What a casino licence actually gives you
A licence is not a seal of quality. It does not mean the games pay better, the bonus is fairer or the support is faster. It means one specific thing: there is an organisation above the operator that can be asked to intervene.
That is relevant in exactly one situation, and it is the situation that costs money. A withdrawal is held. An account is closed with a balance still in it. A bonus is voided under a clause nobody can identify. With a licence, there is a published complaints route and a regulator who can compel an answer. Without one, the operator's decision is final because there is no organisation above it.
The short version: everything else on a casino site is a promise the operator makes. A licence is the only thing on the page that somebody else is standing behind.
What we found checking all 88 casinos
Every casino in our database has its licence field filled in with what that specific operator publishes. Sorting the entire set by how far the disclosure goes produces this.
- 48 name a regulator on a page a visitor can read. That is the bar most people assume every casino clears, and it is cleared by just over half.
- 16 publish a licence number you can take to a register and check. Fewer than one in five.
- One publishes the certificate itself. Sportbet.one links a PDF naming the company, the number, the issuing office, the date and the signature, which is the single strongest piece of disclosure in this project.
- 39 disclose no regulator at all anywhere a reader can find one.
The gap between 48 and 16 is the interesting one. Naming a regulator in a footer is free for an operator and takes no work to type. Publishing the licence number invites a check. Most casinos stop at the first step, which is why the check below is worth doing yourself rather than trusting the line.
The 16 casinos here that publish a casino licence number
Here are the sites where the check described below can actually be done, because they give you something to search a register with. Every number comes from that operator's own published pages.
| Casino | Regulator | Number as published |
|---|---|---|
| 7Bit Casino | Curacao GCB | OGL/2024/1307/0748 |
| Banzai | Kahnawake | CPA 00952 |
| Beazt | Malta MGA | MGA/B2C/1079/2025 |
| BetFury | Curacao GCA | OGL/2024/1494/0942 |
| Betroom 24 | Anjouan | ALSI-202601043-FI2 |
| Bets.io | Anjouan | ALSI-202410047-FI2 |
| BitStarz | Curacao GCB | OGL/2024/165/0185 |
| CasinoFriday | Curacao | 163294 (FarUp Entertainment N.V.) |
| Cloudbet | Curacao GCB | OGL/2024/328/0599 |
| Fairspin | Anjouan | ALSI-202508047-FI2 |
| GG.BET | Curacao GCB | OGL/2024/688/0234 |
| JetTon | Anjouan | ALSI-192407050-FI3 |
| Quickz | Malta MGA | MGA/B2C/1118/2025 |
| Slotoro | Curacao GCB | OGL/2024/686/0183 |
| SpinGrande | Curacao | OGL/2024/494/0671 (Luckland Group B.V.) |
| Sportbet.one | Mwali / M.I.S.A. | G20190045 |
Sixteen of the 88 casinos in our database. The remaining 72 either name a regulator without a number or name none at all.
Three points of interest in that list. The Curacao numbers all start OGL/2024, because that is when the current regime began issuing them, so a Curacao site quoting an older-style master licence number is quoting something that is no longer valid. The Anjouan numbers include their own date of issue, so ALSI-202508047 was issued in August 2025 and ALSI-192407050 much earlier. And Malta numbers end with the year, which makes an out-of-date one obvious at a glance.
Where the casino licence is published
Four places, in descending order of how often they carry it.
| Location | What you usually find | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Site footer | A licence line, sometimes with a seal | The normal place. Check whether the seal is clickable |
| About page | The operating company and its registered address | Useful. The company name is what a register searches on |
| General terms | A clause naming the licensing body | Often the only mention, and easy to miss |
| A linked certificate | The licence document as a PDF | The strongest, and the rarest |
One caution learned the hard way. Read the page as it appears on screen, rather than searching the source. TG.Casino's markup contains the sentence "Licensed and regulated in Curacao", and the block holding it is styled so the browser never draws it. No visitor to that site will ever read that line, so it is not a disclosure, and our TG.Casino review records the licence as undisclosed for exactly that reason.
