Guide
How to verify an online casino licence: three checks, all must pass
A licence is a claim in a footer until it is found on a register that the regulator publishes. This guide sets out the check the reviews on this site run before any brand is scored: the company on the register, the seal that resolves on the regulator's own domain, and the certificate that names the domain you are visiting. It is written against the Curaçao Gaming Authority's rules as they stand in 2026, because most of the brands here are licensed there, with the Malta, UK and Anjouan registers beside them.
Step one: the company on the register
Start in the casino's terms: the operating company is named there, with its registration number and, for a Curaçao brand, a licence number. Then open the regulator's register and search for the company. For Curaçao the register is the online gaming licence registry published by the Curaçao Gaming Authority on cga.cw, a PDF with a row per licence: licence number, licensee, company type, company registration number, issue date, expiry date, status. A live entry carries a number in the form OGL/2024/… for licences issued under the interim policy or CGA/2025/… and CGA/2026/… for those issued under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, the LOK, which has been the governing law since 24 December 2024.
Three things on the row matter. The company type must be B2C; a B2B number belongs to a platform or software supplier and is not the casino's operating licence. The status must be Indefinite, which is a full licence, or Assessment in progress, which is a provisional licence valid for up to six months with a possible six-month extension; Expired and Revoked are what they say. And the number must be in one of the two live formats: the four master licences, 365/JAZ, 1668/JAZ, 8048/JAZ and 5536/JAZ, all expired between August 2024 and 31 January 2025, and the regulator's September 2026 register does not contain the string JAZ once. A footer that still prints 8048/JAZ is quoting a dead number.
What the register cannot tell you
The regulator's own disclaimer on the register says the overviews do not guarantee the current validity of a licence. Provisional licences roll forward in six-month windows, so an expiry date read today is stale in months. And the register names companies, never brand domains, which is why steps two and three exist.
The numbers on this site
Every review here prints the licence number as we found it and says whether it resolved. Brands whose number we could not find on a public register are capped at a trust mark of 7.0 and say so.
Step two: the seal and where it resolves
Since the LOK, a Curaçao licensee displays a dynamic seal linked to the domains the regulator has approved for it. The regulator's own description of a genuine seal, from its warning of 29 January 2026, is a green box with the letters CGA in white which, when clicked, links directly to the licence certificate hosted on cert.cga.cw, a domain the regulator owns. The certificate address takes the form cert.cga.cw/certificate?id= followed by a token for the domain. Click the seal, read the address bar, and confirm the host is exactly cert.cga.cw; a lookalike domain that renders a similar page is a forgery, whatever the page says.
The transitional orange seal, the Certificate of Operation that former sub-licensees carried while their applications were assessed, ended on 15 October 2025. From that date the regulator's position is that any operator still displaying an orange seal is in breach of Curaçao law, and that every former sub-licensee has had its application granted, approved or rejected. An orange seal in 2026 is a sign that the operator has not moved, and a green seal that does not resolve on cert.cga.cw is a sign that it has copied one.
Forged seals are a regulator-acknowledged problem
The regulator has published warnings through 2026 naming domains that carried its logo and a fake digital authorisation seal: a group using the GEM55 name in January, four domains trading on a licensed company's name in July. The fake licence guide covers the patterns those cases share.
Step three: the domain on the certificate
The certificate behind the seal names the domain it covers, and that domain must be the one in your address bar. The reason is a case the regulator published on 20 July 2026: casinoace.life, fetorex.com, 1-2026.com and tazonex.com presented themselves as authorised, carried the regulator's logo and a fake certificate, and named Famagousta B.V. as their operator. Famagousta B.V. is licensed. The four domains were not known to it and not authorised by the regulator. A player who had checked the company on the register would have found it and stopped there, satisfied; only the certificate, which would not have named those domains, gave the answer.
So the check is three steps and all must pass: the company on the register with a B2C licence in a live status, the seal resolving on cert.cga.cw, and the certificate naming the domain being visited. A brand can pass the first and fail the other two while being operated, in some sense, by a licensed company. The reviews on this site print the result of each step for the Curaçao brands, and the trust mark follows.
Mirrors and alternate domains
Casinos serving blocked markets run mirror domains, and a mirror is only covered if the regulator approved it. A seal on a mirror that resolves to a certificate naming the main domain is not proof for the mirror. Where a review notes a brand's mirrors, this is why it also notes which domain the certificate named.
Malta, the UK, Anjouan and the rest
The Malta Gaming Authority publishes a searchable licensee register: enter the company or the URL and the entry shows the licence, its status and the approved domains, which makes the three steps one step. The UK Gambling Commission's public register works the same way and lists the licensed activities and the trading names. Anjouan Licensing Services, whose ALSI numbers appear on several brands here, publishes a register that a number can be matched against, though the regime is young and the register is the only public check available. Estonia's Tax and Customs Board lists its licensees; Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Alderney publish theirs.
A regulator whose register cannot be found, or whose seal resolves to the operator's own domain, offers no check, and the absence of a check is the finding. On this site a brand whose licence cannot be verified on a public register has its trust mark capped at 7.0 and the review says why; a brand with a live entry and a resolving seal can go to 10. The regulators review compares what each of these bodies enforces once the licence is real.
Brands with a published number
| Casino | Score | Licence | Licence holder | Since | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1xSlots Casino | 9.8 | Curacao (CGA) | Orakum N.V | 2017 | Play |
| Play Fortuna Casino | 9.5 | Curacao (CGA) | Globonet B.V | 2013 | Play |
| Stake Casino | 9.5 | Curacao (CGA) | Medium Rare N.V | 2017 | Play |
| Vavada Casino | 9.5 | Curacao (CGA) | Vavada B.V | 2017 | Play |
| Vodka Casino | 9.2 | Anjouan (AGA) | Cricketwin Ltd | 2023 | Play |
| Riobet Casino | 9.2 | Curacao (CGA) | Riotech N.V | 2014 | Play |
| Spinbetter Casino | 9.2 | Anjouan (AGA) | Sprut Group B.V | 2019 | Play |
| Bitstarz Casino | 9.0 | Curacao (CGA) | Gareton B.V | 2014 | Play |
Questions about verifying a licence
Where do I find the licence number
In the footer of the casino, usually beside a seal, and in the terms and conditions under the operating company's name. The number is only the start: it has to appear on the regulator's register against that company, and the seal has to resolve on the regulator's own certificate domain.
What does a live Curaçao licence look like in 2026
A number in the form OGL/2024/… or CGA/2025/… or CGA/2026/… in the Curaçao Gaming Authority's online gaming licence registry, a company type of B2C, and a status of Indefinite or Assessment in progress. The old master-licence numbers ending in /JAZ all expired by 31 January 2025 and do not appear in the register at all.
The register lists the company. Is that enough
No. The Curaçao regulator's July 2026 warning about Famagousta B.V. is the reason: the company was licensed, and four domains using its name and a copied seal were not. The licence attaches to a company and to specific approved domains, so the certificate behind the seal must name the domain you are on.
Which regulators have a public register
The Curaçao Gaming Authority publishes its registry as PDFs on cga.cw; the Malta Gaming Authority has a searchable licensee register; the UK Gambling Commission publishes a public register of licensees; the Anjouan Licensing Services register lists its ALSI numbers. A regulator with no public register cannot be checked, and that is the answer to the check.