BGC Members Record 97% Success in Latest Age Verification Checks
The Betting and Gaming Council reported that its members reached a 97 percent pass rate during independent age-verification tests carried out by Serve Legal from May 2025 through April 2026, and this figure represents a five-percentage-point rise from the previous round while also surpassing results recorded by supermarkets at 80 percent, convenience stores at 77 percent, vape shops at 61 percent, and delivery services at 44 percent.
Test Purchasing Process and Scope
Serve Legal conducted the mystery shopping exercises across regulated betting and gaming sites to measure how well staff applied Challenge 25 policies, which require verification of anyone who appears under 25 years old, and the tests focused on both in-person and online interactions where operators must confirm customer age before allowing play or purchases.
Data collected during the 12-month window showed consistent application of these checks, with the high compliance rate indicating that staff training programs and system prompts have become standard practice across member operators.
Comparison Across Retail Sectors
Figures from the same testing period place betting and gaming operators ahead of several other age-restricted categories, and observers note that supermarkets and convenience stores continue to face challenges during peak hours when transaction volumes rise quickly.
Vape shops and delivery services recorded the lowest pass rates, yet the gap highlights differences in staffing models and the frequency of age-restricted sales that each sector handles daily.
Improvements Over Time
The five-percentage-point gain for BGC members reflects ongoing investment in staff training and digital verification tools, while earlier rounds of testing had already shown steady progress since the program began several years ago.
Those who track compliance data point out that repeated testing cycles encourage operators to refine their processes, and the latest results demonstrate that such refinements are producing measurable outcomes.
Role of Challenge 25 Policies
Challenge 25 remains the core framework that operators follow, and the policy requires staff to request identification from anyone who looks younger than 25 even when the legal purchase age sits at 18, which creates an extra safety margin in day-to-day operations.
Operators integrate this approach into both physical venues and online platforms, where automated prompts and manual reviews work together to maintain the same standard across channels.
Industry Response and Next Steps
Following the release of the Serve Legal findings in the summer of 2026, BGC members have stated they will continue the same testing schedule through the remainder of the year, and additional training sessions are already scheduled to address any remaining edge cases that surfaced during the most recent round.
Regulators and trade bodies alike view the continued high pass rate as evidence that existing compliance structures are functioning as intended, and further monitoring will track whether the 97 percent level holds steady or improves further.
Conclusion
The period from May 2025 to April 2026 produced clear benchmarks that place regulated betting and gaming operators at the top of age-verification performance among tested sectors, and the five-percentage-point improvement shows measurable progress in an area that receives regular independent scrutiny. The Betting and Gaming Council continues to publish these results as part of its commitment to transparency, and future test cycles will provide additional data points for comparison across the wider retail landscape.