Netherlands gambling regulatory body Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) announced it requested incumbents to initiate thorough checks on their customer bases against the self-exclusion register CRUKS.
Incorrect BSN, Name or Date of Birth
The KSA advised operators to carry out checks on all customers who have signed between October 2 and October 20, acting on reports that players registered with the CRUKS have access to their online gambling accounts.
The request was made after an error in the system was discovered that allows players to enter wrong data during the self-registration process and hence, continue to have access to their existing accounts or open new accounts with other operators.
“When registering players, errors may have been made between 2 and 20 October when filling in the BSN, name and/or date of birth,” advised the KSA in its request to operators, giving examples of “entering the surname incorrectly, omitting special characters or registering without a BSN.”
The regulator then clarified that the incorrect player data like citizen service number (BSN), name or date of birth will result in the player still having access to online gaming accounts and the KSA cannot recover that because it is data in the provider’s system, hence the industry-wide call to carry the checks.
Finally, the KSA advised all operators which come across players who had registered with incorrect data in CRUKS to delete their existing CRUKS codes.
Future Incorrect Data Registration Impossible
The national gambling regulator stated that the system-based issue that allows for incorrect data player registration had been properly dealt with making such registrations in CRUKS no longer possible. In cases when a player enters incorrect BSN, name or date of birth, operators will get notified as all data will be automatically verified via the country’s Citizen Service Number Management Facility.
Earlier this month, the KSA appointed three additional external advisors, Marcel Marijnissen, a chief medical officer at Hervitas, Bas Brons, a mental health care professional and senior counselor, and Mieke Hoste, a licensed clinical psychologist, to oversee the self-exclusion registry.
The Dutch national regulator then went on to urge all residents playing with illegal operators to switch their play to one or several of the currently licensed gambling companies or risk becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft.