UKGC licence: how to check one and what it protects
UKGC means the Gambling Commission, and a UKGC licence is its permission to offer gambling in Great Britain, where serving players without one is illegal. The licence brings rules you can hold it to, such as a 10x cap on bonus wagering and free dispute resolution after 8 weeks. You check a casino by searching its domain on the Commission's public register. Records read 29 September 2026.
| On the register | Where you'll find it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Account number, such as 48789 | The business's page, and the casino's footer | Which company holds the licence. The footer has to link to this exact record |
| Licence number, such as 048789-R-327402-013 | The licence rows | The first 6 digits, minus leading zeros, are the account number. R means Remote |
| Activities and licence status | The licence rows | What the company may offer, such as casino or betting, and whether each licence is Active, Suspended or Surrendered |
| Domain names | The domain names tab | The websites the business has declared, marked Active, White Label or Inactive |
| Trading names | The trading names tab | Brand names the company trades under, Active or Inactive |
| Regulatory actions | The regulatory actions tab | Penalties and settlements, but only for 3 years after they're published |
Anyone can search it. You can look a company up by its name, a brand it trades as, a domain or its account number, and download the lot. Since the domains and trading names come from the businesses themselves, the Commission says it can't guarantee them.
Try it with winomania.co.uk, and you get one business back, Anakatech Interactive Limited, on account 48789. Drop the leading zero from its licence number, 048789-R-327402-013, and you're back at 48789. Its domain tab lists 10 websites, and once you set aside Winomania's own and LuckyMate's second domain, 8 Winomania sisters remain.
How do you check a UKGC licence?
The Commission's player checklist and its display rules for casinos add up to 4 steps:
- Find the licence statement at the foot of the casino's pages, which must name the licensee, give its account number and link to the Commission.
- Click the account number, which must open that business's own register page, not the Commission's home page.
- Check that the licensee name matches the footer word for word and that the casino's domain appears in the domain tab.
- Read the licence rows, because an online casino needs a Remote casino licence marked Active, and a betting licence alone does not cover it.
With no working link in the footer, you can search the register by the domain yourself. If it sits under no licence at all, stop there.
Is the footer showing an account or licence number?
They're related, not identical. A licence number starts with the account number, padded out to 6 digits with leading zeros. That rule held for all 4,499 licence rows in the register download of 29 September 2026.
Look at the letter in the second block for the licence type. R is Remote, for online gambling, N is Non-Remote, for shops, arcades and land casinos, and A is Ancillary Remote, for gaming inside one venue. Footers carry the account number, because that's what the Commission's display rules ask them to show.
A page that lists 48789 as Winomania's licence number is quoting the account number. Neither number is wrong, but only the account number takes you straight to the record.
What do Active, White Label and Inactive mean?
In a Freedom of Information reply, the Commission set out its own definitions:
- Active: the licensee has reported that it uses the domain to offer gambling now.
- White Label: a domain run by a licensed operator in partnership with another company, where the operator holds the licence.
- Inactive: a domain no longer in use, or not yet used, which another licensee could take on later.
A white-label casino isn't on a lesser licence. The Commission says such a site is run exactly as the licensee's own would be, with players admitted under the same rules, 18+ included. Responsibility for it stays with the licence holder and can't be handed to the partner, so any breach on the site is the licensee's liability.
In the Commission's words, the partnership is "better described as a marketing agreement". A partner without its own licence that dealt with customers directly would be committing an offence. Domains aren't approved at all. Only the operator behind them is.
White labels are common. Of the 2,227 domain rows in the 29 September 2026 download, 360 were White Label, 1,064 Active and 803 Inactive.
How do you find sister sites and past penalties?
How does the register reveal a casino's sister sites?
Every Active or White Label domain on one account trades under that account's licence, so the casinos behind those domains count as sisters. You can test any sister list against that tab, the directory on this site included. Here's how 4 accounts looked on 29 September 2026:
| Account holder | Account | Domain tab | Brands it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anakatech Interactive Limited | 48789 | 3 Active, 7 White Label | Winomania, LuckyMate, 7bet, BetCrown and 5 more brands |
| BV Gaming Limited | 39576 | 3 Active, 6 White Label, 1 Inactive | BetVictor, with Heart Bingo, Betano and Parimatch as white labels |
| Jupiter Gaming Limited | 67098 | 7 Active, 3 Inactive | Red Casino, 666 Casino, Mr Luck and 4 more, with every remote activity Active from 28 August 2025 |
| LeoVegas Gaming PLC | 39198 | 6 Active, 5 Inactive | LeoVegas, BetMGM, Pink Casino, 21.co.uk, BetUK and Slot Boss |
Some accounts are far bigger. Jumpman Gaming Limited's account lists 133 White Label domains and ProgressPlay Limited's 95, so a 5-name sister list for either misses most of them.
Keep 2 cautions in mind. Inactive rows aren't current sisters. Because the domains are self-reported, a brand-new domain may be missing only because the business hasn't told the Commission yet.
Why can an empty actions tab miss past penalties?
Sanctions and settlements stay on the register for 3 years from publication. Then they drop off. Commission enforcement notices add a related line: "Public statements are only available online for 3 years from the date of issue".
On 29 September 2026, LeoVegas Gaming PLC's tab read "No regulatory actions have been recorded for this business". Yet Commission news reports a £600,000 penalty on 2 May 2018 and a £1.32 million one on 3 August 2022.
Businesses outlast their licences on the register too. TGP Europe Limited, which ran Stake.uk.com as a white label, surrendered every licence on 15 May 2025 but was still listed, with all 24 domains Inactive. Its actions tab was empty as well, though a Commission statement of 5 April 2023 covered its anti-money laundering failings, weak white-label checks included. A former licensee stays listed for 3 years after its licence ends. For older actions, check Commission news and request any historic public statement from the Commission.
What does a licence protect you from?
A licensed casino has to follow these rules, and each has a start date you can check:
| Rule | In force from | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Age and ID checks before you gamble | 7 May 2019 | Your age is checked before you deposit, and your name, address and date of birth before you gamble |
| GAMSTOP membership | 31 March 2020 | Every online licensee has to honour a GAMSTOP self-exclusion |
| No credit cards | 14 April 2020 | Gambling on a credit card is banned online and offline, non-remote lotteries aside |
| No reverse withdrawals | 31 October 2021 | Money you've asked to withdraw can't be gambled again |
| Online slot stakes | 9 April 2025 | £5 a spin at most for adults |
| Online slot stakes, ages 18 to 24 | 21 May 2025 | £2 a spin at most |
| Limit prompts | 31 October 2025 | You're asked to set a financial limit before your first deposit |
| 10x wagering cap | 19 January 2026 | No bonus can ask for more than 10 times its value in bets |
In pounds, that cap changes a lot. The Commission's own pre-cap example was a £10 bonus needing £500 of play, where the cap now allows £100 of wagering at most. One offer can no longer mix products such as casino and betting either.
ID rules bind the casino too. A casino that asks for documents only at withdrawal, when it could have asked earlier, may be breaking licence condition 17 on identity checks. You can take your money out at any time without unreasonable delay, and it can't be confiscated because you didn't log in within a set time.
The casino must also search public records for a bankruptcy or court judgment against you when your net deposits top £150 in any 30 days. A similar check in the past 12 months excuses it.
Is your balance safe if a licensed casino goes bust?
Not automatically. Neither the Commission nor the government protects it like a bank account, so every casino must tell you in its terms which of 3 ratings applies:
- Not protected: your balance counts as the company's assets, and you'd likely lose it.
- Medium protection: arrangements such as insurance, but with no absolute guarantee.
- High protection: money held in a separate account under an independent trustee, checked by an external auditor.
The rule underneath is that online operators must still keep your money separate at "not protected", but that alone won't save it in an insolvency. Since 31 October 2025, a not-protected casino must tell you every 6 months how much it's holding, and you acknowledge that before playing on. It's the operator's own rating, so no casino may claim the Commission approved it.
How does a complaint against a licensed casino work?
Disputes over bets aren't something the Commission settles, so every complaint starts with the casino. Raise yours within 6 months of what went wrong, the least time the Commission expects a casino to allow. Its process then gets 8 weeks at most. That covers every internal escalation, and the clock can stop if you take more than 7 days to answer a reasonable request.
If it's unresolved after 8 weeks, or reaches deadlock sooner, you can take it to alternative dispute resolution, or ADR. ADR must be free to you. Going to ADR doesn't stop you going to court, but the casino's terms can make a resolution you agree through ADR binding on both sides.
Since 6 April 2026, the ADR service must be accredited by the Secretary of State under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. It won't handle customer-service complaints or a refused bet. Ask the casino which ADR service it uses, and for a deadlock letter confirming you can take the complaint there.
Can a Malta or Curaçao licence serve UK players?
No. A licence from another country doesn't let a site serve customers in Great Britain, the Commission says, and a business doing so is acting illegally. Card schemes and PayPal may cut off its payments.
Commission research on illegal gambling, published on 18 September 2025, asked 1,007 people about potential signs of illegal-site use in the previous 12 months:
- 20% had used a site with no ID or age check at sign-up.
- 18% had gambled with no deposit limits, self-exclusion or other safer gambling tools on offer.
- 20% had struggled to withdraw their money without a clear explanation.
GAMSTOP membership and the free ADR route after 8 weeks are both licence conditions. Where you've already registered with GAMSTOP, device blockers such as BetBlocker, Gamblock or Gamban are a sensible extra step, and GamCare's number is 0808 8020 133. Offered gambling by a site with no licence? Report it to the Commission through its confidential reporting form.
What are the UKGC licence requirements for a business?
A business needs a licence to offer online gambling in Great Britain, wherever it's based, and a separate remote licence for each type of gambling. The Commission checks the people behind it for identity, finances, integrity, competence and criminal record. A business may also need personal licences, the Personal Management and Personal Functional kinds. Anyone applying for a personal licence must be 18 or over.
Fees scale with the business. From 1 October 2026, a remote casino licence application costs £8,185 to £165,069, depending on the gambling yield.
Which safer gambling tools work at every UKGC casino?
One registration with GAMSTOP bars you from every Commission-licensed online casino. You pick how long it lasts, from 6 months up to 5 years. It can't be cancelled early. When the period ends, the block stays until you ask GAMSTOP to remove it, for a further 7 years at most, then it is deactivated. Once you self-exclude, a casino has to close your account, return your balance and take you off its marketing lists.
Ask to lower a limit and the casino must act on it immediately, a rule since 31 October 2025. From 30 September 2026, it must also offer a deposit limit that counts every deposit, however much you withdraw.
Calls to GamCare's National Gambling Helpline are free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133. From Wales, the Commission also lists a separate NHS Wales helpline on 0808 2819 265. Every licensed casino is closed to under-18s. This site's gambling help page explains why a sister list can't settle what one casino's own exclusion covers.
What else do players ask about a UKGC licence?
Does a UKGC licence make a casino safe?
It means you're dealing with a business the Commission can suspend. The Commission suspended LEBOM Limited on 3 November 2022 for failing to integrate GAMSTOP, and lifted the suspension 5 days later, after LEBOM fixed the problem. If you'd been a LEBOM customer, the suspension wouldn't have stopped you withdrawing.
What do Suspended, Surrendered and Revoked mean?
The register has 9 licence statuses, and these 3 are the ones players meet most. Suspended means the Commission has stopped the licence pending an investigation, Surrendered means the business gave it up, and Revoked means the Commission took it away.
Can a UKGC-licensed casino be based abroad?
Yes. Anakatech Interactive's head office is in Sofia and LeoVegas Gaming PLC's in Sliema, Malta, yet both hold Commission licences.
Can you download the whole register?
Yes, in Excel, CSV and Zip formats. Its page, last updated on 28 September 2026, showed 2,636 business records.