Fake and cloned casino licences

A genuine entry gives a company, a number and a status that allows operation. A fake licence fails on at least one of the three. The signs below show where the failure tends to appear.

A name or number that is not in the register

Each regime runs a register that can be searched. The Gambling Commission's business register takes a name or an account number. The Commission also publishes registers of licensed individuals, regulatory actions and premises, which can be searched, viewed and downloaded. The MGA's licensee register takes a licensee name, authorisation status, URL or gaming service, and its recognition notice register takes a company name or a recognition number. Anjouan's register takes a licence number, company name or operational domain, and a result shows the holder's registered name, number, licence type and current status. Curacao's registry lists the licence number, licensee, company type, company registration number, issue date, expiry date and status. Gibraltar publishes a Register of Licence Holders, in line with S.14 of the Gambling Act 2025, on the Division's licence holders page.

A number that returns another company's name, or no entry at all, is the first warning. Curacao's rules require a casino website footer to show the licence holder's name and registered address and the official licence number, so a footer with only a brand name gives nothing to match.

A badge or seal that does not lead to the regulator

Seals are meant to lead somewhere. Gibraltar requires licence holders to use the Government motif as a live link to the Gambling Division website, as the way of showing that the holder is licensed and regulated. Anjouan certificates carry a unique licence number and a QR code that links to the verification page in its public register, and a certificate that cannot be verified there should not be relied on as evidence of licensing. Malta requires online B2C licensees to display any identifier tool the MGA asks for, which may be a dynamic seal or kite mark on the homepage of every website.

A badge that is only a picture, or that leads anywhere other than the regulator, does not do what those rules ask of it. Curacao is a special case for now. The availability of the CGA's current digital seal is affected by the move to a new regulatory platform announced on 7 October 2026, and an alternative way to show that a domain is licensed is due shortly. A missing CGA seal is therefore not a sign of a fake on its own, and the register is the test.

A status that has changed

On Anjouan's register only an Active entry is authorised to run licensed gaming, and the other statuses are Suspended, Revoked and Expired. The seal must be removed at once if the licence is suspended, revoked or expires, so a seal shown beside any of those statuses is a mismatch.

The other regimes publish the negative side too: the Commission's regulatory actions and public statements, the MGA's enforcement register, the CGA's enforcement register and Gibraltar's public statements. In Malta, suspensions and cancellations must be made public. The MGA register can be filtered by year from 2013 to 2026, and one entry records the suspension of licence MGA/B2C/340/2016 effective 16 September 2026. The Commission announced a licence suspension on 21 September 2026.

Curacao ties licence status to annual fees. On day 71 of non-payment a licence is revoked, removed from the public licence register and added to the public enforcement register. An invoice alone does not confirm that a licence continues or has been extended. Only written confirmation from the CGA does.

Registers are not real time. Anjouan's data is updated periodically, and urgent checks go to the Authority directly. The CGA's licence overviews do not guarantee current validity, and its enforcement register lists only actions that affect licence status and may not be up to date. A clean result is evidence, not a promise.

A licence held for the wrong kind of business

A B2B licence covers a supplier. A CGA B2B holder provides services to B2C operators, runs no player-facing domains and handles no player accounts, and one company cannot hold both kinds of licence. The Curacao Gambling Licence is the B2C operating licence, and the Supplier Licence is the B2B platform or software licence. Until 24 December 2026, holding a B2B licence is at the supplier's discretion in Curacao.

Malta's Gaming Service licence is the business-to-consumer licence, and casino-type games such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat fall under Type 1 gaming services. Its Critical Gaming Supply licence is business-to-business. Anjouan results show the type as B2C or B2B. A B2B number in a casino footer therefore does not show that the casino itself is licensed, and the type shown in a register result matters.

A licence from the wrong issuer

Each regime names its own issuer. The Gambling Commission issues operating licences for businesses operating in Great Britain. In Malta, licences come from the MGA. Curacao licences come from the Curacao Gaming Authority, which began as the Gaming Control Board, set up on 19 April 1999, and was designated the CGA when the National Ordinance on Games of Chance came into force on 24 December 2024. Anjouan's Authority operates under the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority, and Anjouan Licensing Services Inc. is named as the sole authorised administrator of its licences. In Gibraltar the Licensing Authority is the designated Minister and the regulator is the Gambling Commissioner, and the Gambling Division of HM Government of Gibraltar performs delegated functions for both.

