Casino licences: which claims can be checked

Online casino licensing is one of the most important aspects of the modern gambling industry. When you choose where to play, the license held by an operator tells you a great deal about the platform's reliability, fairness, and commitment to player protection. At Rizomasolutions, we believe that understanding licensing is not just a technicality — it is the foundation of a safe and enjoyable online gaming experience. On this page, we explain what casino licenses are, which authorities issue them, and why they matter to every player who visits a real-money casino platform.

What Is an Online Casino License?

An online casino license is an official authorization granted by a regulatory authority that permits an operator to offer gambling services legally within a specific jurisdiction. This document is far more than a formality. Before any reputable regulator issues a license, the applicant must undergo rigorous checks covering financial stability, software fairness, anti-money-laundering (AML) procedures, responsible gambling policies, and data protection standards.

Without a valid license, a casino operates outside the law. Licensed operators are held accountable to ongoing compliance requirements, meaning they must continuously meet standards or risk losing their authorization. Anyone choosing a casino can check this themselves: the number in the footer, then the entry in the regulator’s register, and inside that entry the type and the domain.

Why Licensing Matters for Players

Players sometimes overlook licensing when comparing bonuses or game libraries, but this is a mistake. A valid license from a credible jurisdiction provides several critical protections:

• Fair gameplay: Licensed casinos are required to use certified Random Number Generators (RNGs) and submit their games for independent auditing. This ensures that outcomes are genuinely random and not manipulated in favor of the house beyond the published Return to Player (RTP) percentages.
• Secure transactions: Regulators mandate that operators use industry-standard encryption protocols to protect financial and personal data. Your deposits, withdrawals, and identity documents are handled securely.
• Segregated player funds: Many licensing bodies require that player funds be kept separate from operational funds. This means your balance is protected even if the operator encounters financial difficulties.
• Responsible gambling tools: Licensed platforms must offer self-exclusion options, deposit limits, session time reminders, and access to problem gambling support organizations.
• Dispute resolution: If you have a complaint that the operator cannot resolve, licensed casinos must provide access to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service.

This site features no casinos and runs no reviews, so there is nothing here you have to take on our word. Where you do find licence details is in the operator’s own footer — and after that in the regulator’s register, which you open by typing the address rather than clicking a badge.

Major Licensing Jurisdictions

Not all licenses carry equal weight. Some jurisdictions are known for their thorough vetting processes and strong player protections, while others are considered lighter-touch. Below is an overview of the most recognized licensing authorities in the industry today.

Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)

The Malta Gaming Authority is widely regarded as one of the gold standards in online gambling regulation. Established under the Gaming Act of 2018, the MGA oversees operators licensed in Malta and enforces strict rules on player protection, AML compliance, and technical standards. An MGA license is accepted in most European markets and signals a high level of trustworthiness. Operators holding an MGA license must adhere to detailed responsible gambling frameworks and report regularly to the authority.

UK Gambling Commission (UKGC)

The UK Gambling Commission is arguably the most stringent regulator in the world. Operators licensed by the UKGC must comply with the Gambling Act 2005 and a continuously evolving set of consumer protection rules. The Commission has introduced significant reforms in recent years, including enhanced affordability checks, stronger advertising restrictions, and mandatory safer gambling tools. Any casino targeting UK players must hold a UKGC license. For players based in the United Kingdom, a UKGC-licensed platform provides the highest available level of regulatory protection.

Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA)

Gibraltar has been a respected gambling jurisdiction since the early days of online gaming. The Gibraltar Regulatory Authority grants licenses to a relatively small number of operators, focusing on established companies with strong track records. As a British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar benefits from close ties to UK regulatory standards, making its license a reliable indicator of quality.

Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission

The Isle of Man has built a strong reputation for regulating online gambling since 2001. Its Gambling Supervision Commission applies rigorous standards comparable to MGA requirements. Operators licensed here must demonstrate financial integrity, use certified gaming software, and maintain robust responsible gambling measures. Several major international operators choose the Isle of Man as their licensing base.

Kahnawake Gaming Commission

Based in Canada, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has been regulating online gambling since 1999. It is particularly significant for North American operators and provides a framework that emphasizes fair play and timely payouts. While its reach is primarily in non-European markets, a Kahnawake license is a legitimate credential recognized across the industry.

The newer jurisdictions people actually ask about

The list above is the one every licensing page repeats. It is also ten years out of date: most operators you meet today run under jurisdictions that issued no online licences back then. Here is what each of them is and — the part that decides everything — whether a claim can be checked from outside. Checked on 14 September 2026.

Anjouan (Union of the Comoros)

Anjouan has become one of the most common licences in casino footers and one of the easiest to check: the authority publishes a public register as a single readable page. Each entry names the holding company, a number of the form ALSI-…-FI, the status, the type (B2C or B2B), the issue and expiry dates and — unusually — the list of domains it covers. That last field is what makes the check meaningful: one company often runs several sites, and a mirror on a domain that is not listed is not covered, however identical the page looks.

Bougainville (Papua New Guinea)

The newest of the group. The Bougainville Offshore Gaming Authority (BOGA) operates in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville under the Bougainville Offshore Gaming Authority Act 2025, so any licence from it is months old at most. It runs a verification portal that searches by licence number or business name, and certificates carry a QR code to the same check. Two things follow: the register is small, so if nothing comes up under a company name the likely explanation is that the claim is wrong rather than the portal incomplete — and there is no track record, because nobody yet knows how this authority handles a complaint. BOGA publishes its commercial terms openly: 0% tax on gaming revenue and a flat annual fee of $10,000. That tells you what the jurisdiction offers operators, not what it offers you.

