selfie required before you can play?

[Dr.Osh]

Just wanted to share my recent experience because it seems like there might be big changes coming to how we gamble. As we all know, gambling in the Philippines is already widespread, and addiction has become common since it’s so easy to gamble through mobile apps. Even payment apps like GCash have added casinos to their platform, letting people bet with just a small minimum amount.

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

If gambling is legal in your country, that is a good step because the government will see whether someone is truly worthy or old enough to carry out gambling activities, in my country there are no such rules, it cannot be denied that there are many underage gambling addictions and everything is influenced by the environment and economic factors.

[salad daging]

Is GCash a fiat payment method similar to a digital bank? Perhaps because it has become a government regulation, they have to follow the rules. Personally, I'm not sure and I'm not happy that I have to take a selfie before playing at a casino.

Selfies may be to prevent minors from gambling, so we ourselves are not happy with rules like this. Even if the government enforces it, we will just switch to crypto deposits.

I’ve had times when I was forced to undergo some sort of facial verification when I try sending a huge amount of money that’s more than what I normally send - so if it’s something like that then I don’t think the gambling site has anything to do with it.

If sending fiat money exceeds the limit, then I have to go through a bank because I can't use the app, but I've never had to do facial verification. However, some other banks may require this for prevention purposes.
So, if there is no connection to casino sites, why does this app require facial verification? Because gambling is so widespread in that country, the government has implemented this measure.

[taufik123]

Unfortunately, this cannot stop people from gambling, if proceeding requires taking a selfie picture then it can be manipulated by giving the phone to someone that's an adult...If they want to stop minors from gambling I think the KYC system works best because it contains the full details of the individual...what they should work on instead is promoting all gambling platforms to adopt the KYC process

If the implementation is just selfies without any other documents such as KYC, it will indeed not stop anyone from gambling.
But with KYC and also Selfie, it is a rule that is safe and cannot be passed by minors.

After all, if minors think about gambling and try to enter, then the parenting and supervision of the parents need to be questioned, because gambling is really intended for adults.

Casino platforms that process with KYC methods are usually also audited by the government and this is legal,
but some country governments prohibit gambling completely and there will certainly be no way to do full verification, except by doing complete data manipulation.

[uneng]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

No, I hate when virtual services force users into taking selfies, besides the fact it usually don't work on the first attempt, so the person has to keep trying over and over again until the system accepts his selfie. I enjoy privacy and easiness, like it used to be in the early years of crypto gambling industry. If you wished to gamble, you just had to create an account through an email of your preference, set a password and it was done.

There were also casinos where you didn't even need to sign up your account, as bets and transactions were done anonymously in real time directly between your crypto wallet and the wallet of the casino.

The problem is that everything which goes mainstream and gains popularity ends in surveillance, bureaucracy and censorship by governments. When it happens, it's a sign you should move yourself to another niche of the market, in case you value your privacy and autonomy.

[yahoo62278]

You have to show an ID everytime you visit a casino here in the USA so IMO it's about the same thing. Long as it is a legitimate operation and fully licensed, I would think it should be ok. Is it a good 1st step? IDK if it really verifies your age unless its a selfie holding your ID, but even then people might still find a way to fake it.

[Findingnemo]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

It could be a part of regulation that hid under fine print and who wants to casino must follow all the regulations set by the government. And it can be a good thing to find our underaged gamblers who were common in online and using the bank accounts of their parents without even their knowledge and this verification can stop them.

But even most of the crypto casinos have now added a liveness test as part of their verification to tackle the people who use fake IDs or something they acquired from illegal sources will have a hard time getting verified.

[Mrbluntzy]

If it's not a good step that was taken by the government to add the face verification test before gambling,  what can the citizens do about it? So many complaint have currently came from Philippines concerning how a lot of people in that country has become addicted gambling and if this face verification was implemented to prevent the high rise if addiction, then it makes sense. It can prevent minors from being addicted but I don't think it will have any effect on adults since they are already at the age where they can gamble.

