How to check if an online casino is licensed with 6 register checks

Updated 8 October 2026

To check if an online casino is licensed, find the license number and licensee company in the site footer, open the regulator's official register yourself, and confirm three things. The company holds an active license, the number matches, and the exact domain you play on is listed under it. A seal image on the casino site proves nothing alone. The whole check takes about two minutes.

The 6 steps to verify an online casino license

1. Search the casino domain first. Paste the domain into the search on our homepage. We read 27 official registers daily and cover 10,752 licensed domains, so if the domain sits in one of them the check ends here with the licensee, license number and current status, plus a link to the regulator's entry.
2. Find the license claim in the footer. A real operator names three things at the bottom of the site, the regulator, a license number and the licensee company. If any of the three is missing, the casino has not made a license claim you can verify.
3. Identify the regulator and its register. The footer names an authority such as the MGA, the UKGC or the Curacao Gaming Authority, the CGA that replaced the old GCB. Each of our jurisdiction pages describes one authority and links its official register.
4. Open the official register yourself. Type the register address or use the table below. Never follow a register link from the casino site itself, because a fake casino can link to a fake register. If you click a seal, check that the page opens on the regulator's own domain.
5. Search the licensee company and the license number. Licenses are granted to legal entities, so search the company name from the footer, then confirm the license number matches and the status reads active. Where the register shows dates, check that the expiry date has not passed.
6. Match the exact domain. Most registers list the web domains each license covers. The domain in your address bar must appear there letter for letter. A licensed company can still operate unlicensed sites on other domains.

How to spot a fake gambling license seal

A copied seal is the easiest way for an unlicensed casino to look licensed. Treat the claim as unverified when you see any of these signs.

• The seal is a flat image that does not click through to anything.
• The seal opens a page on a lookalike domain instead of the regulator's own site.
• The verification page names a different company or does not list the casino's domain.
• The license number in the footer does not exist in the official register.
• A Curacao casino still shows the orange sub-license seal, which lost its validity in January 2025.

Official casino license registers by jurisdiction

Every regulator below publishes a register you can search for free. Use these links instead of any link the casino supplies.

Why a licensed operator can still run an unlicensed casino site

A gambling license belongs to a company and covers a list of domains. It does not travel to every site that uses the same brand name. Our data shows the gap clearly. Across the registers we read, 10,147 domains appear with no valid license, from withdrawn certificates to official block lists. Matching the domain in step 6 is what separates the real casino from a copy.

What it means when a casino is not in the register

An operator missing from the register failed the license check in that jurisdiction. Search the license number as well, since an entry can sit under a new company name after a rebrand. If neither the company nor the number appears, treat the site as unlicensed there and check whether it holds a license from another regulator.

Some registers answer with more than yes or no. The Curacao certificate portal, for example, distinguishes five states.

1. A valid Certificate of Operation, the only state that permits serving players.
2. A certificate marked not valid.
3. A domain removed from the registry.
4. An operator under application without authorization to operate.
5. A B2B authorisation, which covers supplying other operators and never serving players.

A few places have no online gambling license at all, so any license claim naming them cannot be verified. See our pages on Costa Rica and Eritrea.

Frequently asked questions about casino license checks

Ready to test a casino? Search any casino domain against 27 official registers, or browse every gambling jurisdiction we cover.