How to Verify a Casino Licence: Register by Register, With What Each One Protects

To verify a casino licence, copy the operator company and licence number from the casino’s footer or terms, then look them up on the regulator’s own register and check three things: the status is active, the company matches, and the casino’s domain is listed. For Anjouan and Tobique, use the seal link in the footer instead of a manual search. The steps below cover each register our reviewed casinos use, as checked in October 2026.

What should you look for before you search?

Every licensed casino names its operator company, the regulator and a licence number, usually in the footer and again in the first section of its terms. Write down all three before you open any register. A footer that names a regulator but no company or number is the first warning sign, and our reviews skip brands that state no licence at all.

Collect these details from the casino you are checking:

• Operator company: for example Elvel Limited for Taste Vegas, Frenwall Limited for Slot Owl and Winsly, Gareton B.V. for BitStarz.
• Licence number: its format tells you the regulator. MGA numbers look like MGA/B2C/1072/2024, Curaçao numbers like OGL/2024/165/0185, Anjouan numbers like ALSI-202506036-FI2, Estonian activity licences like HKT000082.
• Domain: the exact address you are on. Registers list domains, and mirror addresses with numbers or extra words often are not covered.

Then go to the register by typing the regulator’s address yourself, not by clicking a footer link you have no reason to trust. The exception is a seal-based regulator, where the footer seal is the intended route; there, check that the page it opens sits on the regulator’s own domain.

Malta Gaming Authority: searching the register

The MGA’s licensee register lets you search by company name or licence number and opens a verification page for each licensee. That page shows the company, address, licence number, licence type, status, approved game types, approved dispute body and the website addresses covered. A Malta licence is the strongest in our method and scores 5.0 for that reason.

1. Open the MGA licensee register and search for the operator company or the licence number.
2. Open the result. The verification page address should begin with authorisation.mga.org.mt; the page itself warns visitors to report any copy that does not.
3. Check the status reads “Licensed” and the type is B2C, the licence that serves players directly.
4. Scroll to the website URLs and look for the exact domain you are on.
5. Note the approved dispute body listed on the same page.

A real example: the verification page for Elvel Limited shows MGA/B2C/1072/2024 with status Licensed, Type 1 casino and Type 2 betting approvals, eCOGRA as the approved dispute body, and tastevegas.com among eight website addresses. Our Taste Vegas review uses that entry.

Do not expect the MGA to settle your case personally. Its player support team gave up deciding individual disputes in April 2019 (from the 1st). After writing to the casino, take the matter to the dispute body printed on that same verification page; for Elvel it is eCOGRA.

Curaçao Gaming Authority under the LOK

Since Christmas Eve 2024 the island has run on a new law, the Landsverordening op de kansspelen, usually shortened to LOK, and each operator now holds its own licence from the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) rather than a sub-licence from a private master holder. Look the number up through cga.cw. A casino still quoting the pre-2024 sub-licence model has not updated its footer.

The steps are simple when the register is running:

1. Take the licence number from the footer, in the OGL/year/number format, and the company name, usually a Curaçao B.V. or N.V.
2. Go to cga.cw and open the licence information or register, or use the certificate link at cert.cga.cw if the casino’s seal points there.
3. Match the company, the number and the status. A status such as “Assessment in progress” means the application is still being processed, not that a licence has been granted.

One caution applies this autumn. Intruders got into the CGA’s licensing system twice in September 2026, on the 17th and again on the 22nd, and when we looked on 2 October the system had not come back. Granted licences are unaffected, the CGA says. A failed or empty lookup during the outage therefore tells you nothing on its own; keep the footer number, try again later, and compare it with the casino’s terms in the meantime. Our BitStarz review shows how this applies to Gareton B.V.

The CGA will not referee your quarrel with a casino. Write to the operator first; if that fails, pick a dispute service from the CGA’s approved roster, which named seven bodies in its 31 August 2026 version.