A licence line that names another body as its issuer does not match any regime covered here.

A UK-facing site with no UK entry

The Commission regulates remote gambling offered to consumers in Great Britain wherever in the world the key equipment is based, and an operating licence is required to provide most gambling facilities there. A site that offers gambling to people in Great Britain should therefore have an entry in the Commission's business register.

Operators in Gibraltar that face UK players are licensed in both Gibraltar and the UK, so a Gibraltar claim with no UK entry does not fit that description. An Anjouan licence does not override local prohibitions or regulatory requirements, and operators alone are responsible for geo-blocking, market access controls and local compliance.

The regulators' pages do not set out a method for copying another operator's licence line. This section keeps to what they do publish: false claims of licensing, what a register entry confirms and what each regime asks a licensed site to show. No site is named.

Great Britain licence claims

Licensees in Great Britain must display their licensed status, and the Commission publishes technical requirements with example formats for doing so. A site's licence wording can be compared with those formats, and any doubt goes to the business register.

Malta licence claims

Malta's regulator checks suspicious websites for misleading claims that a site holds an MGA licence and publishes a full list of unauthorised URLs. One domain on that list has UK in its name and a notice date of 10/03/2026. The MGA reminds consumers not to use an entity's services until they have confirmed that the MGA authorises it. Unlicensed entities are unregulated and lack the safeguards of the framework, which makes dealing with them risky.

Only a person established in the European Economic Area can hold a Malta licence, and a licence, original or renewed, runs for ten years unless the regulations say otherwise. A company operating in or from Malta under another EU or EEA state's authorisation must apply for a recognition notice.

Gibraltar licence claims

The Division says some websites imply that they are licensed and regulated in Gibraltar when they are unlicensed or licensed in another, often less reputable, jurisdiction. Every company and website on its consumer warnings list is not established or licensed in Gibraltar. The list also includes affiliate websites that appear to drive UK consumers towards unregulated markets.

A Gibraltar address proves nothing. One address on the warnings list belongs to a trust and company services manager that registers non-resident companies, not to approved premises for remote gambling. Gibraltar keeps a deliberately low number of licence holders, all with a substantive presence there and close to the regulator. A genuine licence holder's website statement must say that it is licensed under the Act by the Gibraltar Licensing Authority, regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner, and give the permitted age for gambling.

Holders licensed under the Gambling Act 2005 are treated as licensed under the Gambling Act 2025. The new Act widens regulation to B2C businesses managed or controlled in or from Gibraltar and to B2B businesses in or from Gibraltar or supplying a Gibraltar entity. A six-month transition period began on 1 April 2026, in which newly covered businesses must notify the Division and apply for a licence.

Anjouan licence claims

Being on Anjouan's register confirms licensing status only. It is not an endorsement or recommendation of the operator's services or practices, and the Authority accepts no liability for loss from relying on the register. A listed domain has only been notified to the Authority as associated with licensed activities. That does not confirm ownership of the domain, the trademark or any related intellectual property.

Revocation is permanent: a former holder will not be licensed again, and its URLs cannot be used under any other licence. The revoked list shows a B2C licence revoked on 9 June 2026 for fraud and another revoked on 10 July 2026 for illegal sublicensing. On the suspended list, a B2B licence was suspended on 8 September 2026 for breaching licence conditions and failing to take part in ADR.

Curacao licence claims

The CGA's Orange Seal (Certificate of Operations) expired on 15 October 2025, which ended the former sublicence system. A site that still presents an Orange Seal or a sublicence as its licence relies on a system that has ended. The CGA's registry lists licences granted under the New Online Gaming Policy, effective 15 November 2023.

Stop depositing until the entry matches. Our team tests casinos and checks every fact on every page. The steps for matching a name, a number and a domain are set out in the guide to checking a casino licence.

Reporting to the Gambling Commission

The Commission takes reports about unlicensed gambling or criminal activity, along with match fixing and sports betting integrity, underage gambling, money laundering concerns and suspicious activity. It has no access to customer accounts and does not resolve or decide complaints about gambling transactions, so a report concerns the business and is not a route to a refund. A player who disagrees with a licensed business about a result or service should first complain to that business, and the complaints guide covers taking the matter on to an ADR provider.

