Don't roll the dice when opening accounts: Fake bank statements in gambling

document fraud in gambling companies

The online gambling industry is no stranger to fraud despite being fast-paced and highly regulated. Compliance is critical. For many companies, merchant payouts & new account opening processes are becoming more reliant on simply checking the ID of new users, and rightly so. SEON released a UK & EU-focused gambling risk report for 2024, in which they claim that approximately 25% of all new sign-ups, fell into a high-risk category. Many of these sign-ups are passed to a manual team for manual reviews of supporting documentation. Almost a quarter of all sign-ups. Wow, the opportunity to bypass standard protocols is rife.

But of course, it's not just the risk of losing money to fraudsters that frightens gambling companies, but also non-compliance fines, financial losses, and reputational damage that can lead to a firm's demise. After all, online gambling is an ever-increasing market of saturation.

The regulatory landscape for gambling companies in the UK and Europe


Gambling companies operate in one of the most tightly regulated industries, requiring them to comply with robust Know Your Customer (KYC) frameworks. These regulations are designed to prevent money laundering, gambling fraud in all forms, and underage gambling while promoting responsible gambling practices. Key requirements include:

  1. Identity verification: Gambling companies must confirm the identity of customers using government-issued IDs such as passports or driver’s licenses, and verify their address with utility bills or bank statements.

  2. Age verification: Operators must ensure customers meet the legal gambling age, typically 18 or older, before they can deposit funds or place bets.

  3. Source of Funds (SoF) and Source of Wealth (SoW) checks: For high-value transactions or higher-risk customers, companies are required to verify the origin of funds to ensure they are not derived from illegal activities. This often involves reviewing bank statements, payslips, or other financial documents.

  4. AML and PEP screening: Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations mandate the screening of customers against politically exposed person (PEP) and sanctions lists to identify potential risks of financial crime.

  5. Ongoing monitoring: Operators must continuously monitor customer behavior, ensuring that activity aligns with the provided customer profile and flagging any suspicious or irregular transactions.

The role of the human vs the machine when it comes to verification


While many gambling operators rely on automated ID-checking providers to streamline identity and age verification, a significant gap exists when it comes to verifying supporting financial documents such as bank statements and utility bills. Unlike ID verification, operations teams still often manually check these documents. A disproportionate emphasis is often placed on investing in the ID verification technology, even though bank statements and other supporting files are equally, if not more, susceptible to manipulation. This manual process is fraught with challenges:

  1. Human error: Manual reviews are often prone to oversight, especially when staff are overwhelmed with high volumes of documents or lack expertise in spotting forgeries.

  2. Limited reference knowledge: Many gambling companies operate globally but lack localised knowledge of banking formats, utility providers, and document standards from different countries. This creates a blind spot for identifying fraudulent documents from unfamiliar jurisdictions.

  3. Sophistication of fraudsters: Fraudsters have become increasingly adept at creating fake bank statements and utility bills that can bypass manual checks. Without advanced technology, these forged documents can easily slip through the net.

  4. Time-consuming process: Manual document verification is error-prone and time-intensive, leading to delays in onboarding legitimate customers and potentially harming the user experience.

The role of automated financial document fraud analysis in closing the gap


Fraud Finder bridges this critical gap by using advanced algorithms and an ever-evolving global database to verify financial documents. Here’s how it addresses the shortcomings of manual checks:

  • Global coverage: Fraud Finder’s algorithm is built on a comprehensive database of bank statement and utility bill formats from around the world. This ensures accurate verification regardless of the country of origin.

  • Continuous updates: The system is continuously refined, leveraging daily file submissions from clients to its machine learning platform. This ongoing input helps identify evolving document formats and uncover emerging fraud patterns, ensuring it stays one step ahead of fraudsters.

  • Automation and accuracy: Fraud Finder’s AI-driven approach helps eliminate human error, and quickly flag inconsistencies, anomalies, or forged elements in documents. This augments manual checks with a greater level of data-driven accuracy.

  • Enhanced operational efficiency: By automating the verification process, Fraud Finder frees up operations teams to focus on higher-value tasks, while reducing onboarding times and improving the customer experience.

Here’s an example of Fraud Finder, Homeppl's AI-led document fraud analysis tool identifying an applicant falsifying their address on a bank statement to conceal poor credit history.



Many gambling companies are now strengthening their digital document verification processes to combat fraud more effectively. By investing in advanced technologies outside of the industry-standard IDV protocols, these operators are taking proactive steps to reduce fraud rates in an industry often targeted by sophisticated fraudsters.

As the industry evolves, adopting tools like Fraud Finder ensures operators remain resilient against ever-changing fraud tactics and reinforces their commitment to compliance and responsible gaming.

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