Compliance

Licensing, explained

What a licence covers, what it does not, and how to check one yourself in two minutes.

Last updated August 2026

No licence number, regulator or jurisdiction is stated anywhere on this site for the casino it covers. Licensing arrangements change, and a stale or second-hand licence claim is worse than none — it invites trust in something nobody verified. Read it from the operator's own footer and check it with the regulator directly.

What a licence actually guarantees

A gambling licence is a regulatory permission with conditions attached. In broad terms it obliges the holder to keep player funds separate from operating money, to verify the identity and age of customers, to publish terms that are not misleading, to offer limit and self-exclusion tools, and to submit to a dispute process the operator does not control.

It also means an authority exists that can be complained to and can act. That is the practical value: not a promise that you will be treated well, but a body with the power to intervene when you are not.

What it does not guarantee

A licence says nothing about whether a bonus is generous, whether wagering is reasonable, whether support is competent, or whether a payout will be quick. A fully licensed operator can run a poor promotion and answer emails slowly, and the regulator will have no view on either. Regulation sets a floor for conduct; it does not set a standard for quality.

Checking one yourself

1. Find the claim Licence details normally sit in the operator's own footer: the licensing authority, the licence number and the registered company name. If none of those appear anywhere on the site, that absence is itself the finding.

2. Go to the regulator, not the badge Every serious authority publishes a searchable register. Look the number up there. A footer badge is an image and can be copied by anyone in a minute.

3. Match the company name The register entry should name the same company that appears in the site's terms. A brand operating under a licence issued to an unrelated entity is the mismatch worth catching.

4. Check it is current Registers show status and dates. A lapsed, suspended or surrendered licence still looks identical in a footer graphic.

If something goes wrong

Complaints follow an order. Raise it with the operator first and in writing, keeping the reference. If that fails, licensed operators are required to offer an independent dispute resolution route, which is named in their terms. The regulator itself is the final step, and it is interested in patterns of conduct as much as in individual cases.

Related reading: how these pages are written covers what is and is not published here, and responsible gambling covers the protections that exist regardless of any licence.