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Editorial illustration for Licensing

The regulator identified on a casino's footer is the most important single data point a player has about that operator. Everything downstream — complaint procedures, minimum standards for game fairness, data protection, financial-conduct rules — is set by that jurisdiction's licensing framework. This page explains what each of the main non-UK regulators does, how they differ from the UK Gambling Commission, and what those differences mean in practice.

The UK Gambling Commission as reference point

The UKGC is the yardstick against which other jurisdictions are usefully compared. It requires: annual licence fees running from thousands to hundreds of thousands of pounds; mandatory participation in GamStop and IBAS; independent testing of all games; segregated player funds at a defined protection level; affordability checks above certain thresholds; the credit-card ban; and detailed reporting on complaints, self-exclusions and problem-gambling indicators. Its enforcement powers include fines running to tens of millions of pounds and licence revocation. Between 2020 and 2025, the UKGC withdrew or suspended licences from more than a dozen operators, several of which had substantial market share.

No non-UK jurisdiction currently matches this depth of oversight. Some come close in specific areas; none replicate the full package. Below we outline the four regulators most relevant to non GamStop casinos.

Curaçao — the Gambling Control Board

Curaçao has been the most common licensing jurisdiction for offshore casinos since the late 1990s. Historically, the system operated through a small number of master licensees who issued sub-licences to individual operators, with limited direct oversight of end-operators. The 2024 restructuring — the Landsverordening op de Kansspelen (LOK) reform — replaced sub-licensing with direct issuance by the Gambling Control Board, tightened application requirements, and introduced clearer complaint procedures.

The reform is a genuine improvement. Applications now require detailed business plans, technical certification of games, source-of-funds evidence for beneficial owners, and ongoing compliance reporting. Enforcement powers include suspension and revocation, and the GCB has begun publishing a list of active licensees. However, the regime is still consolidating: enforcement records are limited, complaint response times remain slower than UK standards, and player funds are not required to be held in segregated accounts at the UK protection level. In summary: better than it was, still substantially less protective than UK.

Anjouan — a newer, cheaper alternative

Anjouan, one of the islands of the Union of the Comoros, relaunched its gambling licensing regime in 2023. The Anjouan licence is significantly cheaper and faster to obtain than Curaçao, which has made it attractive to operators looking to reduce regulatory costs. There are, however, meaningful trade-offs: minimal published compliance standards, no publicly available ADR process, and a very limited enforcement track record. Players considering a site with only an Anjouan licence should treat that as a strong signal to look carefully at the operator's own reputation, corporate transparency and dispute-handling history, because the regulator itself provides limited backstop.

Kahnawake — the Canadian option

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, based in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in Quebec, has licensed online gambling operators since 1996. It is a long-established regulator with a written complaints procedure, published licensee list and target response times. It is not as demanding as the MGA or UKGC, but it is materially more established than Curaçao (pre-LOK) or Anjouan. Kahnawake-licensed operators are less common in the "non GamStop" segment because the jurisdiction targets a slightly different market, but where present, the licence is a positive signal.

Malta and Gibraltar — the high-standard end

The Malta Gaming Authority and the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority operate the most demanding non-UK regulatory regimes. Both require substantial capital, independent game testing, formal ADR processes, segregated player funds and detailed reporting. Operators holding MGA or Gibraltar licences are typically well-established European brands, and the licence is a strong positive signal.

The complication is that Malta and Gibraltar licensees serving UK players must also hold a UKGC licence (because they are marketing to Britain), and in practice the vast majority do. So while MGA and Gibraltar licences appear on many high-street online gambling brands, they rarely appear as the sole licence on a "non GamStop" site. When they do, it is worth asking why the operator has chosen not to hold a UKGC licence — it is often not for lack of ability to obtain one.

How to verify a licence

Every serious regulator publishes a licensee register. To verify a specific operator's licence:

  1. Note the operator's exact registered name from its terms and conditions (not just the brand name)
  2. Note the licence number if displayed
  3. Search the regulator's public register directly (do not follow links from the operator's site)
  4. Check that the licensed entity's name matches the terms-and-conditions counterparty exactly

Mismatches — the brand claiming a licence held by an unrelated company, or a licence number that does not appear on the register — are a red flag. So is the absence of a licence number altogether. Our player safety page covers these signals in more depth.

Why the licence choice matters more than the brand

Two operators can market the same games at the same headline bonus terms while sitting under entirely different regulatory regimes. From the player's perspective — the perspective that matters when something goes wrong — the licence is the single strongest predictor of how the operator will behave under pressure. Reading the fine print of an operator's terms and conditions is worth doing; reading the fine print of the licensing regime the operator sits under is at least as important.

Frequently asked questions