SOW requirements

What about The Source of Wealth or SOW

About SOW requirements

For clarity: SOW is the abbreviation used worldwide for ´Source of Wealth´. Or in other words: where does your income come from?

The SOW topic recently has been brought to our attention by our followers. In the online casino world there has been a lot of commotion on this subject lately. Is there a reason for that?

Note! An other formulation for the same is the so called ´Customer Due Dilligence´ or EDD (Enhanced due diligence and⁄or under the name ´Source of Income´ (SOI) and we found also ´Source of Funds´ (SoF), Ongoing Customer Due Diligence (OCDD) (also used by online casinos). Officially this SOW check has to be done within Europe.

Required for online gamblers

There a few categories of onlne casino operators that obligate their players to verify their source of wealth.

Why? As per current rules and regulations, online casinos operating in Europe and the UK are obliged to verify the Source of Wealth and Source of Funds of their players. By law you will need to provide us with some proof that shows us where your source of wealth or funds are coming from.

Relation with the casinos´ license

Any research reveals that there is a relationship regarding the license of this ´difficult´ casino platforms and this obligation. The Source of Wealth or SOW obligation to provide specific information is related to casinos licensed in the UK or in Malta. These are the only two jurisdictions that are requiring players to submit personal banking information.

This is a ridiculous situation because a land based casino will never ask for your payslip or salary strip as proof that you are financially competent to gamble.

Result: SOW is causing such an issue that it is driving players outward, meaning leaving the online casinos with such ridicule requirements. Several of our MCM-followers received this email: we inform you that your account has been closed because you did not provide us with the necessary documents to validate your account. That can not be the intention?!

What additional information is requested

We were able to compile this (nonsense) list, received by casinos´ customer support, based on the experiences of our followers:

• approved withdrawals in another casinos
• bank statements where we can see that you received the money from other casino winnings
• bank statements showing your name, account number,
• bank statements showing all incoming and outgoing transactions,
• a running bank account balance,
• payslip on from last month ⁄ 3 months ⁄ 6 months!
• they want a copy of my work contract!

Please note that this is a list compiled based on information received by players. We can not guarantee that the list above is correct and up to date.

Non Pay Out of Winnings

Delaying of withdrawals! Many of our followers have meanwhile convinced that many casinos abuse these KYC to hold winnings and hoping for players to give up. It all started with the KYC requests.

KYC Requirements Quote

All withdrawals are processed back to the same method of deposit and we will need to verify your account before any cash out is approved. Before any withdrawal request can be processed the customer is required to present his identification documents:

Photo ID: Driving licence, passport (photo and cover page) or a national ID card.
Proof of Address: Bank or utilities statement, council tax, phone bill, etc., dated within the last 3 months;
Credit⁄Debit Cards: Photocopies of the credit⁄debit card used on your account (front and back).

The documents need to be approved before any pay out is enabled on the account.

What´s the difference between KYC and SOW?

KYC stands for Know Your Customer and includes a security check! Mostly will be done as soon as the deposit threshold has been reached.
The SOW request will ask you to provide some proof of your source of wealth⁄funds. The document(s) that you share will obviously have to include your name.

Examples:

• employment payslip;
• Sale of property – contract of sale
• Inheritance – will
• Winnings from lottery⁄betting⁄casino – certificate of win or bank statement.

Addendum

It goes without saying that all your sensitive and personal information shared, will be kept safe and secure. We do everything we can to set the highest standard in data protection and privacy.

SOW Conclusion

Based on our research, we have to conclude that requesting SOW, SOI, EDD, SoF (or whatever term used) is perfectly legal.

About UK

the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has issued more requirements for gambling companies to make sure they know their customers in order to provide them with the best possible service and make sure the British gambling sector is safe, fair, and free of crime.

Therefore, gambling businesses need to use various techniques to receive an in-depth knowledge of their customers that could help them to indicate whether a person is gambling with money they do not actually have or cannot afford to lose.

At first, the UK gambling sector has not been keen on the implementation of this additional regulatory measure.

About EU

Update soon!