When online casinos first started becoming truly popular over 10 years ago, they made a promise – that any gambler, regardless of where they were or what they were doing, could log in and play some casino games without ever needing to set foot inside a physical casino. That promise, however, remained unfulfilled for many more years. You can’t log in and play while waiting for the bus, after all! Or while at the doctor’s waiting room, or even during your break at work. At least you couldn’t, until mobile casino started to become prominent. Now, with a mobile device, a good 3G connection and a registration to an online casino with good mobile support, you can truly play casino games wherever you want… Except, as a new study shows, many players give up on online casino before even making a registration.
According to Jumio, which is a leading ID credentials authentication company that aids businesses in reducing fraud, ¼ of all gamblers who attempt to sign up for a mobile casino in the UK end up quitting before ever completing the process. The information comes from a study on poor mobile experience conducted from information taken from several UK-based online casinos, and reveals that a lot of the players who end up registering anyway quit before making a proper deposit, which leads to a lot of players who might have otherwise been interested in online casino have left before playing a single game. This is a huge problem, and one that has cost casino companies approximately £39 million.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is pretty bad for business. But why does it happen at all? The principal reason is that the sign-up and deposit process is needlessly long and complicated. If you look at some of the most popular online communities, such as Facebook, you’ll notice that the sign-up process is actually very simple and straightforward, requiring the minimal amount of information (usually name, age, e-mail address and password). Online casinos, on the other hand, require an astonishing amount of information. A typical online casino will require, on top of all the things already specified, full address, postal code, bank account and more. Online casinos actually have no use for a lot of this information, but it’s still required by law, or to try and prevent money laundering or other illegal activity. By having all the necessary information, with the system verifying that it’s legitimate and not made up (it rejects applications with fake information automatically), the people behind the online casino have the possibility to pursue those suspected of illegal acts, but in the process of gathering that information they’re also pushing away thousands who just want to play. A long sign-up is already a pain in the neck on desktop, and it’s only increased on mobile. If mobile casino owners want to increase their revenue, the best thing they can do is make the sign-up process easier and more robust.