UK Gambling Licence Check: What the Register Shows

Why the account number is the only thing that settles it

A gambling site can add whatever they want to their footer. There are icons like padlocks. There are phrases like "fully licensed". Badges with crests are added. None of these things can be verified and unlicensed sites will always do this.

One thing on the page can be verified. Licence condition 8.1.1 (on page 7) of the Gambling Commission's licensing conditions requires licensees providing facilities for remote gambling "must display on every screen from which customers are able to access gambling facilities" a statement that they are licensed and regulated by the Commission and must provide their account number and a link to their licensed status on the Commission's website.

That account number is a public key. It provides licensees' real records that are kept up to date by the Commission.

The same licence condition also relates to what you will see on many websites, licences from other countries. Licensees may display those, "provided it is made plain on those screens that the licensee provides facilities for gambling to persons in Great Britain in reliance on their Gambling Commission licence(s)". A Curacao or Anjouan licence, on their own, without a Gambling Commission account number, means you can safely assume that is all you need to know.

The footer of each homepage has the last line in small grey text. There is typically something like “licensed and regulated by the Great Britain Gambling Commission, account number 12345”. Copy the number.

The check, in four steps

Two minutes, no account, no app, and it works the same on a phone.

1. Take the number at the end of the homepage’s footer. It will be a series of 5 numbers. If there is no number on the site, then that is a failed check.

2. Take the account number directly. The business register searches on business name, trading name, domain name or account number. Alternatively, you can put the number at the end of the address: the entry for account 39326 is at gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register/business/detail/39326.

3. Check the status and the activity. You are looking for an activity about to be completed and a licence status of Active. For example, if you are going to play at a remote casino, then the licence needs to be for a remote casino. The same goes for remote bingo. For sites that offer both remote casino and remote bingo, you need both licences.

4. Confirm the domain you are actually on. Open the licensee’s domain names and find the exact address in your browser bar. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that catches cloned sites, because a clone can print a real account number belonging to somebody else.

Should all four pass, the site will be licensed in Great Britain, and thereby the protections offered by a licence will apply to you. This includes free dispute resolution after eight weeks, which you can find within our terms within the complaints section, GAMSTOP, and a statement that will be published as to whether your balance would be protected in the event the company fails.

What each field on a register entry means

The first time you see an entry it seems lengthy, and most of it actually is administrative. This is an example of what one looks like.

These are the fields that contain information, what each entry means, and what you should be a bit cautious of.

One statement that the Commission states itself and that is important is: trading names and domain names are provided by the gambling business. The Commission publishes what it is given and cannot confirm the accuracy of third parties. A missing domain would warrant a query to the operator prior to a round of panic, but it is always worth querying.

The nine licence statuses

The status of a licence is the field most overlooked and assumed to be binary. The Commission actually uses nine values, and of those eight, you should certainly avoid placing a deposit. The following wording is the Commission's, and it is contained in the guidance that accompanies the register.

Most struggle with Surrendered because a surrendered licence isn’t a scandal. Companies leave the British market for commercial reasons all the time. It still means the site can no longer take you as a customer in Great Britain, and any site still doing so on a surrendered licence has a serious problem.

The white label trap

The thing that causes the most confusion on this page is this. A licence belongs to a company, not a brand.

A large company can have one set of licences and run many brands. Each brand has its own name and its own site. All of these brands are legitimately licensed. However, the company responsible to the Commission is the licensee, and it is that company's status, activities and sanctions history that you are checking.

This is visible in the register. Every declared domain states a status, and the options are Active, Inactive, and White Label. A domain with the White Label status is someone else’s brand operating under that licensee's privileges.

An example for Skill On Net Limited, account 39326, the licensee for PlayOJO. This entry has 52 trading names and 60 domain names against three remote licences. Of these 60 domains, 40 are Active, 2 are Inactive, and 18 are White Label.

PlayOJO's two domains – www.playojo.com and www.playojo.co.uk – are both flagged Active, so PlayOJO is one of the licensee’s own brands. The 18 White Label entries are separate casinos running the same activities and the same compliance record, under the same licence.

