Is This Casino Licensed in My Country?

Last updated August 2026 · Casino Capybara editorial team

A licence is jurisdiction-specific: an operator holding a Malta or Curaçao licence is not thereby licensed in Italy, Ontario, Peru or Colombia, or anywhere else it hasn’t separately been authorised. “Is this casino licensed?” is not a yes/no question until you name a country, because most operators hold one licence to run their business from a given jurisdiction and, separately, need specific permission (or simply tolerance) to accept players from each market they serve. This guide sets out the three-question method for checking, and a country-by-country table of the actual regulator registers you can search yourself. It does not repeat our general walkthrough on how to check a casino licence or our breakdown of restricted countries — read those alongside this one.

Why “are they licensed?” only means something once you name a country

Licensing works on three separate levels, and mixing them up is the single biggest source of confusion for players trying to check an operator.

A licence to operate from a jurisdiction. This is the operator’s “home” authorisation — the regulator that vets the company, its owners, its systems and its finances, and that the operator answers to. Malta, Curaçao, Kahnawà:ke and Anjouan are all examples of home-jurisdiction licensors. Holding one of these says nothing on its own about which countries the operator may legally serve.
A licence (or authorisation) to offer services to players in a specific country. Countries with their own regulated markets — the UK, Italy, Spain, Ontario, Brazil and dozens more — require operators to hold a separate, market-specific licence before accepting players who are resident there. An operator can be fully compliant in Malta and still be operating illegally, or simply not authorised, in a country with its own regime.
A country where the operator is tolerated or blocked. Many jurisdictions have no domestic licensing regime for online casinos at all. Offshore-licensed operators may accept players from these markets without holding any local licence, because none exists to hold — or they may choose to block the market anyway, for tax, payments or compliance reasons unrelated to legality.

A casino’s footer seal only ever tells you about the first category. To answer “is this casino licensed for me“, you need to work through the method below.

The three-question method

1. Which country are you in?

Licensing is assessed by where the player is resident (and usually physically located when playing), not by nationality, currency or the language of the site. If you hold a UK passport but live in Spain, it’s the Spanish rules — and the Spanish register — that apply to you.

2. Does that country licence online casino play at all?

Some countries run a full domestic licensing regime (UK, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Ontario, Brazil). Others have no domestic online casino licence to obtain, and the honest answer is that “licensed in [country]” isn’t a category that exists there — the real question becomes whether the operator is willing to accept players from that market under its offshore licence, and what that means for you as set out in our restricted countries guide.

3. Is this specific operator on that country’s register?

If a domestic regime exists, check the operator’s exact legal entity name — not just its brand name — against the country’s official public register. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it’s the one that actually answers the question.

Regulator by regulator: where to check

This table covers the jurisdictions players ask about most. Every URL was checked directly; where a country doesn’t publish a clean, searchable public register, that’s stated rather than papered over. Regulator sites restructure often — if a link below has moved, search the regulator’s own domain for “register” or “licence holders” rather than trusting a third-party mirror.