The regulators behind these casino licences
Six authorities cover almost every licensed casino in our database. They are not equivalent, and the difference is mainly about what happens when you complain.
| Regulator | Casinos here | Licence number looks like | What it gives a player |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curacao (CGA / GCB) | 25 | OGL/2024/1307/0748 | A public register and a direct licence since the LOK reform |
| Anjouan (Comoros) | 11 | ALSI-202410047-FI2 | A licence, with light conditions on the operator |
| Malta (MGA) | 4 | MGA/B2C/1118/2025 | A published complaints route and a player support unit |
| Costa Rica | 4 | No gambling number issued | A company registration rather than gambling oversight |
| Kahnawake | 1 | CPA 00952 | A register and a long-established complaints process |
| Mwali (Comoros) | 1 | G20190045 | A licence, with the lightest conditions on this roster |
Counts from the 88 casinos ranked on this site. Two more hold an Estonian registration and one states only that it operates as a crypto-only casino.
Costa Rica deserves a distinct point, because it appears on four sites here and it is clearly not a gambling licence. Costa Rica issues no gambling licences at all. What operators hold is an ordinary company registration, which permits the business to exist and neither controls nor supervises how it treats players.
Curacao has genuinely improved. The old system, where one master licensee resold sub-licences with almost no oversight, has been replaced by direct licensing under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, and licensees now appear on a public register with an OGL number. It is a real improvement, and it still asks less of an operator than Malta does.
Checking the casino licence number on a register
The step that turns a claim into a fact is this one, and it takes about two minutes.
- Copy the number exactly. Formats are strict. Curacao numbers run OGL/year/nnnn/nnnn, Anjouan numbers run ALSI-nnnnnnnnn-FIn, and Malta numbers run MGA/B2C/nnnn/year.
- Go to the regulator's own site. Type the domain yourself. Following a link from the casino defeats the purpose of the check.
- Search the register for the number, or for the operating company from the About page. Registers usually accept either.
- Read the status, not just the entry. A licence can be listed as suspended, surrendered or expired, and a footer line will not tell you which.
- Check the company matches. The register names a licensee. If that company does not appear anywhere on the casino site, the licence may belong to somebody else.
Two things that look like problems are usually nothing to worry about. A licence can be held by a parent company with a different name from the site, and a single licence can cover several operating brands, which registers normally list as approved URLs. Both are normal. The thing that matters is a number that returns no result at all.
Certificates carry their own trap. Only one certificate is published across our whole roster. It names the company, the number, the issuing office at Fomboni and an issue date of 14 March 2019, with no expiry date printed anywhere on it, as our Sportbet.one review sets out field by field. A document is stronger than a footer line, and it is still only a snapshot of the day it was signed.
Casino licence seals that prove nothing
A seal's value lies in what it links to. There are three kinds and only one of them is evidence.
| What you see | What it proves |
|---|---|
| A seal that opens a validation page on the regulator's domain | Real evidence. The regulator is confirming this operator |
| A seal linking to a page on the casino's own domain | Nothing. The casino is confirming itself |
| An image that links nowhere | Nothing. It is a picture |
We also found an unusual fourth case. One casino on this site loads seal software from two separate regulators, Anjouan and Tobique, and neither seal appears on the page, because the container element each script looks for is missing from the markup. A visitor sees no seal at all. Whatever the reason, the outcome for a reader is the same: there is nothing on the page to click, and therefore nothing to verify.
What a missing casino licence tells you
It tells you what happens if something goes wrong, and nothing else. It is important to be precise here, because the conclusion is usually overstated in both directions.
- It does not mean the casino is a scam. Several unlicensed sites in our database pay out reliably, run well-known software and have long track records.