Malta complaint routes

The MGA's online form is the formal channel for complaints against MGA-licensed operators, and the United Kingdom is on its country-of-residence list. Operators must give the result of a complaint inquiry within ten days, extendable by a further ten days. A player who is not satisfied may refer the dispute to an ADR entity, free of charge. The Player Support Unit receives complaints from players about any gaming service and examines them separately from any ADR dispute. No separate route for reporting a site that only claims an MGA licence is named.

Gibraltar complaint routes

The Gambling Commissioner accepts a complaint only if there are grounds, it concerns a Gibraltar remote gambling licence holder and the operator's own procedure has been exhausted. A site that merely claims Gibraltar licensing falls outside that route. Complaints against a Gibraltar licensed operator go to gccomplaints@gibraltar.gov.gi, using the Complaint Resolution Request Form.

For remote gambling activity in the UK on or after 1 November 2014, consumers should use the complaint and dispute resolution processes available in the UK, and the Commissioner will not ordinarily investigate or decide individual UK customer disputes. Complaints older than 2 years are not investigated except in exceptional circumstances.

Curacao complaint routes

Complaints to the CGA go to complaints@cga.cw. The CGA does not resolve or rule on individual player complaints about gambling on operator websites. Players can complain to an operator free of charge up to six months after the bet is settled or the incident happened. The public warnings page lists warning notices, one of them dated 20 February 2026.

Anjouan complaint routes

The Anjouan Authority does not handle, mediate or decide player complaints. Complaints go first to the operator through the complaint function in its interactive site seal, which a site with no working seal cannot offer, and other channels may be refused. Game outcome disputes must be raised within 14 calendar days of the session, and account disputes within 30 calendar days. The operator must investigate and reply within 30 calendar days.

If the complaint is still unresolved, the player may escalate to an approved ADR provider, and the operator bears the cost. The approved providers are EGIS ADR, Axion ADR, iGaming ADR and CADRE B.V. Complaints from players in excluded territories and claims unrelated to licensed gaming fall outside regulatory review. All complaints and ADR communications must be in English.

Each regime has its own page on where its register and complaint routes sit:

• UK Gambling Commission licence explained
• Malta gaming licence (MGA) explained
• Gibraltar gambling licence explained
• Curacao gaming licence explained
• Anjouan gaming licence explained

Why unlicensed operation matters

Offering gaming without a valid licence in or from Curacao is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison or a fine of NAf 25,000 and/or loss of certain rights. In Gibraltar, providing betting, gaming, slots or lotteries without the appropriate licence is illegal. The Commission does not regulate remote gambling in Northern Ireland, but under the Gambling Act 2005 it is an offence to advertise remote gambling to consumers there unless the business holds a Commission licence.

Money already deposited

Money staked or deposited with a gambling business is not protected by the Commission or government the way bank accounts are, and every business must say whether its players' money has any protection if it goes insolvent. The Commission describes three levels of protection. With none, account money counts as part of the company and would be lost if the business goes bust. At the high level, money sits in a separate account controlled by an independent trustee and checked by an external auditor. For money already paid to a site with no matching licence entry, the regulators' pages name no recovery route.

If gambling is causing problems, the National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133 for England and Scotland and the NHS Wales helpline is 0808 2819 265, both free and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. More support is on the responsible gambling page.

Regulators change their rules and their registers change. If a fact on this page is out of date or wrong, write to info@biglicence.co.uk.

• Big Licence team checks of the licences we cover
• gamblingcommission.gov.uk Used for the UK Gambling Commission's own pages and public register.
• cga.cw Used for the Curacao Gaming Authority's own pages and register.
• spin-cdn.com Used for ownership.
• mga.org.mt Used for the Malta Gaming Authority's own pages and licensee register.
• legislation.mt Used for the Maltese gaming regulations.
• anjouangaming.com Used for Anjouan Gaming's own pages and public register.
• gamblingdivision.gov.gi Used for the Gibraltar Gambling Division's own pages and guidance.
• gibraltar.gov.gi Used for HM Government of Gibraltar's Remote Gambling page.