[348Judah]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

The intention for doing this is not for them to tackle against the minor in a bid to restricting them from gambling, instead, they are after me and you that are matured gambler and want to have our identify including facial identity so that getting us could be more easier and done at ease for them, once they set anyone a target, here's my advise, be careful with any gambling platform that allows for this, and if its a general regulation by the government for every gambling operators to follow, then much for yourself in getting gambling platforms that does not require for KYC.

[Z-tight]

This is not a good development, i understand that a casino can request kyc from you at anytime, especially when you win a huge amount of money and you are trying to withdraw it, that can be understood due to regulatory requirement. However, i would avoid a casino that i have to take a selfie of myself whenever i want to log in and play, if that is the case. Everything these days is just pro-surveillance and it is so difficult to use the internet while maintaining your privacy.

[JiiBs]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

It’s not entirely a bad idea I think, you know the usual accept if you are above 18years of age and the terms and condition doesn’t work but then, the system of having to update your selfie would in a way eliminate the mistake of having minors gamble but there are minors that look far older than their age. It would be a lot of active customer support though. I wouldn’t want to play in that kind of casino, it would be a lot to actually just login and access the games.

[Fredomago]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

It could be a part of regulation that hid under fine print and who wants to casino must follow all the regulations set by the government. And it can be a good thing to find our underaged gamblers who were common in online and using the bank accounts of their parents without even their knowledge and this verification can stop them.

But even most of the crypto casinos have now added a liveness test as part of their verification to tackle the people who use fake IDs or something they acquired from illegal sources will have a hard time getting verified.

Yeah, that's a good way to find those underage gamblers who are using their parents/guardians info in order to proceed, having a selfie will prevent them to play a simple but yet effective in terms of preventing young gamblers, though not good if seeking for preventing those addicted gamblers to proceed, as for those types of people, they don't mind things like that, they will do and accept anything just to please their lust and desire for gambling.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

That's actually a welcome initiated by the corresponding platform you wanted to use for gambling, because with the new face verification feature been integrated into the platform, it will literally go a long way preventing minors from accessing gambling, but if only such feature will be implemented on all gambling sites and casinos. Because truly, minors stand a greater chance of getting trapped to an addiction, unlike adults who could resist it when noticing losing more than they can afford to lose without chasing loses, simply because they have understood all it takes to gamble responsibly. Unlike minors who may not have the idea, but only just want to win, not minding it's consequences. So its actually a good initiative.

[Iroh]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

After taking a selfie this time around, what would they ask you for the next time you open the app? Your card number and pin..lol
It very well may be part of the government's effort to curb minors from gambling but I don't think this is a good first step. This "step" is anything but a good first step. It's intrusive to say the least and minors would overtime, find a way to go around this.
I would likely lose any interest if a site i used to play with makes taking a selfie before you can proceed a mandatory requirement.

[Perfectbaby]

Just wanted to share my recent experience because it seems like there might be big changes coming to how we gamble. As we all know, gambling in the Philippines is already widespread, and addiction has become common since it’s so easy to gamble through mobile apps. Even payment apps like GCash have added casinos to their platform, letting people bet with just a small minimum amount.

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

I don't know how long you spent before log in to your casino account, if is something you have been using frequently you should be asked for selfie before you could be allowed to continue gambling. This selfie also do not change anything while gambling be it minor or underage gambler because there are people who facially matured and when you go through their kyc process then you would have to understand not everyone who is matured enough are gambling. There some underage gamblers who gambles and since they aren't upto the age bracket they easily go through parents to pass verification.

[Su-asa]

What!? I haven't seen such thing before but if this is what will become on the gambling sector that means there is something they aren't telling us. Actually I don't see any good reason for gamblers to take a selfie before starting to gamble. These shows that the government are trying to use this pattern to monitor every gamblers. However my casino that implementing such thing will lose alot of customers because from my perspectives everyone wants privacy.

[Cantsay]

It could be a part of regulation that hid under fine print and who wants to casino must follow all the regulations set by the government. And it can be a good thing to find our underaged gamblers who were common in online and using the bank accounts of their parents without even their knowledge and this verification can stop them.

