Check Casino Licence UK 2026: Five Checks on the Register
Rachel Doughty
Updated
The Gambling Commission has all of its license holdings and makes them public. A check usually takes two minutes. Here is what needs to be analyzed.
- 2,635businesses on the register
- 1,062website domains marked Active
- 804domains marked Inactive
- 360domains run as a White Label
How to check if an online casino is licensed in the UK
Five checks, in order. If any one of them fails, stop and find out why before you deposit.
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Find the account number
Scroll to the bottom of the page. A licensed casino must legally disclose the company name and the Gambling Commission account number. The account number is usually linked directly to the Commission.
Both the company name and account number must be documented.
MrQ names Tek Fox Ltd and account 60629 in its footer. -
Open the register entry
The Gambling Commission’s public register must be accessed and the account number or company name must be entered. The next page will contain a summary of the licence.
“Casino” must be found and be “Active” and “Remote.”
Tek Fox Ltd holds active remote casino and bingo licences from 29 September 2023. -
Check the domain is listed and Active
Open Domain names. The website you are on must be listed here and marked Active. This is the check that catches copycat sites, because a clone can copy a footer but cannot get its own address onto someone else's licence.
It is normal and legal for a licensed domain to have subdomains.
www.mrq.com is Active on Tek Fox Ltd. -
Check the trading names
Open Trading names. Companies usually conduct business under multiple names. Check here for the name you’re looking for. If it’s not listed, the business site could be owned by a different company from the one in the footer.
The brand should appear among the trading names. -
Look at the regulatory actions
Open Regulatory actions. This section lists fines and negative actions against the company. The absence of entries here is a positive sign, but look through the other sections for additional info.
No actions recorded against Tek Fox Ltd.
What each status on the Gambling Commission register means
Counts are from the register downloads on 29 September 2026.
- Active (licence)
- The licence is in force. 3,639 licence activities on the register are Active.
- Active (domain)
- The website is currently run under this licence. This is what you want to see next to the site you are on.
- Inactive (domain)
- The website was once on this licence but no longer is. 804 domains carry this status. Often the site moved to another company.
- White Label
- The site is run by a separate brand business using this company's licence. 360 domains are listed this way.
- Surrendered
- The company gave the licence up. 648 licence activities have been surrendered, some after enforcement action.
- Suspended
- The Commission has stopped the licence while it investigates. A suspended operator cannot take bets.
- Revoked
- The Commission has taken the licence away. 52 more were revoked for not paying the annual fee.
- Lapsed or Pending
- Lapsed licences have ended; pending ones are applications not yet decided. Neither lets a casino operate.
When a casino site changes licence holder
An old registration shows the domain has been active.
Search the register by website, not just by company. www.mrq.com is Active on Tek Fox Ltd, but it also appears as Inactive on Lindar Media Limited, account 51250.
Tek Fox Ltd was the new licence Holder of the active site as of 29 September, 2023. Lindar Media Ltd previously held the licence and agreed a settlement of £690,947 with the Gambling Commission on the 20th of September, 2023.
The Gambling Commission also issued a similar fine of £6,000,000 to a different licence holder of Casumo, in 2021, who subsequently surrendered its licence. More details can be found on our site.
White-label casinos: whose licence are you on?
As noted, a single licence holder can operate numerous sites.
- The brand is not the licence holder
Operators that do not hold a license can still use a White Label solution provided by a licensed operator. In such cases, the website will be operated under the license of the White Label provider. This means that the website may operate under a different domain than the license holder.
- The licence holder is responsible
White Label provider companies that operate several websites are equally at risk. In 2025, ProgressPlay was fined £1 million for its 134 websites. AG Communications, a White Label provider that operates 58 websites on the AspireGlobal platform, was fined £1.4 million in the same year.
- What to do
You should review the terms and conditions of your agreement to identify the operator you have an agreement with. You should also review the agreement to identify the operator you should direct your complaint to.
Red flags when you check a casino licence
Any one of these is a reason to stop.
- No account numberOnly a licence logo or a vague "fully licensed" claim, with no number you can look up.
- The number does not matchThe account belongs to a different company, or the footer link goes somewhere other than the register.
- The domain is missingThe licence is real, but the website you are on is not listed on it, or is marked Inactive.
