Gambling Licence Lookup: Verify Any Operator’s Licence

Last updated: 31 October 2026

A partner’s deck says “fully licensed”. Their footer shows a seal. Your compliance team, your bank or your PSP still wants proof, and “they told us so” is not proof. Before you sign a supplier, take on a white label client, add a brand to your affiliate programme or onboard a B2B customer, you need to see the licence on the regulator’s own register, held by the right legal entity, for the right activity, and still active today.

This guide sets out a gambling licence lookup workflow for that due diligence: where each major regulator publishes its register, what each register actually shows (and what it doesn’t), and a seven-step check that catches the usual tricks, from a brand quoting its group’s licence to a Curaçao number from the old master-licence era.

How do you check a gambling licence?

You check a gambling licence by finding the licensee on the issuing regulator’s own public register, then matching the legal entity name, licence number, licence type, status and covered domains against what the operator or supplier gave you. A seal, a logo or a number in a website footer is only a claim. The register entry is the evidence.

Two things make this harder than it sounds. First, every regulator publishes differently: the UK has a searchable database with domain search, Curaçao publishes a dated PDF, and Kahnawake keeps a static web table. Second, licences are held by companies, not brands, so the name on the website is often not the name on the register.

Search results for “gambling license lookup” can also mislead. Some of the US state links that surface for that search are not gaming registers at all. New York’s Department of State Division of Licensing Services search covers security guards, appraisers, home inspectors and similar trades, not casinos or sportsbooks (gaming licensing in New York sits with the New York State Gaming Commission). The ILCC licensing portal in Illinois is the liquor regulator’s system, not the Illinois Gaming Board. If you are checking a partner, start from the gambling regulator’s own site, not from a search snippet.

Gambling licence registers by regulator

The table covers the regulators B2B partners most often cite. Register pages were checked on 12 October 2026, and the Curaçao and Anjouan entries were rechecked on 30 October 2026. Links go to the registers B2B teams use most; the others are named with the menu path to find them on the regulator’s own website.

Tobique and other newer offshore licensors are not in the table because we could not verify an official public register on the regulator’s own website for this guide. For those, ask the partner for the licence certificate and confirm it in writing with the issuing authority before relying on it. Anjouan does publish a searchable register (above), but treat a match there as evidence of what the issuer records, not of the licence’s legal standing.

Brazil: the SPA/MF list of authorised betting operators no longer verifies anything current. Provisional Measure 1,394 of 25 September 2026 banned fixed-odds betting and online gaming, and every federal authorisation was extinguished on 25 October 2026 (Senado Notícias). A partner citing a Brazilian licence today is citing one that has ended; see our Brazil betting licence guide for the current status.

How to verify a gambling licence: the seven-step check

Running a name through a register takes two minutes. Getting a result you can defend to your bank or auditor takes a few more checks. Use these in order and save a screenshot or PDF of each register page with the date visible.

1. Get the legal entity, not the brand. Ask the partner for the licensed company’s full legal name, company registration number and licence number. If you are vetting a site, take these from its terms and conditions, not its homepage. The brand name often won’t appear on the register at all.
2. Identify the issuing regulator and go to its own register. Type the regulator’s address yourself or use the links above. Don’t follow the link inside a footer seal as your first step, because a copied seal can point to a lookalike page.
3. Match the entity and registration number. The company name and registration number on the register should match the contract and the company registry record. A sister company in the same group holding the licence is not the same thing.
4. Check the licence type covers the activity. A B2C licence does not cover supplying games to other operators, and a B2B or software supply licence does not cover taking bets from players. Gibraltar, Curaçao and the Isle of Man all show this split on the register.
5. Check the domain or brand is covered. Where the register lists domains (UKGC, Isle of Man, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Alderney, Kahnawake), the exact domain should be there and active. Where it doesn’t (Gibraltar’s approved brands PDFs, Curaçao), ask how the brand maps to the licence and check the seal on that domain.
6. Check status and date. Look for active versus suspended, expired or revoked, plus the expiry date. Note the date the register itself was last updated. Curaçao’s registry and Kahnawake’s permit list carry dates, and a list that hasn’t moved in years is a reason to confirm directly with the regulator.
7. Check the enforcement side. Search the regulator’s sanctions or enforcement pages for the entity name. The UKGC shows regulatory actions in the register record. Curaçao keeps a separate enforcement register. Isle of Man keeps a former licence holders list.

If anything fails, ask the partner to explain it in writing before you go further. A licence held by a different group company can be legitimate, for example a group licence or a platform provider’s licence covering a white label brand, but you need to see exactly how it works and whether the regulator allows it.

How do you verify a licence number?