This means if you’re checking a small casino brand you’ve never heard of before, you should check the licensee, and then check the brand among the licensee’s trading names. A small brand with no history can be part of a large licensee with multiple infractions, and a small brand can be backed by a company running multiple other websites.

Three real entries, side by side

Three of the licensees of the casinos featured on this site, according to records as of 20 August 2026, have a very clean sanctions record. Every one of them is fully licensed, and they couldn’t look more different.

Skill On Net is an example of one licensee, 52 brands, 60 websites - a clean sanctions record across the board. WHG (International) Limited, the licensee of William Hill’s online casino, has the opposite, with one declared brand and one declared domain against six remote licences. Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, who holds bet365’s remote casino and bingo licences, is also in the same single-brand shape from a Maltese head office.

Head office location is the field people over-read. Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus come up frequently and none of that affects you. The Gambling Commission licence is what matters; the operator is responsible for British customers, no matter what the registered address says.

One brand can hold several licences

This is the inverse of the white label problem and just as easy to trip over. An operator may run their British domain through multiple licensed providers, so one name correlates to multiple account numbers.

bet365 shows clearly what’s happening here. Their remote casino and bingo licences are held by Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, account 55149. Their general betting licence is held by Hillside (UK Sports) ENC account 55148, which shows bet365.com has been controlled by it since the 17th of October 2019. There is also a third, Hillside (Technology) Limited, account 38721.

Why it matters: a sanction recorded against the sports company will not be visible on the casino company’s entry, and vice versa. If you search one account number and find a clear record, you have checked one of three. The bet365 review in this case looks into the casino product which account 55149 holds.

The check almost everybody skips: sanctions

A licence indicates what protections are applicable. It does not indicate that the operator has acted in an ethical manner, and this information is published elsewhere by the register.

Every business entry includes a regulatory actions count. The Commission keeps a record of regulatory actions for the last three years. All of this is public with the reasoning included. This includes fines, regulatory settlements, conditions placed on licences following reviews, suspensions, etc.

The number of actions is small. This is important before assuming a clean record has no significance. In its 2024 to 2025 annual report the Commission stated it "took enforcement action against 24 operators in total leading to 4.2 million pounds in fines or regulatory settlements", and noted that the penalties were lower than the previous year.

What a public statement actually contains

One example is the Hillside (UK Sports) ENC, the bet365 sports licensee. This was published on 4 April 2024 and describes a payment of 239,085 pounds as a financial penalty, and also 15,684.50 pounds to cover the cost of the Commission's investigation.

This citation includes specific reasoning. From May 2021 to July 2022 the licensee failed to maintain the policies and procedures to manage the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. Breaches included ineffective customer verification and risk assessments. From October 2021 to September 2022 the licensee failed to take reasonable steps to minimise the risk of gambling related harms, and conducted interactions with customers which did not consider the needs of individual customers.

This is infinitely more important than any star rating, including ours. It describes which specific duty the operator breached, over what time period, and the steps the Commission required the operator to take to resolve the breach.

Two more checks that take ten seconds

Does it offer GAMSTOP?

SR code 3.5.5

As a British online gambling licence holder, participation in GAMSTOP has been a prerequisite since the 31st of March 2020, under social responsibility code provision 3.5.5.

• Every licensed online operator has to be integrated with the scheme, and the Commission has suspended licences over it. Two operators, Dynamic, trading as Prophet, and Sportito, had their licences suspended with immediate effect for failing to integrate fully.
• So if a gambling site offers no GAMSTOP and makes no mention of it in its safer gambling pages, it is not licensed in Great Britain, whatever the footer says.
• Sites that market themselves specifically at people who have self-excluded through GAMSTOP are advertising the absence of a British licence. The Commission has said these sites often target people who have self-excluded.

Does it name an ADR provider?

Licence requirement

Licensed operators must be signed up to an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider and must disclose which one they have opted for.

• Look in the terms and conditions or the complaints page for a named provider. BetVictor, for example, names IBAS and issues a referral number when a complaint reaches that stage.
• A complaints page that escalates to nobody outside the company is a licensed operator failing a licence requirement, or a site that is not licensed at all.
• Free ADR is one of the concrete things a British licence buys you, and the complaints guide covers who adjudicates which casino and what makes a ruling stick.

