How do I check a casino licence?

The four steps

1. Find the regulator and the licence number in the casino's footer or terms.
2. Open that regulator's own public register: type its address, or use the official register link on this site's licence pages. Not a seal or a link on the casino's site. Search the number or the company.
3. Check that the status is active, and that the casino's brand or domain is listed.
4. Ignore seals: a seal that does not lead to the regulator proves nothing.

Worked example: Gambling Commission (UKGC)

1. The casino names the UKGC and a licence number. Numbers on the register look like 000000-R-000000-000.
2. Open the UKGC public register. It lists the businesses the regulator licenses, their licences with each one's status, and the trading names and domain names each business has declared.
3. Find the business by its name or by the number the casino prints. Its licence status must be active.
4. The casino's domain must be among the business's domain names.
5. Per the register, a UKGC licence is valid in these markets: United Kingdom. Elsewhere it does not make play legal.

On file: 683 UKGC licence records, read 2 Oct 2026. United Kingdom (UKGC)

Worked example: Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)

1. The casino names the MGA and a licence number. Numbers on the register look like MGA/B2C/000/0000 or MGA/B2C/0000/0000.
2. Open the MGA licensee register and search the number or the company.
3. The company's page on the MGA's own site lists the status of its licence, its licences and its websites. The status must be in force, and the casino's domain must be among the websites.
4. An MGA licence of this kind is offshore: it does not make play legal where your country requires its own licence.

On file: 566 MGA licence records, read 2 Oct 2026. Malta (MGA)

Cloned seals

Some sites show a regulator's seal that opens a page made to look like the regulator's own check, on a domain that is not the regulator's. The seal is a picture and a link the casino chose.

Open the register yourself: type the regulator's address, or use the official register link on the licence pages here. Then compare the domain in the address bar with the regulator's, letter by letter.

Does an offshore licence make it legal to play where I live?

No. An offshore licence is issued where the operator is based. Where your country requires its own licence, a site without that licence is not licensed for you, whatever else it holds.

What each country requires: Markets.

What if the casino is not on the register?

Search again by the company name, every domain and the licence number: registers list companies, not brands. If the regulator's own register still shows nothing, the casino gives you no licence you can check. Not finding it proves nothing else.

Why a licence can be missing from a search, and what the site does about it: Methodology.