Anjouan: check the seal ID, not the bare domain

Anjouan licences are issued under the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority in the Union of the Comoros. The reliable check is the seal in the casino’s footer, which must link directly to the operator’s verification page in the public register. Searching a bare domain can come back INVALID even for a licensed site, so a failed domain search proves nothing either way.

1. Scroll to the casino’s footer and click the Anjouan seal. The seal policy requires it to be shown site-wide and to link to the official verification page.
2. Check that the page opened is on anjouangaming.com and shows the operator name, licence number, type (B2C) and a valid status.
3. If you want a second check, use the Anjouan licence register, which lists company, status, licence number, type, issue and expiry dates and domains.
4. Compare the domain list with the address you are on. Numbered mirror addresses are a common gap.

Two of our reviewed casinos hold Anjouan licences: Goldroll (Hundise Limited, ALSI-202506036-FI2) and Tenobet (Softon Ltd, ALSI-202409012-FI1). The Goldroll review follows the seal route step by step.

Anjouan’s regulator leaves individual complaints to a set process instead of judging them. You start from the seal on the casino’s page; the casino then gets a month (30 days) to reply, a challenge to how a round was settled has a two-week (14-day) window, and anything left open moves to a dispute service that the casino, not you, pays for.

Kahnawake Gaming Commission: the permit-holders list

Kahnawake’s commission dates from 10 June 1996, sits in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke near Montreal, and began authorising online operators on 8 July 1999. Its public permit-holders page lists authorised operators by company name with the website addresses each one may run, so the check is a name-and-domain match.

1. Open the KGC permit-holders page.
2. Find the operator company from the casino’s footer; entries are listed alphabetically with their URLs.
3. Confirm the exact domain sits under that company. A company with no URL listed, or a domain under a different company, needs a question to support before you deposit.

The list holds several permit types. Client Provider Authorizations cover operators that offer games to players; software providers and live studios appear under their own authorisation types and do not serve players directly. As an example of how entries look, the KGC listed EverEdge Marketing Solutions SRL (KGC #01064) with moicasino.com, prontobet.com and quickslot.com when checked on 6 October 2026.

Complaints work differently from Curaçao or Anjouan. The KGC’s complaints page says a player must first take the issue to the operator, then can write to [email protected] or use the online form, giving name, date of birth, country, site, username and details. The Commission reviews complaints and tries to find solutions between the parties, but may drop a case already handled elsewhere or discussed publicly.

Estonia: the EMTA list of legal operators

Estonia licenses remote gambling through the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (EMTA), which publishes a list of legal gambling operators with their brands and websites. Licence numbers sit in the linked state register of economic activities. An Estonian licence is an EU licence, scored 4.5 in our method, with one gap: its consumer disputes committee only hears Estonian residents.

1. Open the EMTA list of legal gambling operators.
2. Find the operator under “games of chance online” and check the brand and website columns for the casino you are on.
3. Follow the link in the licence column to the register of economic activities and match the licence numbers in the casino’s terms.

In October 2026 Frenwall Limited appeared under online games of chance with ten websites, slotowl.com and winsly.com among them, and again under toto (sports betting) for those two brands. Our Winsly review covers its HKT000082 and HKT000083 activity licences. Estonian casino play is 21+, which is why Frenwall’s sites set that age.

Tobique Gaming Commission: use validate.thetgc.ca

Run by the Tobique First Nation, a Wolastoqey (Maliseet) community in New Brunswick, this commission takes applications from what it calls foreign online gaming operators. Like Anjouan, it relies on a seal: every legitimate Tobique Shield links to validate.thetgc.ca, and typing only a domain into the validator returns INVALID even for licensed sites. Click the shield on the casino’s own page instead.

1. Click the Tobique Shield in the casino footer.
2. Check that the page opened sits on validate.thetgc.ca and shows the operator company, the domain you are on and a VALID status.
3. For a second check, the TGC’s licence-holders page lists each company with licence type and expiry date, though not domains.