Red flags worth stopping for

These do not provide any assurance on their own. Any of these prompts you to complete the self-exclusion checklist.

• No account number anywhere. Licence condition 8.1.1 requires it on every screen from which you can reach gambling. Its absence is a breach or an admission.
• An account number that resolves to a different brand. Search the number, then check the trading names. A number lifted from a real licensee is a common trick on cloned sites.
• The domain you are on is not declared. Especially if a very similar one is. Look closely at hyphens, .com against .co.uk, and doubled letters.
• A foreign licence shown on its own. Curacao, Anjouan or Costa Rica with no Gambling Commission account number means no British licence and no British protections.
• No GAMSTOP, or a boast about not using it. Mandatory since 31 March 2020 for every licensed British online operator.
• The activity does not match the product. A site running slots whose licensee holds no remote casino licence is offering something it is not licensed for.
• Cryptocurrency deposits. British licensees run on regulated payment rails and account verification. A gambling site taking crypto from British customers is almost never operating on a Gambling Commission licence.

If a site turns out not to be licensed

Do not deposit, and if you have deposited funds, request a refund of funds immediately.

No free dispute resolution is available, as ADR is part of the licensing. There is no affiliation with GAMSTOP, and therefore a self-exclusion you set up will not reach the site. The Commission's rules on how customers are treated do not bind it. If the money disappears, the routes described in our complaints section are closed to you, and your realistic options shrink to your payment provider and the police.

Reporting is explained in the register. There is a line in every business entry instructing Great Britain customers to report offers of illegal gambling (which could be illegal) to the Commission through their “Tell us something in confidence” web page. The government foresees that certain customers might choose to use illegal gambling web pages as an alternative to legal pages (due to the increase in legal web page duties) and therefore this report is becoming more critical. We explain why in our gambling tax web page. The Commission also accepts emails containing intel at intelligence@gamblingcommission.gov.uk. Please ensure you provide the URL of the site and take screenshots of any rights or licensing claims the site makes.

As you are self-excluded and have been targeted by an unlicensed site, you also need to report this. The Commission has stated that unlicensed web pages target GAMSTOP self-excluded customers and this is the behaviour that the Commission wants to monitor.

Check our ten yourself

Each of the casinos listed on this page has been confirmed by account number on the register. You must satisfy yourself and cannot rely on this. Here are the journal entries for each one. There is no search required as each page opens to the Commission’s web page.

The company attached to each of these account numbers can be found on the about page, and each review page includes the account number in its licensing section. If a number here differs from what is in the register, let me know and I will correct the page that day.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find a casino's UK Gambling Commission account number?

It has to be on the site. Licence condition 8.1.1 states that remote licensees are required to display a licensed statement, account number, and a hyperlink to their current licensed status on each screen from which gambling can be accessed. In practice, it is located in the page footer. If you cannot find an account number anywhere, that should be your answer.

The company on the register is not the casino's name. Is that a problem?

Usually not. The licence is held by a company, and that company is typically not the brand above the door. Skill On Net Limited hold several licences for 52 declared trading names. What matters is that the brand and the exact domain you are on is within that licencee’s declared trading names and domain names.

What is a white label casino?

A brand that operates using another company’s operating licence. The register shows that: each declared domain carries a status of Active, Inactive or White Label. A white label is licensed and legal, but the company that is responsible for it, and for which you need to read the licence status and review the sanctions, is the licence holder.

Does a UK licence mean a casino has never done anything wrong?

Yes. The register has a section for regulatory actions for the last three years and is worth opening. During the period of 2024 to 2025, the Commission took enforcement against 24 operators resulting in 4.2 million pounds in either fines or regulatory settlements. A licence indicates the protections apply to you, and the sanctions history indicates the operator's conduct.

What can I do if a gambling site is not licensed in Great Britain?

Do not deposit. An unlicensed site owes you no free dispute resolution, is not linked to GAMSTOP, and places you outside the protections the Commission enforces. You can report the site to the Commission's intelligence team at intelligence@gamblingcommission.gov.uk.