But even most of the crypto casinos have now added a liveness test as part of their verification to tackle the people who use fake IDs or something they acquired from illegal sources will have a hard time getting verified.

The thing is that even if it’s a tactic to reduce underaged people from accessing gambling sites, we all know that it’s not going to be 100% effective because there are lots of other gambling sites on the internet that doesn’t even require you to verify your identity before you can start using them - if those people should learn that this whole selfie thing is a means to get them to leave gambling, they’ll simply just take their things and switch to a more friendly place.

It sure would remove those who are just starting out gambling newly, but for those who have managed to become addicted to it, it won’t work since that urge would drive them to look for a different means to access gambling.

[DPHOR]

This is not a good development, i understand that a casino can request kyc from you at anytime, especially when you win a huge amount of money and you are trying to withdraw it, that can be understood due to regulatory requirement. However, i would avoid a casino that i have to take a selfie of myself whenever i want to log in and play, if that is the case. Everything these days is just pro-surveillance and it is so difficult to use the internet while maintaining your privacy.

Sure what you are saying is right and I wouldn't be that moved or propelled to keep using such gambling platform. I am just flashing back to when I did my Bitget kyc I was asked to do facial verification where they took me to another page to start it live and I did since then they haven't asked me of anything about selfie anymore. Most times casino may request for such if you keep persistently putting the wrong passwords and immediately you tried login you could be asked to make a selfie for them to know if is actually the rightful owner that is operating the site. If I am using such site and I was asked to regularly do selfie then I wouldn't have any option than to leave the site entire and delete my account then move down to less strict gambling site about their login.

[nakamura12]

But earlier, I was surprised when I opened the app to gamble because it now required me to take a selfie before proceeding. I’m thinking this might be part of the government’s move to ensure minors can’t gamble. Do you think this is a good first step?

Is this with Gcash? it's normal that they will ask us with a selfie verification whenever they want to. Or usually, they will ask this when you change your phone/device or your login/number details have already expired on the app. So by the time that you open and login to them, that's what they will ask us at most times. Even before the hot issue about online gambling and ewallet apps have exploded, Gcash has been doing that way of verifying users. I think I was able to do this step maybe 3-4 times and just the same face, of course mine.  

I think OP meant about the gambling app that requires selfie before you can play and not about Gcash requiring selfie to log in after changing device for verification. Op just explains that even Gcash have added gambling on their platform. It would be annoying if gambling platforms require selfie everytime you want to gamble unless it only requires once and no more selfies required. We won't know until OP will tell what app he used when he was asked for selfie. I think it's because they don't want minors to play since many casinos didn't even require KYC and just requires payment method and mobile number.

[Findingnemo]

The thing is that even if it’s a tactic to reduce underaged people from accessing gambling sites, we all know that it’s not going to be 100% effective because there are lots of other gambling sites on the internet that doesn’t even require you to verify your identity before you can start using them - if those people should learn that this whole selfie thing is a means to get them to leave gambling, they’ll simply just take their things and switch to a more friendly place.

Even casinos know that it will not be 100% effective but something is better than nothing and it's also forced by the government so casinos got no other option than to comply with it.

No KYC casinos are rare even if we don't have mandatory KYC still they can ask for verification at any time so user who register must be ready to do it and I know a few legit casinos that operate and require no casinos but those have very limited games or even just dedicated for one game.

It sure would remove those who are just starting out gambling newly, but for those who have managed to become addicted to it, it won’t work since that urge would drive them to look for a different means to access gambling.

Not to get addicted is ultimately in the hands of the user, the casino can do only things that they are in their control and they are also here to make profits.

[Churchillvv]

How many people truly cares about their privacy ? not too many and of course people will go ahead to accept this new update and upload their selfies which absolutely abnormal, recently they are trying to pocket everyone with hard choices where they see the people participating the most they make sure it gets harder, personally I wouldn’t even take a chance on any website or casino that attempts that of its users. It’s strange for now but I know it will subconsciously occur.