A licence badge in a casino footer proves nothing. Anyone can paste one. A gambling license check means finding the licence on the regulator’s own register and matching it to the site you are on. It takes about five minutes once you know the steps. This is the method we use on every brand we review, and you can repeat it yourself.
The five steps
- Find the claim. Scroll to the footer or the terms page. Note the regulator, the licence number and the company name.
- Open the regulator’s register. Go there directly by typing the address or using the links below. Do not follow a link from the casino.
- Search. Use the company name, licence number or domain.
- Read the status. Active is the one you want. Suspended, expired, surrendered and revoked are not the same thing.
- Match the domain. The site you are on should appear on the register entry, or sit under the licensed company’s listed websites.
If any step fails, stop. A failed step does not prove fraud. It means the licence claim is not confirmed, and we then label the brand “Licence: not verified”.
Step 1: find the licence holder, not the brand
Casinos trade under a brand name. The licence belongs to a company. LeoVegas, for example, is a brand. In our check, the entry on the UK register is “LeoVegas Gaming PLC”, with domains leovegas.com and leovegas.co.uk. Casumo’s UK entry is under “Recro Limited”, which lists casumo.com. If you search the brand name and nothing comes up, search the company name from the terms page.
Many sites also use a different company for their affiliate programme. That is not the licence holder either.
Step 2: pick the right register
UK Gambling Commission
The register of gambling businesses lets you search by business name, trading name, domain name or account number (read 2026-10-28). Each entry shows the account number, the legal name, the head office address, the licence status (for example active, expired, revoked or suspended), the dates the business was licensed for a product, the trading names and domain names with their statuses, and any regulatory actions such as sanctions or settlements.
Our worked examples from 26 October 2026:
| Brand | Account number | What we matched |
|---|---|---|
| LeoVegas | 39198 | Remote casino, active; domains match |
| Videoslots | 39380 | Remote casino, active |
| Casumo | 61549 | Remote casino, active under Recro Limited; an older Casumo Services Limited licence is shown as surrendered |
The Commission’s register also helps you size the field. On 26 October 2026 it listed 138 active remote casino operating licences, out of 4,505 licence rows of all kinds (Gambling Commission public register, business-licence-register-licences.csv, downloaded 2026-10-26).
There is a longer walkthrough in how to use the UKGC public register. For what this regulator does, see UKGC: what the UK Gambling Commission licence means for players.
Malta Gaming Authority
The MGA licensee register can be searched by licensee name, authorisation status, URL or gaming service. Each licensee has an authorisation page showing licence numbers, licence types and a status. The MGA also keeps a separate enforcement register of suspended or cancelled authorisations. If a company is not on the main register, check there too.
See Malta Gaming Authority (MGA): licences, registers and player help.
Curaçao Gaming Authority
The CGA publishes its online gaming licence register as a PDF. The version of 20 October 2026 lists 666 online licences: 571 B2C and 95 B2B. Of the 571 B2C licences, 180 have status “Indefinite”, 260 “Assessment in progress”, 52 “Expired”, 46 “Revoked” and 33 show no status (CGA online gaming licence register, Curaçao Gaming Authority, 2026-10-20).
That split is why you must read the status and not just find the name. Only a minority show “Indefinite”. “Assessment in progress” is not the same as a granted licence. See the Curaçao Gaming Authority page for how to read each status.
Isle of Man
The GSC publishes an online gambling licensee register with status, valid-from and valid-to dates, licence type and website domains. Our page on the Isle of Man GSC explains the three licence types.
What a mismatch looks like
- Name not found. The footer names a company the register does not list. Try variations in spelling, then stop.
- Right company, wrong domain. The licence is real but the site you are on is not listed under it. This is the common sign of a clone or an affiliate-run copy.
- Right company, wrong status. Suspended, expired, surrendered or revoked.
- Licence type does not fit. For example, a supplier licence shown as if it were an operator licence.
- A licence claim with no regulator named. A seal image with nothing to click or no regulator name is just an image.
Then check the warning lists
A valid licence does not mean no problems. Regulators also publish lists of blocked sites, unauthorised sites and sanctions. We read 13 sets of official lists. Among them: the Australian ACMA blocked list (1,810 domains), Italy’s ADM list (13,079 domains) and Poland’s register (58,834 domains). Read regulator warning lists to see what each list means and how to read a hit.
Check where you are allowed to play
A licence from one country does not make a site legal for players in another. Some countries block brands that hold a licence elsewhere. If the site shows “Not available in” your country on our pages, the offer is off for you.
A worked example, start to finish
Say a casino footer says “Licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission” and gives a company name. You open the UK register in a new tab and search the company name. You find an entry with an active remote casino licence. You open the entry and look at the domain list. If the domain in your browser bar is on that list with an active status, the claim holds. If the company is real but your domain is not listed, you are probably on a copy, and you should leave.
Now say the footer says Curaçao. You find the company in the CGA PDF, but the status reads “Assessment in progress”. The licence is not yet granted. Our rule is simple: a status that is not a granted one is not a confirmed licence, so the brand is labelled “Licence: not verified” until the register shows otherwise.
Common mistakes
- Trusting a licence number typed in the footer. Search the register for it.
- Searching only the brand name. Search the company and the domain as well.
- Reading “found” as “fine”. You must read the status.
- Using a register found via the casino. Type the regulator’s address yourself.
- Checking once and forgetting. Status changes. Check again before a large deposit.
What a licence check cannot tell you
It does not tell you how fast a casino pays, whether bonus terms are fair, or how it treats complaints. Our rating method covers those separately. If you want to see how a licence is obtained in the first place, read how to get a gambling license. For the basics, start with what a gambling licence is.
The five-minute version
- Footer: note regulator, number, company.
- Regulator’s own register: search company, number, domain.
- Status: active.
- Domain: listed.
- Warning lists: nothing against the brand’s own domain.
If all five hold, the licence claim is confirmed. If one does not, treat the site as unverified.
To see the register entries we have already checked, use our casino licence checker.