- A lookalike addressA spelling a letter away from a known brand, or a different ending such as .net instead of .com.
- The licence is not ActiveSuspended, revoked, surrendered or lapsed. None of these lets a casino take your money.
- A licence from elsewhere onlyA Malta or Gibraltar licence on its own does not allow a casino to offer gambling to people in Great Britain.
No account number
The number does not match
The domain is missing
A lookalike address
The licence is not Active
A licence from elsewhere onlyThe Commission requests that you report any website that operates an online casino in Great Britain to the Commission using the "Tell us something in confidence" page if the website does not hold a license. We have provided further information on other means used by fraudulent online casinos in Great Britain, and the steps you should take if you have made a deposit to a fraudulent online casino, in our guide to online casino scams.
What the licence check does not tell you
A live license means that the operator holds a valid license to operate an online casino. Three other things relate to the license and are external to the license.
Older fines. The regulatory actions tab covers recent years only. LeoVegas, which holds the licence BetMGM runs on, shows no actions there, yet it was fined £1.32 million in 2022. Search our full list of fines since 2021 by brand or website to see the older cases, or see which licence holders have no Gambling Commission fines at all.
Warnings to Staff Senior managers are licensed individually, and disciplinary action is administered personally. kwiff’s licence holder has no record of fines; however, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer received written warnings in 2024.
How the casino treats you. The register says nothing about withdrawal times, fees or bonus terms. For that, read the casino's own terms, or our reviews, which quote them. Our ranking of safe online casinos puts the register, the fines record and the payout terms side by side for ten casinos. If something does go wrong, the licence is what gives you a complaints route to an independent dispute service.
Licence check: the casinos we review
Each one checked against the register downloads on 29 September 2026.
| Casino | Licence holder | Account | Domain checked | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BetMGM | LeoVegas Gaming PLC | 39198 | betmgm.co.uk | Active |
| BetVictor | BV Gaming Limited | 39576 | betvictor.com | Active |
| BoyleSports | Boylesports Enterprise | 39469 | casino.boylesports.com | Active |
| Casumo | Recro Limited | 61549 | casumo.com | Active |
| Duelz | SuprPlay Limited | 48695 | www.duelz.com | Active |
| Grosvenor | Rank Interactive (Gibraltar) Limited | 57924 | grosvenorcasinos.com | Active |
| kwiff | Eaton Gate Gaming Limited | 44448 | kwiff.com | Active |
| LiveScore | LiveScore Betting and Gaming (Gibraltar) Limited | 56859 | www.livescorebet.com | Active |
| Midnite | Midnite Limited | 101839 | www.midnite.com | Active |
| MrQ | Tek Fox Ltd | 60629 | www.mrq.com | Active |
Casino licence checks: questions
How do I know if an online casino is licensed in the UK?
To verify a casino’s license, go to the casino’s website, and look for the Gambling Commission account number, which is normally located in the footer, and check the status of the license using the public register of the Gambling Commission.
Is a Malta or Gibraltar licence enough to play from the UK?
No, to legally provide gambling services to persons in Great Britain, an operator must hold a license from the Gambling Commission. There are many UK-based casinos that also hold a license from Malta or Gibraltar, but for players in Great Britain, the Commission’s license is the only license that matters.
What does White Label mean on the Gambling Commission register?
This means that for a separate brand from the company in question, a gambling website has been licensed by the company. It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that the website is operated legally.
What does an Inactive domain mean?
The website was once run under that licence but no longer is. If the same site is Active on another account, it has moved to a new licence holder.
Does a UK licence mean a casino has never been fined?
No, although a number of operators that hold a valid gambling license in the UK have been fined or settled by the Commission. For more information, see our list of the Gambling Commission’s fines since 2021.
What should I do if a casino is not on the register?
We advise against depositing money. If you come across a website that operates gambling services in Britain without a valid license from the Gambling Commission, you can report it using the Commission’s “Tell us something in confidence” webpage.
Rachel Doughty
Editor, Casino Warnings · Bristol
Rachel reads the Gambling Commission's registers and enforcement notices, and the terms casinos publish for British players, then writes them up in plain English.
- Sources
- The Gambling Commission public register and its business licence register downloads. Screenshots are of the register entries for Tek Fox Ltd and Lindar Media Limited, and of mrq.com.
