Clubs and pubs with age restrictions use ID scanners at the door. If they let underage people in, they risk losing their licence, getting fined, and — in serious cases — prosecution.
The stakes are high enough that most decent venues have invested in proper scanning hardware. Here's what those scanners actually do.
How an ID scanner works
Modern scanners perform several functions, often simultaneously:
Building an attendance audit trail
Where scanning is mandatory, the system compiles a database of verified names and photographs. If an incident such as violence or assault occurs, this database can be cross-referenced with CCTV footage and door-staff observations to identify suspects.
Distinguishing genuine documents from fakes
The scanner compares the presented card against a reference template stored in its database. It analyses the positioning of graphic elements, text layout and other measurable characteristics. Any discrepancy beyond a set tolerance threshold causes the card to fail verification.
Every card will physically "scan" — the device will read and display whatever data is on it — but any fake or novelty ID will be flagged as non-genuine.
Scanner accuracy has improved considerably in recent years.
These devices check for details that are beyond the capability of any typical fake ID producer to replicate.
That includes ours, and we would rather say so than have you find out at a door. Everything in the premium card range is a novelty item for collecting, props and fancy dress — none of it is built to beat the hardware listed below.
ID Scanner Suppliers
If you run a venue and need to verify ID at the door, these two are built for that job — physical kit that a member of staff points at a card:
- GBG Scannet — the dominant system in the UK night-time economy, and the one most likely to be pointed at your card on a Friday night. It reads under white light, infrared and ultraviolet to pull up exactly the hidden features described above, recognises more than 8,500 genuine ID types, and returns a verdict in about three seconds. Wetherspoon, Stonegate, Greene King and Revolution Bars all run it, and venues on the network share flagged patrons with one another and with police.
- Regula — a Latvian forensics firm trading since 1992, and the closest thing on this page to a laboratory in a box. Alongside desk-based document readers it builds video spectral comparators and forensic microscopes, backed by a reference library of around 15,000 document templates covering every country and territory. Roughly 80 border control authorities use its equipment.
The other names that come up in this field are remote verification platforms rather than door hardware. They assess a photograph of a document uploaded through an app, which is a different problem from a doorman holding your card under a lamp — but they are why the same cards fail when you try to open an account online:
- Jumio — an API-based platform covering more than 5,000 global ID types at around 120 transactions per second, paired with liveness and deepfake checks. It is the sort of thing sitting behind airline and brokerage sign-ups; United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Webull are among the named customers.
- AU10TIX — an Israeli company grown out of airport security work, now running around 180 separate checks against each submitted document across some 5,000 document types. It reads NFC chips where a document has one and screens for deepfakes; TikTok, Coinbase, Walmart and Booking.com use it.
- iDenfy — a Lithuanian platform covering 16,000+ government-issued document types across more than 200 countries and territories, with 3D liveness detection on the selfie step. Automated results are backed by human reviewers within a few minutes, and it charges per successful verification rather than per attempt.
- Yoti — a London company whose facial age estimation guesses your age bracket from a live camera image without a document changing hands at all, tested independently by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. It underpins a good deal of UK Online Safety Act age assurance, and has been trialled on nightclub doors, where staff scan a QR code from the customer's phone instead of inspecting a card.
- Onfido, now part of Entrust — document and biometric verification, absorbed into Entrust's identity line after the acquisition; the old onfido.com now redirects there.