Country / jurisdiction	Regulator	Public searchable register?	Where to check
Ontario, Canada	AGCO / iGaming Ontario	Yes — searchable by operator name, filterable by category	igamingontario.ca/en/operator/operators
Alberta, Canada	AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis)	Yes — searchable by keyword, stream and registration class, CSV export	aglc.ca/gaming-registrants
Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory	Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission	Yes — static list of certified operators and URLs, updated periodically (last dated update seen: September 2023)	gamingcommission.ca/interactive-gaming/permit-holders
United Kingdom	UK Gambling Commission	Yes — full live register (2,600+ records), searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number; Excel/CSV export	gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register/businesses
Malta	Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)	Yes — dynamic Licensee Register searchable by licensee name, status, URL or gaming service	mga.org.mt/licensee-hub/licensee-register
Italy	ADM (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli)	Partial — ADM publishes concessionaire information within its “gioco a distanza” (remote gaming) section, but not as a single name-search tool; verification is done by matching the licence/GAD code in a site’s footer against ADM’s published material	adm.gov.it — authorised remote gaming dealers
Spain	DGOJ (Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego)	Yes — “Buscador de operadores”, searchable by name/domain and licence type (currently around 77 entries)	ordenacionjuego.es — operator search
Sweden	Spelinspektionen	Yes — Licensregister covering all valid licences and permits, with Excel export	spelinspektionen.se — licensregister
Denmark	Spillemyndigheden	Yes — licence holders listed by category (betting, online casino, games suppliers, slot machines)	spillemyndigheden.dk/en/licence-holders
Netherlands	KSA (Kansspelautoriteit)	Yes — “Kansspelwijzer” tool, searchable by operator name with filters	kansspelautoriteit.nl/kansspelwijzer
Germany	GGL (Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder)	Yes — the statutory “Whitelist” of permitted operators, filterable by product and by which authority granted the permission	gluecksspiel-behoerde.de — Whitelist
Brazil	SPA / Ministério da Fazenda (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas)	Yes — official list of authorised fixed-odds betting (apostas de quota fixa) companies, downloadable as PDF/CSV, updated regularly	gov.br/fazenda — lista de empresas
Colombia	Coljuegos	Partial — Coljuegos publishes bulletins naming the current authorised operators (around 15 at time of writing) on its own domain, but not as a standing searchable database	coljuegos.gov.co — authorised operators bulletin
Peru	MINCETUR (Dirección General de Casinos de Juego y Máquinas Tragamonedas)	Partial — MINCETUR runs a government portal with several linked registries (platforms, technical providers, betting halls) rather than one simple operator name-search box	apuestasdeportivas.mincetur.gob.pe
Argentina	No single national regulator — licensing is set province by province	No — each province runs its own regime and register; there is no country-wide list	Example: Buenos Aires City uses LOTBA, whose licensed sites use the `.bet.ar` domain suffix; Buenos Aires Province uses the separate IPLyC
Mexico	SEGOB — Dirección General de Juegos y Sorteos	Not verifiable at time of writing — the federal permit-holder site was unreachable during checking, and no reliable current public register could be confirmed	—
Chile	Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ)	No — online casino gambling remains in a legal grey area pending legislation; the bill under debate in 2026 proposes a future national register, but none exists yet	—
Japan	None for online casinos	No — online casino gambling is illegal under Japan’s Penal Code; the only lawful casino path is land-based Integrated Resorts under the 2018 IR law, and none has opened yet	—
Finland	National Police Board (until mid-2027), then a new licensing authority	No register live yet — Finland’s licensing reform ends the Veikkaus monopoly on betting and online casino games, with applications opening progressively from 2026 and the market opening 1 July 2027	—
Curaçao	Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA)	Yes, under the post-2024 regime — the old “master/sub-licence” system was abolished; the CGA now issues licences directly and publishes a licence register	cga.cw — licence register (certificate lookup at cert.cga.cw)
Anjouan, Union of the Comoros	Disputed — see note below	A register exists, but which body actually holds regulatory authority is contested	anjouangaming.com/public-register — read the caution below before treating this as equivalent to the others in this table

For deeper, regulator-specific detail on how any one of these licences actually protects (or doesn’t protect) a player, see our dedicated guides to the Malta Gaming Authority licence, the Curaçao CGA/LOK licence, the Kahnawà:ke licence, the Anjouan licence and the Liberia licence. For Canadian provinces specifically, we also cover Alberta’s regulated market in more depth.

A word on Anjouan

Anjouan is worth a specific caution because it illustrates the footer-checking trap covered next. Industry reporting describes an ongoing dispute over who actually holds regulatory authority there: multiple entities have operated under names built around “Anjouan Gaming” or “Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority,” and the national government of the Union of the Comoros has reportedly disputed the legitimacy of the bodies issuing these licences. Treat any Anjouan-licensed seal as needing extra scrutiny, and don’t assume a working “verify” page settles the issuing body’s own authority.

How to read a licence footer critically

Finding a licence badge in the footer is the start of the check, not the end of it. Work through these before trusting it.

Licence numbers that don’t resolve

Take the licence number printed in the footer and search for it directly on the regulator’s own register (using the tables above) rather than clicking the seal itself, which can be styled to look official without linking anywhere real. If the number returns no result, returns a different company, or the register has no search function that recognises it, that’s a hard stop.

A licensee company name that differs from the brand

Casino brands are almost never the legal entity holding the licence. A footer might read “operated by Example N.V., licensed under [number]” for a casino trading as something else entirely. This is normal — but it means you must search the register for the legal entity name, not the brand, and then separately confirm the register lists that brand’s domain against that entity.

