European casino licences and how to check each one

No EU-wide casino licence: one per country

There is no single European casino licence to check. According to the European Commission, the EU has no sector-specific law on gambling services, so each country organises its own. Each licence is a permission from the place that issues it: an MGA licence, for example, is a Maltese permission.

How to check any casino licence

The same 5 checks work on every register in the table above.

1. Read the licence line. Find the regulator, the licence number and the company in the site’s footer or terms.
2. Open the regulator’s own register. Go to it on the regulator’s own site; the table above says where each one lists websites.
3. Match the website address. Search the exact domain where the register allows it, or open the record or brand list that names the website.
4. Match the company and the number. The name and the licence number on the record should be the ones in the site’s footer.
5. Read the status and keep a note. Look for an active or valid status for the activity you want, then save the record’s address and the date you read it.

The UK walkthrough below shows the same checks on one register in detail, and the Curaçao and Anjouan section after it covers those two registers.

What each casino licence gives players

Each licence comes with a public register, a route for complaints and a licence number to match against the site. This is what each regulator’s own pages set out.

Malta Gaming Authority

The MGA’s licensee register lists each licensee, and a licensee’s verification page lists its website URLs. The Authority takes complaints about its licensees through a form, reviewed in English or Maltese.

Gibraltar Gambling Division

Gibraltar keeps its register of licence holders under section 14 of the Gambling Act 2025, with a PDF of approved brands for each holder. A complaint goes to the operator first. For a customer in the UK, the Division says the dispute should ordinarily go through the complaints and dispute resolution arrangements that apply in the UK.

Curaçao Gaming Authority

The CGA’s certificate checker confirms the licence behind one website at a time, and its licence list gives each licence number, licensee, dates and status. A dispute goes to the provider first, and the CGA takes emailed reports of a possible breach of Curaçao’s law.

Anjouan

Anjouan’s register lists the domains on each licence. A complaint goes to the operator first, which has 30 calendar days to respond, and after that an approved ADR provider can take it, at the operator’s cost.

UK Gambling Commission

These protections come with the Commission’s licence. Bonus wagering is capped at 10x, as our guide to EU casino no-deposit bonuses shows.

• Self-exclusion. GAMSTOP covers the companies that hold a British licence.
• Complaints. If a complaint stays unresolved for 8 weeks, a licensee must let you refer it to an ADR provider.
• Your balance. A licensee’s terms must state which of 3 protection levels covers your money if it goes bust.
• Financial checks. Once your deposits minus withdrawals pass £150 in a rolling 30-day period, a licensee must run a financial vulnerability check. It uses public records only, such as bankruptcy orders and County Court Judgments. The Commission says credit reference data may not be shared in it, so in that sense it is not a credit check. A check or financial risk assessment from the previous 12 months can count instead.

One company: a licence record in each country

LeoVegas Gaming PLC, based in Sliema, Malta, shows how each licence attaches to web addresses. It is a register example, not a recommendation.

Each record names the addresses one regulator covers.

How to check a casino’s UKGC licence

These 5 steps are a licence record check you can repeat at any time. Each uses a page the Commission publishes, starting with its register of gambling businesses.

ABC

1. Search the exact address

   Copy the domain from your browser bar, keep its ending and drop any www. The register search accepts a business name, trading name, domain or account number. Searching leovegas.com matched www.leovegas.com as well.

   Businesses declare their own domains, and the Commission says it cannot guarantee what they supply.

2. Read the domain’s status

   A match on the results page carries no status. You find that on the business record, under Domain names.

   Swipe to see more →

   Status	The Commission’s definition	What it means for your check
   Active	The licensee has told the Commission it uses the address to offer gambling	The address sits on this licence
   Inactive	Not in use any more, or not yet started. Another licensee could take it up	Check which address this record marks Active instead
   White label	A licensed operator runs it with a partner, and holds the licence	Check the operator’s licence, which carries the responsibility

   Inactive entries are common. In the Commission’s CSV download, 803 of the 2,227 listed domains carried that status, more than a third of the file.

3. Read the licence summary line by line

   Each row gives a type, an activity, a status and dates. For casino games you need a Remote row for Casino, marked Active and running to Current. A genuine record can still be the wrong one. 4 The Company Limited, account 53858, holds remote gambling software permissions and lists no domains.

   Any status other than Active, such as Surrendered or Suspended, is not a current permission. Ended licences stay listed for 3 years.

4. Match the footer to the record

   A British licensee must show 3 items on every gambling screen: a licence statement, its account number and a link to its record. The statement follows set wording, “[Name] is licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number [number]”. Match that name and number against the register record from step 1. The link must open that same record, not the Commission’s home page.

5. Check the licensee’s record and save the result

   Sanctions stay on the actions tab for 3 years from publication, so an empty tab is not a clean history. LeoVegas’s tab read “No regulatory actions have been recorded” when we checked. Yet on 3 August 2022 the Commission announced that LeoVegas would pay a £1.32 million penalty. That suggests the entry has since dropped off the tab, so search the Commission’s news for older cases.

   Save the record’s address, the status and the date you read it. To check many addresses at once, download the register as 4 CSV files. Registers move: our 2 downloads on the same day differed by 1 or 2 rows.

How to check a Curaçao or Anjouan licence

Checking a Curaçao licence

Curaçao’s Gaming Authority publishes its licences as PDF lists. Its Online Gaming License Registry, a PDF last updated 21 September 2026, gives licence number, licensee, dates and status, with no column for websites. According to the CGA’s register page, “no rights can be derived” from these overviews, so the certificate checker is the place to confirm a website.

Websites are checked one at a time on the CGA’s certificate checker. Our search for zizobet.com returned a certificate for Santeda International B.V., licence OGL/2024/1798/1048, status Active.

Checking an Anjouan licence

Anjouan’s register lists domains against each licence, and a search by licence number works. When we read the register, ALSI-202410049-FI2, held by Industrial Mystic Labs SRL, listed 7gear.io, catch-bet.com and catch.bet.

Safer gambling: where to find support

This guide is for readers aged 18 and over. Signing up to GAMSTOP once blocks your online accounts with British-licensed operators, on websites and apps alike. If gambling is getting harder to control, you can call the National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, free on 0808 8020 133 in England and Scotland, or the NHS Wales helpline on 0808 2819 265 from Wales. More routes are listed under UK gambling support.

Licence register questions