A gambling licence tells you which regulator an operator answers to and which rules protect you as a player. In Great Britain, those protections come only with a UK Gambling Commission licence; an offshore licence from Curaçao, Anjouan or anywhere else brings none of them.
What follows is general information about how licensing works and should not be read as legal advice.
Who needs a UK Gambling Commission licence
The Gambling Act 2005, as amended in 2014, requires any company offering remote gambling to people in Great Britain to hold an operating licence from the Gambling Commission. Since 1 November 2014 the deciding factor has been the customer’s location; where the company or its servers sit makes no difference. A casino run from Curaçao that takes bets from players in Manchester is caught by the same rule as one run from London.
Great Britain means England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is outside the 2005 Act and has its own gambling law.
If an operator serves Great Britain without a licence, the Gambling Commission says it is the company that acts illegally, rather than its customers. That is cold comfort for a player, because none of the protections below apply with an operator that holds no UK licence.
What a UK licence gives you as a player
As a customer, these are the licence conditions you actually notice:
| Protection | What it means for you | In force since |
|---|---|---|
| GAMSTOP | Every online licensee must take part, so one self-exclusion (6 months, 1 year or 5 years) covers all of them | 31 March 2020 |
| Age and ID checks | Your name, address and date of birth are verified before you can gamble, not when you first ask for a withdrawal | 7 May 2019 |
| Online slot stake limit | £5 per spin; £2 per spin for players aged 18–24 | 9 April 2025 (£5); 21 May 2025 (£2) |
| Bonus wagering cap | Wagering on a bonus can’t exceed 10x, and promotions that make you play more than one product, such as a sports bet to unlock casino spins, are banned | 19 January 2026 |
| Credit cards | You can’t fund gambling with a credit card | 14 April 2020 |
| Complaints | The operator’s complaints process first, then an independent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service | Licence requirement |
In pounds, the wagering cap is easy to picture. The Commission’s own example is a £10 bonus with 50x wagering, which means £500 of play before any winnings from it can be withdrawn. Under the 10x cap the same bonus needs £100 of play at most.
Because GAMSTOP only reaches operators inside its scheme, the Commission suggests using blocking software and a bank gambling block alongside it. Registering with GAMSTOP costs nothing.
Offshore licences: Curaçao, Anjouan and others
Offshore licences are issued by small jurisdictions to companies whose customers live in other countries. Such a licence ties the operator to that jurisdiction’s rules and, at best, gives players a route for complaints to its regulator. None of the UK protections above come with it, and in the Gambling Commission’s view a foreign licence does not permit an operator to offer gambling to people in Great Britain.
Curaçao. Licences are issued by the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), which publishes its register as a downloadable list; new-style numbers such as OGL/2024/… should appear there next to the holder’s company name. Older-style numbers such as 8048/JAZ come from the master-licence system used before Curaçao’s reform, so treat them as unconfirmed until the holder appears in the current CGA register.
Anjouan. Anjouan is one of the islands of the Comoros. Anjouan Licensing Services says it has issued more than 1,300 gambling licences. In December 2025 ABC News reported that Comoros authorities describe the island’s gambling regulators as “fictitious entities”. The standard text of Anjouan’s own online validator lists the United Kingdom among its excluded territories, so by Anjouan’s own terms its licences don’t extend to UK players.
Other names. Some sites cite bodies that have no searchable register, or quote company and data-processing registrations, which are not gambling licences at all. If there is no register to search, there is no way to check the claim.
How to read a licence claim
You will usually find licence information in the website footer and near the start of the terms and conditions. Each piece should be checked against a source the operator doesn’t control.
| What you see | What it should show | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Seal or badge in the footer | A click-through to the regulator’s own validator, showing the licence number, the company and the exact domain you are on | A static image, a link to another domain, or a page showing a different web address |
| Licence holder | The same company that the terms name as the operator | Different companies in the footer, the terms and the licence, or names that change by country |
| Licence number | An entry in the regulator’s public register under that company’s name | No entry, or the number belongs to another company |
| UKGC account number | A business entry in the Commission’s register, listing the web addresses it trades under | No result, or a personal licence held by an individual |
| Restricted territories | A clause listing the countries the operator does not accept | The United Kingdom on that list while the site markets itself to UK players |
Checking the UK register
Open the Gambling Commission public register and search the business register by company name, trading name, web address or account number. “No results” means no British licence under that name. Licensees must display their licensed status on their own websites, but look the number up yourself instead of relying on a link the site provides.
Personal licences sit in the same register. They go to individuals in key roles at licensed businesses and do not entitle anyone to run a gambling website, so a casino quoting a personal licence number as its own licence is a warning sign on its own. One lookalike Fortunica site does exactly this: its UKGC account number leads to a personal licence held by an individual. Copy sites use tricks like this to look genuine, and our guide to spotting lookalike casino sites shows how to check a domain before you log in anywhere.
Where Fortunica stands
Fortunica is not licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, so UK protections such as GAMSTOP do not apply. On 2 October 2026 the Commission’s register returned nothing for Fortunica or its domains. Reviewers cite offshore licences from Anjouan and Curaçao, yet neither could be matched to Fortunica in those public registers, and there is a version of Fortunica’s terms that lists the United Kingdom among restricted territories. Our full Fortunica licence check compares registers, company names and terms line by line. If you have registered with GAMSTOP, please don’t use this or any other gambling site.
Bonus terms, games and payment methods are all in our Fortunica Casino UK breakdown.
Gambling licences FAQ
Does a Curaçao or Anjouan licence cover players in the UK?
No. A foreign licence does not permit an operator to offer gambling to people in Great Britain, and it carries none of the UK protections such as GAMSTOP, the £5 slot stake limit or the 10x wagering cap. Anjouan’s own standard terms go further and exclude the UK.
How can I check whether a casino holds a UK licence?
Search the Gambling Commission’s public register by company name, web address or account number. “No results” means no British licence. Don’t rely on a badge or link on the casino’s own website.
What is the difference between an operating licence and a personal licence?
An operating licence lets a business offer gambling. A personal licence belongs to an individual in a key role at a licensed business and covers no website, so a casino quoting one as its licence is a warning sign.
18+ only. Gambling can be harmful. GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline (0808 8020 133), which costs nothing and answers 24 hours a day, with live chat and WhatsApp too. GambleAware (gambleaware.org) points you to advice and support near you. Through GAMSTOP (gamstop.co.uk) you can exclude yourself from all UKGC-licensed gambling sites in one step. Software such as BetBlocker (free) or Gamban blocks gambling sites and apps on a device, and many banks can switch on a gambling payments block in their app.