House Of Reps Asks Gambling Outlets To Collect Customers’ NIN Before Stak

House of Representatives has commenced move to ensure all gaming platforms in the country collect the National Identity Numbers (NIN) of customers before enabling them to stake.

The House urged the National Lottery Regulatory Commission to ensure that all gaming operators in Nigeria integrate NIN in their data collection.

The decision was taken following a motion moved by Isiaka Ibrahim (APC, Ogun) on Thursday during the plenary session.

Mr Isiaka claimed that the gaming market is over $400 billion and that it is projected to be above $565 billion by the end of 2022.

While presenting the motion, he argued that gaming has age restrictions, hence, NIN is critical in ensuring that those below the age limit are not allowed to participate.

The lawmaker said, “Mindful that with age-restricted businesses like casinos and online gaming platforms, the critical barrier to entry for customers is age and identity verification, therefore there is an increased need for such verifications in virtual situations to secure both the customers and the operators.

“Imperative for regulators to place a premium on data security of gamers and gaming operators and one readily available way to achieve this is to integrate the National identity Numbers (NIN) into the data collection of both new and existing customers.”

Mr Isiaka also stated that anonymous transactions make it easy for money launderers to operate undetected.

In his word, “When such large amounts of money are exchanged and transacted quickly through relatively anonymous interactions, there is a significant risk that criminals will be tempted to use the situation for money laundering."

The motion was, therefore, referred to the House Committee on Governmental Affairs chaired by Akin Alabi (APC, Oyo).