Search the register by licence or account number where the regulator allows it, then confirm that the number belongs to the entity you were given. Formats differ, so a number in the wrong format is a red flag on its own:

• UKGC: the register uses an account number. Search it, then check the trading names and domains under that account.
• Curaçao (CGA): directly issued licences in the registry follow formats such as OGL/2024/219/0188 and CGA/2025/2742/1367. Search the PDF for the number and check the licensee, B2C or B2B type and status column.
• MGA: search the licensee register by company name or URL, then open the authorisation page and compare the licence details.

A number that returns nothing usually means one of three things: the partner gave you a group company’s number, the licence has lapsed or been revoked, or the number was never issued by that regulator.

MGA licence check

The MGA register lets you search by licensee name, authorisation status, URL or gaming service, and the MGA also runs a separate URL Checker for confirming that a specific domain is covered. MGA-licensed sites carry a dynamic seal. Clicking it should open an authorisation page on the MGA’s authorisation.mga.org.mt subdomain showing the company and its authorisation details. If the seal opens anything else, or is a static image, treat the licence as unconfirmed until you’ve found the entity on the register yourself.

For what an MGA licence actually requires and costs, see our MGA licence guide.

Curaçao licence check

Curaçao is where most partner licence claims go wrong, because the system changed. Under the old regime, four private master licence holders sold sub-licences. The master licences ran out between August 2024 and January 2025, the new National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK) took effect on 24 December 2024, and the transitional seal for former sub-licensees stopped being valid on 15 October 2025. Today the CGA issues every licence directly.

So a Curaçao check in 2026 works like this:

1. Download the current Online Gaming Licence registry PDF from the CGA’s register page. The version checked for this guide is dated 9 October 2026 and is headed “Licenses Granted under the New Online Gaming Policy (Effective November 15, 2023)”; a newer edition dated 20 October 2026 is now posted, and the CGA updates the file regularly.
2. Search it for the licence number and the licensee’s company registration number. Check the B2C or B2B column and the status column. Some rows show “Assessment in progress”, “Expired” or “Revoked as of” a date, not a clean active status.
3. Open the enforcement register PDF. The edition checked lists 32 entries: 31 revocations and one licence not extended. The CGA says it covers only actions affecting licence status, not every enforcement measure.
4. Click the CGA seal on the partner’s domain and make sure it resolves to a CGA-hosted validation page naming the same entity.

Note the CGA’s own disclaimer: its overviews “do not guarantee the current validity of the licenses” and “no rights can be derived” from them. For a high-value contract, follow the register check with written confirmation. Our Curaçao gaming licence guide covers the new fees, timelines and provisional licences.

US state licence lookups

In the US there is no single gambling licence lookup. Each state’s gaming regulator licenses its own operators, platform providers and vendors, and what you can check varies:

• Pennsylvania (PGCB): separate operator lists for iGaming, online sports wagering, online poker and fantasy contests, plus a licence verification tool and ownership and eligibility lists.
• New Jersey: the Division of Gaming Enforcement licenses internet gaming and publishes the list of authorised internet gaming sites and vendor licensing reports. The Casino Control Commission page that ranks first in Google covers casino key employee licensing, not online operators.
• Michigan: the Michigan Gaming Control Board licenses online operators and suppliers. The “Registered Casino Interest Search” that ranks in Google is a Department of State tool for disclosed interests in casino licences, not an operator lookup.
• Other states: Ohio, Colorado, Washington and California all run their own licence verification pages. California’s Gambling Control Commission look-up covers cardrooms and related licences, since online casino gaming is not legal there.

For a supplier, check each state you plan to supply. US approvals don’t carry across state lines. An offshore licence from Malta, Curaçao or anywhere else does not make US-facing activity lawful in a state that hasn’t licensed it.

Red flags when a partner’s licence doesn’t check out

• The seal is a static image or links to a page not hosted by the regulator.
• The licence number format doesn’t match the regulator, for example an old Curaçao sub-licence number offered as current in 2026.
• The licensee is a different company from the one signing your contract, with no clear explanation of the group or white label arrangement.
• The licence type is wrong for the deal, such as a B2C licensee offering to supply games, or a B2B entity running a player-facing site.
• The domain isn’t covered on a register that lists domains, or is listed but inactive.
• The partner can only show a certificate PDF and the regulator has no public register you can match it to.
• The entity appears on an enforcement or former licence holders list.

What this means for operators and affiliates

Operators should run this check on every B2B supplier before integration, and again at renewal. Many regulators require you to use licensed or approved suppliers, and an unlicensed game studio or platform in your stack becomes your compliance problem. Our list of white label casino platforms notes which licences each provider holds, and the same seven steps apply to each.

Affiliates should check every brand before promoting it in a market. Promoting a brand that isn’t licensed for that market can put your own licence, registration or ad accounts at risk in places like the UK, Ontario and the US states that license affiliates. Keep the dated register screenshot in your partner file.

If a licence structure is genuinely complex, such as a group licence covering several brands or a platform licence covering a white label, get a written opinion. Our directories of iGaming licensing consultants and gambling law firms list the firms that do this work.