The State of Casino Licensing 2026
Every online casino displays a licence in its footer. We checked whether those licences hold up. Across 422 casinos in BetScan's index, 1 in 9 holds no licence we could verify against any public register, more than a third run on offshore frameworks, and the regulator a casino chooses turns out to be the single strongest predictor of how trustworthy it is.
The four numbers that matter
Figures from BetScan's index as of June 2026. Trustpilot percentage is of the 337 casinos with a public Trustpilot rating.
Most casinos are licensed offshore
We grouped every casino by the strongest licence we could confirm. National regulators — the UK Gambling Commission, Italy's ADM, US state authorities, and their peers — are the largest single group at 36%. But add together the three offshore tiers (Curaçao, lower-tier offshore registries, and the weakest "paper" licences), and offshore frameworks account for a roughly equal share. Curaçao alone is the most common licence of any kind.
"International" = Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man and other passport-style hubs. "Emerging" = real but young national regulators (Brazil's earlier framework, Nigeria, Kenya) with limited cross-border recourse.
The licence gap: regulator predicts trust
When we average the BetScan Trust Score within each licence tier, the pattern is stark and monotonic. A casino's choice of regulator predicts its overall trustworthiness more reliably than any other single factor we track.
Average BetScan Trust Score (0–100) by licence tier, across 422 casinos.
The cliff between "lower offshore" (57.9) and "weak / paper" (8.5) is the line worth memorising. Above it sit frameworks with at least some functioning oversight. Below it sit licences that exist mainly to print a number on a website — and the scores reflect the missing recourse, the unresolved-complaint signals, and the poor reviews that tend to come with them.
Best and worst jurisdictions to be licensed in
Ranked by average Trust Score, counting only jurisdictions where we have at least three casinos so the average is stable. National regulators dominate the top; the bottom is a single name.
| # | Jurisdiction | Type | Casinos | Avg score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland (US) | National / state | 3 | 99.0 |
| 2 | Czech Republic | National | 5 | 94.2 |
| 3 | Brazil | National | 14 | 91.5 |
| 4 | Ontario (CA) | National / province | 11 | 88.1 |
| 5 | France | National | 10 | 88.0 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania (US) | National / state | 9 | 87.0 |
| 7 | Italy (ADM) | National | 30 | 86.8 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | National | 27 | 86.4 |
| 9 | New Jersey (US) | National / state | 22 | 85.2 |
| 10 | Gibraltar | International | 7 | 71.6 |
| 11 | Malta (MGA) | International | 55 | 69.1 |
| 12 | Isle of Man | International | 3 | 66.3 |
| 13 | Curaçao | Offshore | 105 | 62.2 |
| 14 | Kahnawake | Offshore | 7 | 60.0 |
| 15 | Tobique | Offshore | 10 | 59.0 |
| 16 | Anjouan | Weak / paper | 24 | 8.6 |
Average BetScan Trust Score by jurisdiction, jurisdictions with ≥3 casinos. Curaçao (105) and Malta (55) are also the two most common licences overall.
Reputation tells the same story
Licensing isn't the only signal that skews negative. Of the 337 casinos in our index with a public Trustpilot presence:
Share of the 337 casinos with a Trustpilot rating that fall in each band.
More than half sit under 3 stars and nearly a third under 2. Only one in five clears 4 stars. Online-casino review distributions skew low across the board — disputes and withdrawal problems drive people to review far more than smooth experiences do — but the concentration at the bottom is still notable, and it correlates tightly with the weaker licence tiers above.
What this means for players
- The footer badge is not the answer. "Licensed" can mean a UK regulator that will fight for your payout, or a paper licence from a registry that has never taken an enforcement action. Check which regulator.
- An unverifiable licence is a decision, not an accident. The 1-in-9 with no confirmable licence chose opacity. Treat the absence of a checkable register as a warning in itself.
- Offshore is not automatically unsafe — but it caps your recourse. A well-run Curaçao casino can be fine; what you lose is somewhere to escalate when it isn't.
- Cross-check the licence against reputation. A strong regulator paired with a sub-2-star Trustpilot is still a reason to slow down.
Methodology
BetScan is an independent browser extension and website that scores online casinos for safety. For each operator we detect the gambling licence it discloses, attempt to verify it against the relevant public register where one exists, and combine that with its Trustpilot aggregate rating, its AskGamblers score, and community sentiment into a single 0–100 Trust Score. Licence quality sets a base range for the score; reputation signals move it within that range.
This study covers the 422 casinos classified as active in BetScan's index as of June 2026. Licence tier is assigned by the same scoring engine that powers our live reports. Jurisdiction averages count only jurisdictions with at least three casinos. Trustpilot percentages are of the 337 casinos that have a public Trustpilot profile; AskGamblers coverage is lower because not every operator has a rated profile. Every figure here is computed directly from public sources we recorded — none are estimated. No score is a recommendation or an accusation; each is an observation about what public sources show at the time of scanning.
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Install BetScan â–¸Frequently asked questions
In BetScan's index of 422 online casinos, 48 — roughly 1 in 9, or 11.4% — display no gambling licence that we could confirm against any public register. These operators are not necessarily unlicensed, but a licence that cannot be verified offers a player no practical recourse.
Curaçao is the single most common licence in our index, held by 105 of 422 casinos (24.9%). Malta (MGA) is second at 55, then Italy's ADM at 30 and the UK Gambling Commission at 27. More than a third of all casinos analyzed run primarily on an offshore framework.
Yes, and the gap is large. Casinos on a national licence (UK, Italy, US states, and similar) average a BetScan Trust Score of 87.8 out of 100. Casinos on an Anjouan licence average 8.6. The regulator a casino chooses is the strongest single predictor of how it scores across reputation and dispute signals.
Each casino's Trust Score combines licence verification against public registers, its Trustpilot aggregate rating, its AskGamblers score, and community sentiment, weighted into a single 0–100 figure. Licence quality sets a base range; reputation signals move the score within it. No score is a recommendation — it is an observation about what public sources show at the time of scanning.
Disclosure: All figures are computed from BetScan's automated index (licence registry checks + Trustpilot + AskGamblers + community sentiment) as of June 2026. BetScan carries no operator links, bonus offers or sign-up promotions, and has no commercial relationship with any operator it rates. This study is informational and is not legal, financial, or gambling advice.