickly, it saves a lot of administration costs, and the time and expense of employing people to do it.

In the end, although casino operators don’t have your money for so long, it improves player satisfaction no end. Analysis shows that players like the service, and happy players tend to be more loyal, enjoy more games and return more regularly.

And speaking of returning, the final positive whammy is that even this is more swift and convenient with Pay N Play. This is because when you leave the site or close your browser, you’d normally have to log in all over again, remembering your username, password and all the rest of the palaver. But with Pay N Play, you can use the ‘Resume Play’ feature to restart almost instantly by simply using your online banking ID instead. Username and password be gone!

What’s not to like? Pay N Play has really taken off since its recent launch. More and more casinos are accepting the service as players demand its simplicity and convenience. It’s so much easier to get started on a Pay N Play casino, when compared with conventional old school payments like debit cards. With Pay N Play, everyone’s a winner!

Different Types of Pay N Play Casinos

From the player’s point of view, there are basically two different types of Pay N Play casino. Typically, many casinos offer Pay N Play as an option, like an additional method of payment. On these casinos, you will find Pay N Play listed amongst all the other typical payment choices, like debit cards, PayPal, Neteller and the rest.

Many new casinos though, plus a few others undergoing a radical rebrand, are choosing to become exclusively Pay N Play casinos, offering Pay N Play as the only acceptable method of joining and making payments. You can see why this could be attractive from a casino operator’s viewpoint – it’s simple, requires little administrative infrastructure, and the vast majority of its potential customers have a bank account, and are therefore able to join.

There are advantages for players too when joining an exclusively Pay N Play casino too. You get the full range of Pay N Play functionality, such as instant withdrawals and the ‘Resume Play’ feature. Players at ‘hybrid’ casinos will usually have additional log in procedures, both when beginning play, and when making withdrawals.

On the other hand, players who prefer to make their deposits by other methods such as electronic payments are excluded from pure Pay N Play casinos.

Summary

Pay N Play is a new and convenient way to simplify the process of playing at online casinos. Backed by the tried and tested Trustly service, it is more than just a payment method. It is a one stop registration, payment and withdrawal service, with no additional charges or fees to be paid.

You can find ‘pure’ Pay N Play casinos, where Pay N Play is the only registration and payment option, and also others who accept Pay N Play amongst other payment methods. Both have their advantages: ‘Pure’ Pay N Play casinos feature the full range of features, including instant, one-step registration, payment and withdrawal. ‘Hybrid’ casinos may not offer the full range of these facilities, but you can use other payment methods if you wish.

Its sheer simplicity and convenience means that the popularity and availability of the Pay N Play service is increasing rapidly. More and more casinos are offering it as an option, or are choosing to operate as a purely Pay N Play casino. Look out for both on the White Hat Gaming platform when you are looking for a new online casino to join.