How to Verify a Casino's License in 60 Seconds
A casino's footer says "Licensed by the UK Gambling Commission". Or "MGA-approved", or "ADM concession N. 15235". How do you actually check if that's true? This guide is the 60-second version. The same five steps work for every regulated jurisdiction in the world — once you've done it three or four times, it really does take a minute. Most regulators put their full licensee databases online, free, searchable. The casino is counting on you not knowing that.
01 Scroll to the casino's footer
Almost every legitimate operator publishes its license number and the regulator's name at the bottom of every page. UK-licensed sites are legally required to. Most EU licenses require it too. If you scroll to the footer and there's no license claim at all — that's already your answer. Walk away.
What you're looking for is one of two things:
- A specific license number (e.g.
000-039225-R-319367-008for UKGC,MGA/B2C/394/2017for Malta,ADM N. 15235for Italy) - A clickable regulator badge that links to the operator's listing on the regulator's site
02 Identify which regulator that is
The regulator's name will be one of a few dozen organisations worldwide. Here are the ones you're most likely to encounter in 2026, with their shorthand and what they actually mean:
| Regulator | Country / Region | Public register |
|---|---|---|
| UKGC — UK Gambling Commission | United Kingdom | gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register |
| MGA — Malta Gaming Authority | Malta (international) | mga.org.mt/licensee-register |
| ADM (ex-AAMS) | Italy | adm.gov.it – elenco concessionari |
| DGOJ | Spain | ordenacionjuego.es |
| ANJ | France | anj.fr/operateurs-agrees |
| GGL | Germany | gluecksspiel-behoerde.de – Whitelist |
| KSA — Kansspelautoriteit | Netherlands | kansspelautoriteit.nl |
| Spelinspektionen | Sweden | spelinspektionen.se |
| Spillemyndigheden | Denmark | spillemyndigheden.dk |
| SRIJ | Portugal | srij.turismodeportugal.pt |
| HGC | Greece | gamingcommission.gov.gr |
| ONJN | Romania | onjn.gov.ro |
| Belgian GC | Belgium | gamingcommission.be |
| CGB — Curaçao Gaming Board | Curaçao (offshore) | gamingcontrolcuracao.org |
| ARS (Anjouan) | Anjouan / Comoros (offshore) | anjouangaming.org |
| KGC | Kahnawake (offshore) | gamingcommission.ca |
Each of these regulators publishes a free, searchable register. You don't need an account; you don't need to be a UK / EU / Maltese resident. The data is public.
03 Open the register and search the licensee's legal name
This is the step where most people get tripped up. Brand names and legal entity names are almost never the same.
Examples from real, well-known operators:
- bet365 is operated by Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC in the UK
- Betway is operated by Betway Limited in Malta
- LeoVegas is operated by LeoVegas Gaming plc in Malta
- PartyCasino is operated by ElectraWorks Limited
- PokerStars is operated by TSG Interactive Gaming Europe Ltd
If you search "PartyCasino" in the MGA register you'll get zero results. If you search "ElectraWorks" you'll find them immediately. The legal name is always disclosed somewhere on the casino site — look in the footer near the license number, or in the terms and conditions ("this site is operated by..."). Some sites also display it in the privacy policy.
04 Confirm three things on the register page
When you find the licensee on the regulator's register, you need to verify three things — none of which the casino itself can fake, because they're on the regulator's website:
- Status: Active. Not "Surrendered", "Revoked", "Suspended", or "Lapsed". A suspended licence means players cannot withdraw — funds are frozen until the regulator makes a determination.
- Permitted activities include what you're playing. A licence for "Sports betting only" doesn't cover casino games. A licence for "Casino, B2C" does. If you're playing slots on a sportsbook-only licence, your funds are at higher risk.
- The brand domain you're checking is listed as one of the licensee's operating brands. Sometimes a real licensee has 30 brand names under one licence — that's fine. What you don't want is to find your casino has NO entry under any of the licensee's listed brands. That's how cloned-site scams work.
05 Check for regulatory actions (bonus step)
Holding a current licence doesn't mean an operator hasn't been fined for serious failings. The UKGC, MGA and the larger EU regulators all publish a separate Regulatory actions page that lists fines, settlements, public censures, and licence conditions imposed on licensees.
The UKGC's page (gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register/regulatory-action) is the most comprehensive in the world. In 2022–2024 it documented penalties totalling over £100M against named operators for things like inadequate anti-money-laundering controls, failure to identify problem gamblers, and misleading bonus advertising. If an operator you're considering is in that list, you should know.
