Casino licences explained

A licence is the most-quoted and least-understood fact about an online casino. This guide explains what a licence actually tells you, how we check one, and why “licensed” can mean very different things depending on who issued it.

What a casino licence is – and is not

A gambling licence is a permission issued by an authority (a regulator) to an operating company to offer gambling under that authority’s rules. It is a fact about registration: which company, which authority, which domains, since when. It is not a promise that you will be paid, that the terms are fair, or that complaints will be resolved. Those depend on how strict and active the regulator is, and on the casino’s own conduct.

That is why our methodology separates two things: whether we could confirm the licence in the regulator’s own register, and how strong the framework behind that regulator is (our regulator tiers A–D).

How to check a licence yourself

Five minutes, no tools beyond a browser. Do it before the first deposit, and again if the casino changes its domain or its terms.

1. Find the claim. Look at the casino’s footer, “About” or “Licence” page. Write down three things: the authority, the licence number and the operating company. If any of the three is missing, the claim is incomplete.
2. Open the regulator’s own register – type the address yourself, do not click a seal. Search for the company name or licence number.
3. Match the exact domain. Many licences list specific websites. A licence for brand.com says nothing about brand.io or a mirror domain.
4. Check the status and the date. “Active”, “provisional”, “expired” and “suspended” are different things. Note the date you checked – registers change.
5. Compare the operating company. The company named in the terms must be the company named in the register. A different company means a different licence, or none.
6. Be careful with seals. A clickable seal that opens a page on the issuer’s own domain confirms that the issuer lists the casino – it does not make the issuer a government regulator.
7. Look for enforcement. Many regulators publish fines, warnings and revocations. A valid licence with a recent sanction for player-protection failures is still a reason to pause.
8. Keep the evidence. A screenshot of the register entry with the date is the only proof you will have if the casino later disputes its own status.

Where to look, by regulator

• Malta Gaming Authority – the URL checker takes the exact domain and opens the licensee page with licence number, status and the websites covered; the licensee register lists every operator.
• UK Gambling Commission – the public register can be searched by domain and shows the licensee, status and regulatory action. Casinos on this register do not accept players from outside Great Britain under that licence.
• Curaçao Gaming Authority – two steps: the licence number and company in the authority’s online-gaming register, then the certificate of operation for the exact domain. Many licences are still provisional; the certificate shows the status.
• Gibraltar – the licence-holder list shows companies and approved brands, not domains, so the website itself has to be matched through the operator’s own terms.
• Anjouan and similar issuer-only registers – the lookup lives on the issuer’s own website. We record the result but treat it as “listed in issuer registry”, never as independent confirmation; see the regulator framework.

Regulator profiles: Malta Gaming Authority · Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner · Curaçao Gaming Authority · Tobique Gaming Commission · Anjouan licensing – what each authority does, how we rate it, what its register shows and where a complaint goes. All of them are listed on the regulators overview.

This is exactly the procedure behind the Licence and Exact domain checks on every profile, and the result for each casino is in the table below. Who holds the licence – the operating company, not the brand – is explained in casino ownership and operators explained.

The four words we use

• Confirmed in registry – licence and exact domain found in the regulator’s register or seal tool.
• Listed in issuer registry – the casino appears only in a register published by the issuing body itself, which we cannot verify independently. Framework rated Tier D.
• Domain match not confirmed – the operator and licence exist in the register, but the register lists brands or companies, not domains, so the website itself could not be matched.
• Licence claim not confirmed – the casino claims a licence we could not find in any register.

Regulators are not interchangeable

Our regulator framework scores each authority on verifiability, enforcement, transparency, dispute handling and player-protection rules, then groups them into tiers:

• Tier A – e.g. Malta Gaming Authority: public register with domains, published enforcement, mandatory player-protection tools.
• Tier B – e.g. Gibraltar: established regulator, but the public register shows entities and brands rather than domains or status dates.
• Tier C – e.g. Curaçao Gaming Authority: new regime since December 2024 with a public register and certificates; many licences are still provisional. The Tobique Gaming Commission also sits in this tier.
• Tier D – issuer-run registers (for example Anjouan) that we cannot verify independently; the side-by-side with Curaçao is in Anjouan vs Curaçao from the player’s side.

A Tier D licence caps the Smarter Score, and we never show a sign-up link for a casino whose licence is not confirmed in a regulator’s register.

Licence status of the 15 casinos we profile

11 of 15 licences are confirmed in the regulator’s register; 3 are only listed in the issuer’s own registry. Click a casino for the full licence check with sources.

Want the detail behind each finding – licence number claimed, holder in the register, register status, domain match, enforcement register? See the casino licence register check, a dataset you can download and reuse (CC BY 4.0).

Things that should make you pause

• The casino names a licence but no operating company, or a company that does not match the register.
• The seal opens a page that cannot be reached from the regulator’s official website.
• The register shows “expired” or a past date while the casino still displays the seal.
• Different pages of the casino name different authorities.

None of these is proof of wrongdoing – they are reasons to read the profile’s Where sources disagree section before you deposit.

A licence and a provably fair game answer different questions: the first concerns who is accountable, the second whether certain game results can be rechecked. See provably fair explained.

Why the licence decides where you can complain

The practical value of a licence shows when something goes wrong. A UKGC or MGA licence comes with a named complaints route and an independent dispute body; a Curaçao CGA licence has a regulator complaint procedure; an issuer-only register offers little beyond the operator’s own support. Our guides on rejected or pending withdrawals and closed accounts set out the routes step by step.

Licence and player protection

A licence may oblige a casino to offer deposit limits, cooling-off periods and self-exclusion – but only some regulators enforce this. Use the tools whether or not they are mandatory, and read our responsible gambling page. 18+.