White-label arrangements

Many smaller-looking casino brands are white labels: they run on another company’s licence and platform, sometimes alongside dozens of other brands under the same umbrella. This isn’t inherently a problem, but it means the licence footer may name a platform operator you’ve never heard of rather than the brand itself — again, check the register entry, not just whether a number is present.

A licence listed as suspended or expired

Registers typically show a status field — active, suspended, expired, surrendered, cancelled — alongside the entry. A footer seal has no way of reflecting a status change the moment it happens, so the register, not the seal, is the current source of truth. A suspended or expired status on the register overrides whatever the site’s own badge claims.

Cloned or fake seals

Regulator logos are simple to copy. Some regulators (the MGA’s dynamic seal is one example) issue verification tools precisely because a static image proves nothing — the seal needs to link through to a live check, not just display an icon. If a “licensed by” badge isn’t a clickable link to the regulator’s own register, treat it as decorative until verified independently using the URLs above.

What “restricted country” in the terms and conditions actually means

Almost every offshore casino’s terms and conditions include a list of “restricted” or “prohibited” countries. It’s tempting to read the absence of your country from that list as confirmation you’re allowed to play — but that inference doesn’t hold. A restricted-countries list is the operator’s own compliance boundary, set for reasons that range from local law to payment-processor rules to the operator’s own risk appetite; it is not evidence of a licence, and being accepted is not the same as being licensed for you. An operator can legally (from its own home jurisdiction’s perspective) accept players from a country it holds no local licence for, simply because that country has no domestic regime to license against — see the three-question method above. Our restricted countries guide covers how operators actually enforce these lists (geo-blocking, KYC checks, payment declines) in more detail.

What you actually lose playing with an operator not licensed in your country

This isn’t a legal-advice question — whether you’re personally permitted to use an offshore site is determined by your own country’s law, and that’s for you (or a local advisor) to establish, not this article. What’s concretely true across almost every case is what you give up in terms of recourse:

No local complaint route. A licensed-for-you operator can be reported to the regulator that actually oversees your market. An operator with no licence in your country answers only to its home regulator, which typically won’t accept complaints about a player it wasn’t licensed to serve in the first place.
No local Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Regulated markets usually mandate a certified ADR scheme for unresolved disputes. Without a local licence, there’s no such scheme available to you — your only recourse is the operator’s own home-jurisdiction complaints process, if any.
Limited or no recourse on withheld funds. If an operator refuses a withdrawal, a domestic regulator can compel resolution or fine the operator. A home-jurisdiction-only regulator’s leverage over a dispute involving a player in a market it isn’t licensed for is much weaker, and in practice often nonexistent.

None of this means an offshore-only operator is unsafe by default — but the safety net a domestic licence provides simply isn’t there.

FAQ

Is this casino licensed in my country?

This article deliberately doesn’t answer that for any named brand — the answer changes over time and by country, and stating it here would go stale immediately. Use the method above and the operator’s exact legal entity name to check the relevant register yourself — if you’re asking whether an Italy-facing brand is authorised, that means matching its footer entity against ADM’s published concessionaire information, not assuming a Malta or Curaçao seal covers Italy.

What does a Curaçao licence cover?

A Curaçao licence, under the post-2024 CGA/LOK regime, authorises the operator to run its gaming business from Curaçao and confirms it’s regulated by the CGA. It does not, by itself, authorise the operator to serve players in any country that runs its own domestic licensing regime — see our full Curaçao gaming licence guide.

Does an MGA licence cover my country?

Only if your country doesn’t run its own domestic online casino licensing regime, or if the operator separately holds a licence for it. Malta’s MGA licenses the operator’s business; it doesn’t override a country like Italy, Spain or Ontario requiring its own local authorisation. See our MGA licence guide for what an MGA licence does and doesn’t guarantee.

What if my country has no gambling regulator at all?

Then “licensed in [country]” isn’t a real category there, and the operator is working solely under its home-jurisdiction licence (Malta, Curaçao, Kahnawà:ke, etc). Whether that’s legal for you to use is a question for your own country’s general law, not for the casino’s licence — this article can’t answer that for you, and neither can the operator’s terms.