- It does mean nobody is above them. Every clause in the bonus terms is enforced at their discretion, because there is no authority a player can escalate to.
- It removes the value of the discretionary clauses. An irregular play clause at a licensed casino has to be justified to a regulator. At an unlicensed one it has to be justified to nobody.
Disclosure and regulation also come apart more often than you would imagine. The best-disclosed casino on this site holds one of its lightest licences, and the casino with the least disclosure of all runs a strong product. Disclosure is a choice an operator makes, and regulation is a floor imposed on them, which is why our crypto casinos page records the two separately for all 88.
The five-minute casino licence check
- Scroll to the footer and read what is actually rendered there. One minute.
- Note the regulator, the number and the company. If any of the three is missing, note that instead. One minute.
- Open the regulator's site yourself and search the register for the number or the company. Two minutes.
- Check the status and the approved brand list. Current, suspended or absent is the whole answer. One minute.
- Decide before depositing. Doing this after a withdrawal is held is doing it too late.
Every review on this site records the result of that same check for one casino, and the licence line in each comparison table is the same field the counts on this page come from. For a shortlist that has already cleared this bar, the reviews with a quotable number are the best place to start.
Casino licence questions
Find the licence line in the footer, note the regulator and the number, then search that number on the regulator's own register. No number on the register, or no number published, means you have a claim rather than a licence.
The footer, sometimes the About page, sometimes only a clause in the general terms. See where to look. If no readable page names a regulator, that is the answer rather than a gap.
Of our 88, 48 mention a regulator, 16 publish a number you can check and one publishes the certificate. 39 disclose no regulator at all. See the full breakdown.
It is real, and it has become stricter since the LOK reform replaced the master and sub-licence system with direct licensing and a public register. It still asks less of an operator than Malta, particularly on complaint handling.
Only what it links to. A validation page on the regulator's own domain is evidence. An image linking nowhere is a picture. We have found seal software from two regulators where neither seal renders at all.
In that case no regulator can be asked to intervene. Every bonus clause, withdrawal limit and account rule is enforced at the operator's own discretion, whatever the games look like.
Of the licences held here, Malta: a published complaints route, a player support unit and actual requirements on the operator. Curacao sits below it and the Comoros authorities ask for the least. See the comparison.
Yes, and a footer line will not state that. Registers show current status, which is the whole point of verifying the number. One certificate we have read carries a 2019 issue date with no expiry printed on it.
Read next
- Casino bonus terms explained - the ten clauses a regulator is there to hold an operator to.
- Crypto casinos compared - every casino in the database with its licence line and bonus terms side by side.
- All casino bonus guides - one page per clause, with the figures the reviewed casinos publish.
About the author
Ana Petrescu
Bonus terms editor, CasinoFinderHub - Bucharest
The licence field in our database is the one I have rewritten most often. Filling it for 88 casinos, and correcting it on five of the fifteen we have reviewed in depth, is where the counts on this page come from.
One rule changed how I work partway through: a licence goes in the roster only if it appears on the page as a visitor sees it. Markup does not count, hidden blocks do not count, and a script that fails to draw a seal does not count. If a reader cannot find it, it does not exist for the purpose it is meant to serve. That rule and the others behind this site are set out in how we check bonus terms, along with how much of our own data is still unverified.
Play safely
Checking a licence is not the same as a safety guarantee, and it should never be treated as one. A fully licensed casino can still let you spend more than you intended, and the regulator has no view on that at all.
Before you play, set a deposit limit and use the tools in your account rather than relying on willpower. Free, confidential help is available from BeGambleAware, Gambling Therapy and Gamblers Anonymous.
18+ Gambling is for adults only. Online casino play is not legal everywhere, so check the rules where you live before registering anywhere.
All counts on this page are derived from the licence field of our own casino database as it stood in August 2026. Each entry records what that operator publishes on its own pages. Licences change, registers are updated, and the check is worth repeating rather than trusting a figure of ours from months ago.