Checked against primary sources on by J.Singh
Every casino puts a licence badge in its footer. It’s an image and some text, which means anyone can put one there — including sites that have no licence at all, and sites whose licence was revoked last year.
The badge isn’t the proof. The regulator’s register is. Checking takes about two minutes, and it’s the only part of casino due diligence that gives you a definite answer.
Step one — find the claim
Scroll to the footer. A legitimate operator states the operating company’s name, its registration number, the regulator, and a licence number. Something like: operated by Example Gaming Ltd, company C 12345, licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority under licence MGA/CRP/000/0000.
If there’s a logo but no company name and no number, that’s your answer already. A badge with nothing behind it is decoration.
Step two — open the register yourself
Type the address in rather than clicking the badge. A fake seal links wherever its owner wants it to.
UK Gambling Commission: the public register of licensed businesses on gamblingcommission.gov.uk. It holds around 2,600 records and — this is the useful part almost no guide mentions — you can search it by domain name. You don’t need to know the company behind the site. Type in the web address you’re looking at.
Malta Gaming Authority: the authorisations portal on mga.org.mt, searchable by company and licence number.
Step three — check that three things match
The operator name. Does the company in the register match the company in the footer? Brands get sold, and licences get transferred; a mismatch isn’t automatically fraud, but it’s a question worth an answer.
The status. It must be active. Lapsed, surrendered, and revoked all mean the badge is historical. This is the check that catches sites still flying a licence they lost.
The domain. This is the one people skip and it’s the one that matters most. An operator’s licence covers specific listed domains. A real company can hold a real licence and run an unlicensed site alongside it — and the only way to catch that is to confirm the exact address you are on appears on the record.
What actually indicates a problem
A badge that isn’t clickable, or is a flat image. Most regulators require the seal to link to the live record. A picture of a seal is not a seal.
A licence number that returns nothing. If the register has never heard of it, that’s conclusive.
Your domain isn’t on the record. Covered above, and it’s the most common way a technically real licence is misused.
No company name anywhere on the site. Legitimate operators are legally required to identify themselves. Anonymity is the tell.
A regulator you can’t find a register for. Some jurisdictions publish properly, and some barely publish at all. If there’s no searchable record, you have a logo and a promise.
The licence isn’t the whole answer
A licence tells you someone is accountable. It doesn’t tell you the terms are fair, and there are clauses that are perfectly legal and still worth walking away from.
“Low-risk play” clauses let a casino void winnings if it decides you were hedging rather than genuinely gambling — and it defines what that means, after the fact.
Max cashout on a deposit bonus caps what you can withdraw no matter what you win.
Dormancy fees quietly drain a balance you’ve stopped using.
You’ll find these in the terms, not the footer, and they’re worth five minutes before you deposit rather than after you win. If you want to see how we apply all of this to a specific casino, our Rizk review works through the licences, the terms and the dispute record.
And if the check fails
Don’t deposit. If you already have money there, withdraw what you can now and start the complaint process — though be clear-eyed that an unlicensed operator has no complaints obligation, no adjudicator, and no regulator behind it, which is precisely why the two-minute check is worth doing first. The escalation route is here, and every step of it depends on the casino being licensed in the first place.
FAQ
How do I know if an online casino is licensed?
Find the operating company name and licence number in the site’s footer, then search for them in the regulator’s own public register — typing the address yourself rather than clicking the badge. The UK register lets you search by domain name directly, which is the fastest route.
Can a casino fake a licence badge?
Yes. The badge is an image and some text that the operator controls entirely, and it can link anywhere. Only the regulator’s register proves anything, which is why you should open it independently rather than following a link from the site you’re checking.
What should I check on the licence record?
Three things: that the operator name matches the company named in the footer, that the status is active rather than lapsed or revoked, and that the exact domain you are on is listed. The domain check is the one most people skip and the one that catches a real licence being used to cover an unlicensed site.
Does a licence mean a casino is fair?
It means someone is accountable and there is a complaints route. It does not mean the terms are reasonable. Clauses allowing winnings to be voided for “low-risk play”, caps on what you can withdraw from a bonus, and dormancy fees are all legal and all worth reading before you deposit.
