SPORTS BETTING
Compliance without compromise: Kris Galloway on the future of iGaming risk management
Kris Galloway
Having worked in online gaming for over a decade, Kris Galloway is Head of iGaming Product at payment verification platform provider, Sumsub. He has experience across traditional and next- gen online casinos, sportsbooks, eSports, poker and bingo products, and is well placed to tackle solutions relating to onboarding, fraud and regulation. We sat down with him at ICE Barcelona to discuss the payment fraud and compliance challenges facing iGaming operators today.
GIO: From your perspective, what are the biggest fraud and compliance challenges iGaming operators face today, and which ones are most often underestimated by product and tech teams? Kris Galloway: We know that bonus abuse accounts for around 70% of fraud in iGaming. Adopting a more modern-day perspective however, there are two key things which spring to mind here. AI and money laundering. Fake documentation has absolutely soared since ChatGPT, and similar platforms, introduced image generation. Less than a year ago, there was nothing, and now it’s everywhere. Fraud which previously required specialist tooling, knowledge and investment, was now taking place on a mass scale. Every bonus abuse opportunist suddenly thought they were a young Kevin Mitnick. Sumsub adapted quickly however, further enhancing our models to detect generated documents as these began to soar, ensuring our clients stayed ahead of a wave that caught much of the industry off guard. AI in itself is fascinating, it’s constantly evolving, it’s a constant arms race.
The other key threat is money laundering. The cost of laundering money using traditional means such as banking has risen steeply in the last few years, and we’re seeing more people turn to iGaming. This puts more stress on operators to be able to identify when this is happening. And it goes beyond verification and money mules. Governments, regulators and operators alike need to be able to identify when and how this is taking place using a broad range of tools, from device intelligence and transaction monitoring to session analysis.
GIO: As a product evangelist in a heavily regulated industry, how do you balance innovation speed with the realities of compliance and risk management?
32 FEBRUARY 2026 GIO
KG: The industry is vast and complex. Crypto, banking, insurance and many other industries operate on known and understood levels, iGaming introduces a myriad of betting layers, from bingo, through slots and sportsbook, to no-limit five card Omaha hi/lo, not to mention bonus structures, XP, player-versus-player games, social layers, gamification, lootboxes, and so on…
Regulators vary massively across regions, and in order to remain a full-cycle verification platform, we need to stay on top of legislation in real time. We also work alongside operators to help shape policy, we have extensive data and insights, a deep understanding of behavioural trends, and we track and eliminate the biggest threats on a global scale, and also at a regional level. Our finger is always on the iGaming pulse, so we’re in a great position to work alongside regulators in identifying the best ways to allow the industry to thrive, without being stunted by friction and stifled by bureaucracy.
As an evangelist, I try to soak up as much information and knowledge as I can from within the industry. I cross-reference that with my seventeen years of experience with iGaming giants and next-gen operators, and make sense of it in a way which leans into the latest technology, regulation and innovation, while helping operators understand not just where the industry is going, but how to get there responsibly and safely.
GIO: Developers often see compliance as a blocker rather than an enabler. What mindset shift would you encourage engineering teams to adopt when building fraud prevention into their platforms? KG: I think the mindset shift is one of adaptability and dynamism, while also understanding that compliance isn’t a cost centre anymore, and that when it’s done right,
it’s genuinely a revenue enabler. Invisible compliance really is where we’re at. It means that only the riskiest users know it’s there, with the goal of reducing abrasion as much as possible, and making the journey as frictionless as we can. The idea is to introduce compliance and fraud prevention dynamically. So, for example, if device intelligence identifies linked accounts, then you introduce a step which requests a proof of address; if there’s a suspected account takeover, you trigger a liveness check. Everything can be built dynamically to only fire when there’s a risk, allowing genuine and well-meaning players to enjoy a frictionless, uninterrupted gaming experience, while facilitating the process for operators to cut down on fraud and satisfying regulatory requirements as well.
GIO: There’s still often a tension between robust KYC and smooth player onboarding. What practical approaches have you seen work best to reduce friction without increasing risk? KG: Firstly, and again, invisible compliance, so the safest players experience minimum friction. And secondly dynamic checks based on risk scores as we mentioned previously. I think one of the real challenges though is at the regulator level. So many regulators are working within resource and capacity constraints, and aren’t able to stay on top of the tech which would allow for this level of proactive, dynamic compliance. A lot of the KYC checks mandated by regulators these days look the same as they did in 2016, whereas the technology has come a very long way since then.
We’re also in a unique position to be able to identify regional trends, something which in an ideal world would drive the way dynamic regulation is enforced. For example, in 2025
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