Casino Licences, Decoded 🔒

Every casino on our list names a regulator somewhere in its footer. That one line tells you who writes the operator’s rules, who keeps a public register, and where you can go if a withdrawal stalls. It also varies enormously. Some licences come with segregated player funds, mandatory dispute resolution and certified games. One comes with a national government saying it shouldn’t exist. Here’s what each licence on our list means, how to check it yourself, and where to complain.

What a licence does, and doesn’t

A gambling licence means a regulator has authorised the operator and can hold it to a set of rules: age checks, game testing, how complaints are handled and, under some regulators, how player money is kept. A solid regulator publishes a register, so you can confirm the licence is real, and offers a route when the operator’s own complaint process fails.

What a licence doesn’t do is just as important. The casinos on our list serve players outside Ontario and Alberta, and they are licensed outside Canada. No licence from Kahnawake, Curaçao, Malta or Anjouan is a provincial licence, and provincial consumer protections don’t apply to those sites. This page is information, not legal advice; your province’s official pages set out the rules where you live, and our guide to the legal picture for online gambling across Canada covers it province by province.

🔒 Our casinos by regulator

We read each casino’s footer and terms for its licence, then checked the regulator’s own register where one is published. Here’s what we found in October 2026:

Sources: KGC permit-holder list; CGA Online Gaming License Registry dated October 20, 2026; casinos’ own footers. None of our Curaçao casinos appear in the CGA Enforcement Register.

The licence feeds the safety part of every score: Malta scores highest on our scale, then Kahnawake, then Curaçao and Anjouan. How we rate casinos sets out the numbers.

Kahnawake Gaming Commission

The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (KGC) regulates gaming in and from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, near Montreal. It was one of the first regulators anywhere to license online gaming, with its rules enacted on July 8, 1999. Licensed sites must be hosted at Mohawk Internet Technologies, a data centre inside the territory. It’s the only regulator on our list based in Canada, but no province recognises it as a provincial licence.

Its current regulations, dated March 25, 2026, set the minimum age at 18 or the player’s local legal age, whichever is higher, which means 19 in most of Canada. They require approved technical standards for random number generators and systems. They also offer something rare: one request to the KGC excludes you from every KGC-authorised operator at once.

Check it: find the brand and URL on the KGC permit-holder list. The list shows operators and URLs, not permit numbers. Complain: the operator must give a final decision within 45 days; if that fails, contact the KGC within six months through its complaints page. It won’t take a case already ruled on elsewhere or aired publicly first. We found no player-funds segregation rule in its regulations, so we don’t claim one.

Curaçao Gaming Authority

Curaçao’s regulator, the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), was still called the Gaming Control Board in 2023, and you’ll still see both names. The old system, where a handful of private master licence holders issued sublicences, is gone: the new law (the LOK) came into force on December 24, 2024, and the sublicence system ended on October 15, 2025. Current licences are issued by the CGA directly and carry OGL numbers. An old sublicence number is no longer valid.

The new licence conditions are a real step up. Player funds must sit in a segregated account, every game must be certified by a CGA-approved testing lab, and the operator must show the CGA digital seal. On complaints, operators must acknowledge within two days, try to resolve within five business days, and offer free independent dispute resolution (ADR) at their own cost. You have six months to complain.

Check it: click the CGA seal in the footer, then look up the licence number in the registry PDF on the CGA licence register page. The register lists a status: “Indefinite” is a granted licence; “Assessment in progress” means the CGA is still processing it. On October 20, 2026 the register held 209 Indefinite, 297 Assessment in progress, 54 Expired and 49 Revoked licences.

Anjouan

Anjouan licences are issued in the name of one island of the Union of the Comoros, with “ALSI-” licence numbers. Nearly 1,500 holders sit on its public register, many of them crypto-focused, which is why Anjouan names show up on crypto casinos more than anywhere else.

Malta Gaming Authority

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) scores highest on our licence scale, and the rules show why. Its Player Protection Directive sets rules on how player funds are held and reported, and operators must offer ADR from an EU or EEA body once their own process is exhausted. Since April 1, 2019, the MGA’s Player Support Unit no longer rules on disputes itself, but it still takes reports of unfair conduct.

Check it: search the MGA licensee register by name, URL or status, or click the MGA seal on the site. Complain: operator first, then the MGA or the ADR entity through its lodge a complaint page. LeoVegas is our one MGA casino.

Isle of Man, UK and Costa Rica

None of our casinos holds these, but you’ll see them elsewhere. The Isle of Man regulator requires operators to protect player money and handle disputes; it investigates complaints only from non-UK players. The UK Gambling Commission requires customer funds in a separate account with a stated protection rating, and its public register is searchable by domain; a UK licence covers British players only. Costa Rica has no online gambling licence at all, only data-processing registration, so a casino citing Costa Rica alone is effectively unlicensed.

What each licence gives you

Sources: regulators’ own rules and registers, read October 2026.

Testing labs: the seal under the seal

Licences require fair games; testing labs certify them. Under Curaçao’s new law, every game must carry a CGA-approved lab certificate, so lab seals are now expected on Curaçao sites.

Source: each lab’s published pages, read October 2026.

A seal that doesn’t click through to a certificate naming the site proves nothing.

Check a licence in five minutes

1. Find the regulator and licence number in the casino footer.
2. Click the seal. A real one opens the regulator’s or lab’s own page.
3. Search the register yourself: KGC list, CGA registry PDF or MGA register.
4. Match the brand, URL and company name; a different URL is a red flag.
5. For Curaçao, check the status and the Enforcement Register for revocations.

Our reviews do this for you: the licence section of each, from Jackpot City to Stake, shows what the register said when we checked. If a dispute is about bonus terms, run the numbers in the wagering calculator and reread the wagering requirements guide before you complain. Payout delays are covered in our guide to casino withdrawals in Canada.

🍁 For players in Canada

Our casinos serve players aged 19 or over outside Ontario and Alberta. A licence tells you who to call when something goes wrong; it doesn’t make gambling safe. Set limits before you play, use self-exclusion where you need it, and see our responsible gambling page for every provincial helpline.

FAQ