How to check if a casino is licensed in the UK

The quickest way to check whether an online casino is licensed in the UK is to search its website address on the Gambling Commission public register. If the register shows an active remote casino licence with that exact address listed, the casino is licensed in Great Britain. If the search returns nothing, it is not.

That check takes about a minute. This guide walks through it, explains what the rest of the register tells you, and covers the claims that unlicensed casinos use to look licensed. The screenshots were taken on 29 September 2026.

Why the licence matters

A casino that takes bets from people in Great Britain needs a licence from the Gambling Commission. The licence comes with rules that protect you directly:

• your age and identity must be checked before you can deposit or play
• slot stakes are capped at £5 a spin, or £2 a spin if you are aged 18 to 24
• you cannot deposit with a credit card
• bonus wagering cannot be more than 10 times the bonus
• the casino must be part of GAMSTOP, the national self-exclusion scheme
• if a complaint is not settled within 8 weeks, you can take it to a free independent dispute service

None of these rules applies at a casino without the licence, even one that accepts pounds and UK bank cards.

Step 1: Find the casino's website address

Use the address of the site you are actually on, such as pubcasino.co.uk. Brand names can be shared, reused or copied, but the website address is what the casino has to register.

Watch for small differences. An unlicensed copy may use a similar name with a different ending (.com instead of .co.uk) or an extra word.

Step 2: Search the register

Go to the Gambling Commission public register and choose the register of gambling businesses. The search box accepts a business name, a trading name, a website address or an account number.

Type the website address without "https://" or "www". If it is licensed, the result shows the company that holds the licence, its account number, and the matching domain.

If the result says "No results", the address is not on any licence. We searched "bonrush.com" and "bonrush" on 29 September 2026 and got no results for either, which is what an unlicensed casino looks like on the register.

Step 3: Open the account and read the licence summary

Click the company name. The first tab is the licence summary.

There are three things to check here:

The register uses other statuses too. "Pending" means a licence has been applied for but is not yet in force. "Expired", "Lapsed", "Forfeited", "Surrendered", "Revoked" and "Suspended" all mean the casino cannot currently offer gambling in Great Britain under that licence. The register explains each status at the bottom of the search page.

Step 4: Check the domain names tab

The "Domain names" tab lists every website address on the licence. This is the most useful tab on the register, for two reasons.

First, it confirms that the exact address you are using is covered. A licensed company does not make every site with a similar name licensed.

Second, it shows the casino's sister sites. Every other address on the same account is run under the same licence. The register splits them into:

• Active: the company's own brands
• White label: brands owned by someone else, where this company's licence covers the gambling
• Inactive: addresses that are no longer trading

For example, Pub Casino's account lists 7 live casinos, and PlayOJO's operator lists 40 active addresses and 19 white-label brands. We use this tab as the starting point for every sister sites page on this site.

Step 5: Check regulatory actions

The last tab lists any regulatory action the Commission has taken against the business: fines, warnings, and conditions added to the licence. Each entry links to the Commission's public statement.

An entry here does not mean a casino is unsafe today. It means it was found to have broken the rules in the past, and the statement tells you what for. For example, Gamesys Operations Limited, which runs Jackpotjoy and Virgin Games, was fined £6,071,292 in November 2023 for failures in anti-money laundering checks and customer interaction. Our Jackpotjoy page covers it.

An empty tab says "No regulatory actions have been recorded for this business."

How to cross-check the casino's footer

A licensed casino has to show who it is. The footer should name:

• the company that runs it
• the Gambling Commission account number
• a link to its entry on the register

Take the account number from the footer and search it on the register. The company name and domain should match. If the footer gives a number that belongs to a different company, or links to a page that does not load, treat the casino as unlicensed.

Licence claims that do not check out

Unlicensed casinos that take UK players often try to look licensed. These are the signs we see most often.

A licence from somewhere else

A licence from Curaçao, Anjouan, Kahnawake or another regulator does not allow a casino to offer gambling in Great Britain. Some are legitimate licences in their own market, but none of them brings the UK protections listed above.

Vague wording with no number

Terms that refer to "our license" or "the governing license" without saying who issued it, and without a number, are not a licence claim you can check. Bon Rush's terms work this way, and its page code sets a variable called IS_LICENSE_CURACAO_FAKE to 1.

A seal that does not click through

A real regulator seal links to a live validation page on the regulator's own website. A static image, or a seal that opens a page on the casino's own domain, proves nothing.

"UK players welcome" and GBP pricing

Accepting pounds, UK bank cards or UK phone numbers says nothing about the licence. Only the register can confirm it.

The Malta licence on a UK site

Some licensed casinos also hold a Malta Gaming Authority or Gibraltar licence for players elsewhere. That is normal. The question is whether they also hold the Gambling Commission licence, and whether it is active. L & L Europe, for example, holds both.

If a casino is not on the register

If you cannot find the casino on the register, the protections in this guide do not apply to you there. GAMSTOP does not cover it, the 10x wagering cap does not bind it, and there is no free dispute service to turn to.

If you are in Great Britain and have been offered gambling by a business that does not appear to hold a licence, the Commission asks you to report it through its "Tell us something in confidence" page.

If you have self-excluded and are finding it hard to stay away, the National Gambling Helpline is free and open 24 hours a day on 0808 8020 133.