7Bit Casino is our reviewed example. In October 2026 its footer shield led to validate.thetgc.ca with 7bitcasino.com, the company Saphirix Solutions SRL and the word VALID, and the TGC’s licence-holders list shows Saphirix Solutions S.R.L as a B2C licensee with an expiry date in August 2027. Complaints about a Tobique-licensed operator must be filed through the complaints link in its Tobique Shield; the TGC says complaints sent any other way are not reviewed for those operators.

Which licence protects players most? A side-by-side view

No licence guarantees a payout, but they differ in what a regulator can do when something goes wrong. Malta requires a named ADR body for every licensee and sits inside the EU; Estonia is an EU regulator without player ADR for non-residents; Curaçao, Kahnawake, Anjouan and Tobique offer lighter routes. The table sets out the differences and our method’s licence score.

Scores come from our rating method, where the licence and dispute route carries 30% of every casino’s total.

What a licence does not protect

A valid licence confirms that a regulator authorised the company to run that domain. It does not approve the bonus terms, cap the withdrawal limits, set a payout speed or make the casino legal where you live. Read those parts yourself, because a fully licensed site can still pay out only EUR 1,000 a day or charge fees allowed by its terms.

Three gaps catch players most often:

• Your country: a licence from Malta, Estonia or Curaçao does not give a casino the right to serve players in a country with its own licensing system.
• Self-exclusion: it usually covers one site only. Closing one account does not close sister sites on the same licence.
• Mirrors and lookalikes: the licence covers the domains on the register. Numbered mirror addresses and copycat sites borrowing a brand name are not covered, which is why the domain check matters.

If something does go wrong, the order is the same everywhere: complain to the casino in writing, keep screenshots and transaction records, then use the route in the table. Our complaints guide sets out the wording and deadlines for each licence.

Is online gambling legal where you live?

That depends on your country, and sometimes your region, not on the casino’s licence. Some countries license online casinos locally and block or prosecute unlicensed ones; others regulate only domestic operators; a few say nothing about offshore play. This page is not legal advice: check your own government’s gambling regulator before you play.

A few examples show the range. Great Britain requires a Gambling Commission licence from any operator serving its residents. Private casinos in Ontario must register with iGaming Ontario, while the rest of Canada is organised by provincial lottery corporations. Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany each run national licensing systems, so the offshore casinos on this site are not for players there. Australia’s 2001 federal gambling statute (the Interactive Gambling Act) makes the operator, not the player, liable when online casino games are offered to Australian residents, and the regulator ACMA blocks offshore sites. In the United States, online casino play is legal only in states that license it.

The safe order of checks is: your country’s rules first, then the casino’s restricted-country list in its terms, then the licence. A casino that lets you register from a country its own terms exclude can void winnings later, whatever licence it holds.

Licence checks: short answers

Why does the Anjouan or Tobique register say INVALID for a casino that shows a seal?

Both regulators verify through the seal link, which carries an ID for that site. Typing a bare domain into the validator returns INVALID even for licensed operators. Click the seal in the casino footer and check that the page opened is on the regulator’s own domain.

Is a Curaçao licence still valid while the CGA portal is offline?

Yes, according to the CGA. Its portal has been down since the September 2026 intrusions, but the authority has stated that licences it already granted keep their validity. Note the footer number and repeat the lookup once the system is back.

Can the Malta Gaming Authority get my winnings paid?

Not directly. Malta’s regulator has left individual rulings to approved dispute bodies since spring 2019. Complain to the casino, then to the body listed on its MGA verification page, which is eCOGRA for several operators we review.

Does an Estonian licence let me use Estonia’s disputes committee?

Only if you live in Estonia. The consumer disputes committee hears Estonian residents only. Others can report an operator to the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, which regulates the licence but does not arbitrate individual cases.

What if the casino’s domain is not on the register?

Treat it as unlicensed until support explains it in writing. Mirror addresses and lookalike sites are a common reason, and the licence only covers the domains the regulator lists.

Does a licence make the casino legal in my country?

No. A licence shows where the operator is authorised, not where you may play. Your own country’s law, and the casino’s restricted-country list, decide that.

Licensed or not, gambling carries risk. Limits, self-exclusion and free help are listed on our responsible gambling page.