Safety Guide
How to Check a Casino Licence Yourself
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Written by the editorial team
Most casino sites display a licence claim somewhere in the footer. Very few readers check it, and the check takes about five minutes. This guide is the procedure we follow on every operator page, written so you can run it yourself and not have to take our word — or the operator's — for anything.
One thing to be clear about up front: a licence is not a safety guarantee and it is not a statement about the law where you live. It tells you a regulator has authorised the operator under its own rules, and it usually tells you who you can complain to. That is worth a lot, and it is also all it is.
Step 1 — Find the claim, in the operator's own words
Scroll to the site footer and to the terms and conditions. You are looking for four things, and you want all four written down before you go anywhere near a register:
- The name of the licensing authority.
- The licence or registration number exactly as printed, including any prefixes.
- The legal entity said to hold it — a company name, not the brand.
- The registered address, if one is given.
If the footer shows a regulator logo but no number and no entity, that is your first finding. Vague phrasing such as "licensed and regulated internationally" is not a licence claim and cannot be verified.
Step 2 — Look it up in the regulator's own register
Go directly to the regulator's website — type the name into a search engine and open the official domain, rather than following a link the casino provides. Regulators publish a public register or licensee list; search it by the number first, then by the entity name.
- Does the number exist in the register at all?
- Does it resolve to the same legal entity the footer names?
- Is the status current — active rather than expired, surrendered or suspended?
- Do the listed domains include the site you are actually on?
- Do the permitted activities cover casino games, and a sportsbook if the site offers one?
The domain list is the detail most people skip
Several regulators list the specific domains a licence covers. A valid licence held by a real company that does not list the site you are on is a genuine mismatch, and it is exactly the kind of thing a copied badge produces.
Step 3 — Read what the licence actually covers
Scope and permitted markets
Licences authorise defined activities, sometimes in defined markets. A licence issued in one jurisdiction rarely authorises the operator to target players in another, and it never overrides local law where you are. Coverage on our site is not a statement that you are eligible.
Direct licence or white label
Under a white-label arrangement the licence belongs to a platform provider and the brand runs on top of it. That is common and not inherently bad, but it changes who is accountable and who your complaint ultimately goes to. If the register entity is clearly a platform company rather than the brand, note it.
Complaint and dispute routes
Find, in the regulator's own material, whether it accepts player complaints directly and whether an alternative dispute resolution body is designated. This is the practical value of the licence: it is the difference between having somewhere to escalate and having nowhere. The route itself is covered in how to escalate a crypto casino complaint.
Red flags worth stopping for
- A number that does not appear in the register.
- A register entry whose status is expired, suspended or surrendered.
- An entity in the register that does not match the entity in the footer or the terms.
- A licence badge that links nowhere, or links back to the casino's own page rather than the regulator.
- Terms that name a different regulator from the footer.
- A regulator that publishes no searchable register at all, so no claim can be verified either way.
- A site that names no legal entity anywhere, including in its terms.
None of these are proof of dishonesty. All of them are reasons to stop and think before you deposit, and each one is worth more than any ranking or rating you will read anywhere — including ours.
Record what you found
Keep a short record so you can re-check later and so you have evidence if a dispute arises. Six fields is enough: brand, legal entity, regulator, licence number, register URL, status and date checked. Licences lapse and entities change; a note with a date is what tells you whether your last check is still worth anything.
This is the same record we keep internally, described in our operator fact-check checklist. How those findings translate into scoring is set out in our review methodology. If you find that something we published about a licence is wrong, our corrections policy explains how to tell us.
Common questions
- Is a licence badge in the footer proof of a licence?
- No. A badge is an image, and images can be copied. Proof is the operator's licence number appearing against the correct legal entity in the regulator's own public register.
- Why does the company name not match the brand?
- Most casino brands are operated by a separate legal entity, and some sit under a white-label arrangement where the licence belongs to a platform provider. A mismatch is not automatically a red flag, but the entity named in the footer should be traceable in the register.
- Does a licence mean the site is legal where I live?
- No. A licence permits the operator to offer gambling under that regulator's rules; it says nothing about the law in your country. Eligibility is a separate question you have to check for yourself.
- What if the register shows the licence as inactive?
- Treat that as a stop signal. An inactive, suspended or expired entry against a site still taking deposits is one of the strongest negative findings you can turn up in a few minutes of checking.