Critically: a fine on the licensee usually applies to all brands the licensee operates. If "Entain Marketing UK Ltd" was fined £17M, that affects bwin, Coral, Foxy Bingo, Gala, Ladbrokes, partypoker and PartyCasino — every brand under that licence.
06 The shortcut: let BetScan do all five steps automatically
Every step in this guide takes one minute when you know what you're doing. The first time, it takes ten. That's a lot of friction for people who just want to know whether the casino they're looking at is going to pay them.
The BetScan browser extension performs steps 1–4 automatically on every casino site you visit. It pulls the licence claim from the footer, identifies the regulator, queries the regulator's public register, confirms the licence is active, and cross-checks against Trustpilot, AskGamblers and Reddit. The result is a single 0–100 Trust Score in the corner of your tab. It takes under two seconds. You don't have to remember any of this.
Skip the manual checks
Install BetScan once. Every casino site you visit gets verified against the regulator's public register automatically.
Add BetScan to Chrome — FreeWhat if no register shows a result?
That's the answer you needed. If a casino claims a UKGC licence number and the UKGC's register returns no result, the licence does not exist — or has been revoked. Either way the operator is currently telling you something untrue about its regulatory status.
This pattern is common with cloned sites — a scam operator buys a domain that looks like a real licensed casino, copies the branding, and displays a real licensee's licence number. The real licensee has nothing to do with it. The clone site collects deposits, then disappears. Verifying via the regulator's register, not the casino's site, is the only protection against this category of scam.
What about Curaçao licences specifically?
Curaçao went through a major regulatory reform in 2024. The new LOK (Landsverordening op de Kansspelen) law replaced the legacy sub-licensee system — where four master licensees could resell sub-licences to anyone for low fees with minimal oversight — with direct licences issued by the new Curaçao Gaming Board (CGB).
This is a meaningful change, but as of mid-2026 most Curaçao-branded sites you'll see are still operating under legacy sub-licences from the old system. A "Curaçao eGaming License" badge or an old master-licensee number (1668/JAZ, 8048/JAZ, etc.) means the operator was approved under the old framework — that framework had no functioning player-complaint process and effectively no oversight. A current CGB direct licence is a different and more meaningful credential. Check whether the licence number on the footer matches the new CGB register format, not a legacy sub-licence.
For Anjouan and Kahnawake licences, similar caveats apply: the licence exists and is technically active, but the regulator's enforcement track record in payout disputes is essentially zero. We cover this in more depth in our offshore-licences explainer.
Examples from our database
BetScan scores for some recently verified operators, with the public-register check feeding directly into the score:
- bet365.com — Licence verified on UKGC public register, brand match confirmed
- stake.it — ADM concession verified for Italian operations
- betway.com — MGA licence verified, multi-jurisdiction
- fanduel.com — Licensed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
- Browse all casino safety reports ›
Frequently asked questions
Treat that as a high-confidence warning. Every regulated jurisdiction in 2026 requires licensees to display the license number and a link to the regulator on every page. No license number visible after one minute of looking means either the operator is genuinely unlicensed, or they are hiding the link from search engines and players — both are red flags.
It means the license number is fake, revoked, or belongs to a different operator who is being impersonated. None of these are good. Major regulators (UKGC, MGA, ADM, DGOJ, ANJ, etc.) update their registers in near real-time; if a number exists, it's findable. A genuine current licensee is always retrievable from the official register.
Under the new LOK framework from 2024 — yes, more than before. The CGB (Curaçao Gaming Board) is a real regulator with a public register and dispute resolution. But many casinos still operate on legacy sub-licenses issued before LOK, where the original sub-license model meant minimal oversight. Always check whether the Curaçao license is under the new CGB direct-licence regime, not a legacy sub-licence.
Because brand and legal entity are usually different. Bet365 is operated by "Hillside (Shared Services) Limited" in the UK; PartyCasino by "ElectraWorks Limited" in Malta. If you search "Bet365" in the UKGC register you'll get nothing useful. The legal name is always disclosed in the casino's terms and conditions (look for "this site is operated by ...") or in the footer near the license number.
BetScan calls each regulator's public register or the operator's licensee-detail page directly via our backend, then cross-references against Trustpilot, AskGamblers and Reddit forum data. The Trust Score in the extension reflects what the public registers actually say at scan time. We never trust the casino's own claim — we always go to the regulator.
Independence: BetScan is a free browser extension. It carries no operator links, bonus offers or sign-up promotions, and has no commercial relationship with any operator it rates. Every score is calculated from license registries and independent public reviews only.