What does KYC stand for?

KYC stands for Know Your Customer. It is the process of recording a customer's true identity from official documents before, or soon after, money moves.

Why does a casino ask for ID when I only want to withdraw?

Philippine law lists internet casinos as covered persons under the anti-money laundering law, and covered institutions must establish and record clients' true identity from official documents.

Is it safe to send my ID to a casino?

Send it only through the upload screen of the address you checked against PAGCOR's lists, never to a chat contact's personal account, and never to a look-alike address.

Bakit hinihingan ako ng selfie at ID?

Para itugma ang mukha mo sa ID at masiguro na ikaw talaga ang may-ari ng account at ng GCash, Maya o bank account na pagbabayaran.

JILICC KYC Meaning: Why Is ID Needed Before a Payout?

In this section
Fact	Value
JILICC CEZA	CEZA is the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, created by Republic Act 7922 in 1995.
JILICC eCOGRA	eCOGRA is a UK-based testing agency set up in 2003.
JILICC PAGCOR Email	PAGCOR prints three addresses on its contact page: info@pagcor.ph for general queries, ResponsibleGaming@pagcor.ph for self-exclusion and cmed.cfms2@pagcor.ph for player account issues.
JILICC Typosquatting	Typosquatting is registering an address that differs from a real one by a letter, a hyphen or an ending, so a mistyped or copied link lands on a copy.
JILICC UK Gambling Commission	Open the UK Gambling Commission's public register of businesses, search the casino's domain name, then read the account name and licence status.

The KYC meaning is simple: Know Your Customer. A casino, a bank or an e-wallet must find out who you are, record it from an official document, and keep that record before it lets money out. That is why a withdrawal can pause on an ID request even when your balance is clear.

This page tells you what is collected, which law sits behind the request, and how to hand the documents over without handing them to the wrong party. Before you send anything, confirm the address with the method on the licence check on the PAGCOR gaming site.

What KYC collects and what each item proves

Most KYC screens ask for the same handful of things. Each one answers a different question about you, which is why a casino or wallet often asks for more than one.

Item asked for	What it proves	Typical trigger
Government photo ID	Your legal name and date of birth	Registration or first payout
Selfie or live photo	The ID belongs to the person holding the phone	First payout or a changed phone
Proof of address	Where you live	Larger withdrawals or a flagged account
Wallet or bank account name	The payout account is yours	Every first withdrawal to a new account
Date of birth	You are 21 or older	Registration

The exact list is whatever the cashier or account screen of the site shows. Read it there, and ask the live chat to name the document types it accepts if the screen is unclear.

The Philippine law behind a casino’s ID request

Republic Act No. 9160, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, approved on 29 September 2001, says in Section 9 that covered institutions shall establish and record the true identity of clients based on official documents. It also says they shall maintain a system of verifying that identity, and it prohibits anonymous accounts and accounts under fictitious names.

Republic Act No. 10927, approved on 14 July 2017, added casinos, including internet and ship-based casinos, to the list of covered persons. A covered casino therefore owes the same identity duty a bank does, which is the reason for the request and not a house rule.

Records are kept for five years from the date of transaction, and for closed accounts, five years from closure. You can read both statutes in full on lawphil.net.

Law	Approved	What it adds
Republic Act No. 9160, Section 9	29 September 2001	Record true identity from official documents; no anonymous accounts
Republic Act No. 10927	14 July 2017	Casinos, including internet casinos, become covered persons

Why the request often arrives just before a payout

Registering with a name and a number takes seconds, so a site often lets you play first. The identity check then lands at the point where the cost of a wrong identity is highest, which is when money leaves. A payout to an account that is not yours is how stolen funds are cleaned.

Problem and fix, as it usually appears:

Problem: your withdrawal sits in review with no reason. Fix: open the account or cashier screen and look for a verification prompt before you contact anyone.
Problem: the ID photo is rejected. Fix: retake it flat, in daylight, with all four corners visible and the name legible.
Problem: the name on your wallet differs from your ID. Fix: correct the wallet’s profile first, since payout accounts must match.

How to send your documents safely

Send documents only where the site asks for them: its own upload screen, opened from the address you have already checked. A chat agent who asks you to send an ID photo to a personal messaging account, or to an e-mail address you cannot match, is a red flag, and the page on typosquatting and look-alike casino addresses explains why a copied login page is the most common way IDs are stolen.

If a casino claims to be a regulated site and asks you to e-mail an ID, compare the address with the ones PAGCOR itself prints. The page on which PAGCOR email addresses exist lists them and what each is for.

Two habits keep you safe: cover the document number when a site only needs to see the face and name, and never send a bank card number with an ID.

What a casino cannot ask you to do

KYC is an identity check. It is not a fee, and it is not a deposit. A request to pay a “verification fee” or to top up to “release” your balance is not KYC, because the legal duty is on the casino and costs you nothing.

Players must be 21 or older in the Philippines, so a site that never asks your age or date of birth deserves a second look before you deposit.

Problem and fix:

Problem: a chat contact asks for a fee to release your balance. Fix: stop and read the cashier screen for any fee the site lists itself.
Problem: you are asked for your wallet password. Fix: no ID check needs it, so refuse and change the password.

JILICC KYC Meaning: What Know Your Customer Asks of You