El Salvador

Gambling in El Salvador sits with the Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia. The practical problem differs from Anjouan’s: we could not find a public licensee lookup on 14 September 2026. An «El Salvador licence» in a footer therefore cannot be confirmed from outside the way an Anjouan or Bougainville number can. If you see one, the honest position is unverified — not false, but nobody has given you a way to check it.

Montenegro

The state regulator is the Games of Chance Administration (Uprava za igre na sreću) under the Games of Chance Act. As with El Salvador we found no public licensee lookup, so a claim is not checkable from outside.

There is a second trap here worth naming. Searching for the Montenegrin regulator turns up commercial sites describing themselves as the official regulatory authority while actually selling help with licence applications. That is exactly what the «type the address yourself» rule is for: reach a regulator through the state’s own domain, never through a link, a badge or an official-looking search result.

Curaçao, and why the old name is wrong

Curaçao deserves its own note because almost every licensing page gets it wrong, this one included until now. For years Curaçao licences reached operators through a handful of master licence holders; Curaçao eGaming was one of them, not a regulator. A number in a footer therefore often belonged to that master holder rather than to the site you were on, which is why so many Curaçao numbers could never be matched to anything. After the reform the Curaçao Gaming Authority issues directly: one holder, one entry, a list of domains. Structurally a real improvement — we still found no public search by number.

And our own entry, so you can apply the same test here

A page that tells you to distrust a licence claim without a number should show its own. In the public Anjouan register, checked on 14 September 2026 and again on 22 October 2026: holder ARL Trading Ltd, number ALSI-202602012-FI1, status valid, type B2B, issued 16 February 2026 and running to 15 February 2027, covering rizomasolutions.com along with evolvosolution.com, limbosolution.com and arlgaming.com.

Read the type field rather than the status, because it decides what an entry means. B2B covers supplying services and software to operators. B2C is the type that covers taking bets from players. They are not interchangeable, and a register hit of the wrong type answers a different question from the one you asked. So on any casino, do not stop at «found in the register»: confirm the entry is B2C, in the operator’s own name, unexpired, and covering the exact domain you are on.

How to Verify a Casino License

Responsible platforms make their licensing information easy to find. Here is how you can verify that an operator's license is genuine:

• Scroll to the bottom of the casino’s website. Licensed operators should display their licence number and the name of the issuing authority. There is often a badge as well; do not treat it as proof and do not click it — copy the number down and open the register yourself.
• Visit the regulator's official website directly and use their public license register to search for the operator by name or license number.
• Check the date of issue and expiry. A license should be current. An expired license means the operator is no longer authorized to operate legally.
• Cross-reference the license with the platforms covered in our reviews section, where we provide up-to-date licensing details for every operator we assess.

If you cannot find licensing information on a casino's website, or if the provided license number does not appear in the regulator's database, treat this as a serious warning sign and avoid depositing any funds.

Licensing and Responsible Gambling

A core function of modern gambling regulation is the promotion of responsible gambling. Licensed operators are legally obligated to implement tools and resources that help players stay in control. These typically include:

• Deposit limits: Players can set daily, weekly, or monthly limits on how much they deposit.
• Loss limits: Some platforms allow players to cap how much they can lose within a defined period.
• Session time limits: Reminders or automatic logouts after a player has been active for a set amount of time.
• Reality checks: Pop-up notifications showing how long a session has lasted and the net result of play.
• Self-exclusion: The ability to temporarily or permanently exclude oneself from the platform, and in some jurisdictions, from all licensed operators simultaneously through national self-exclusion programs.
• Links to support organizations: Licensed casinos must provide visible links to organizations such as GamCare, Gamblers Anonymous, and BeGambleAware.

Responsible gambling sits with an operator, not with an information site: deposit limits, loss limits, session reminders, time-outs and self-exclusion are obligations of whoever holds your money. What you can check before depositing is whether those tools appear in the terms and whether they can be found inside the account without having to ask support.

Which Fields in an Entry Decide the Outcome

A register entry is a handful of fields, and four of them decide whether it applies to your situation. Holder: does the entry stand in the operator’s own name, or in another company’s from the same group? Type: B2C covers taking bets from players, B2B covers supplying operators — this is the field most often skipped. Validity: is the entry still current on the day you look? Domains: does it list the exact domain you are on, rather than just the brand name?

Those four fields are also why this page passes no judgement on operators: a judgement cannot be checked, an entry can. If any one of the four fails — wrong holder, wrong type, expired validity, or a missing domain — you have established that yourself, without trusting anybody.

Final Thoughts on Casino Licensing

Licensing is the backbone of a trustworthy online casino. It represents a commitment by the operator to meet independently verified standards of fairness, security, and player protection. Understanding which authorities regulate which platforms — and what those regulations actually require — puts you in a much stronger position as a player.

This page has one purpose: to let you check a licence claim yourself, including this site’s own. There are no reviewed operators here and no ranking — only the registers, the fields they contain, and the question of which of those apply to your situation. Questions about the text can go to the email address in the footer.