Casino license check: matching a site's footer against the Curaçao, Malta and UK registers

2026-10-18

On 24 December 2024, Curaçao's new gaming law (the LOK) came into force. From that day the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) has issued and supervised online gaming licences.

The licences most often printed at the bottom of baccarat sites come from Curaçao, Malta and the UK. This post does not recommend any site. It sets the three regulators' public registers side by side and shows how to match a site's licence against them.

1.A licence does not change local law

A foreign licence means that country supervises the operator. It does not change the law where the player lives.

Korea is one example. Its legal gambling is limited to seven sectors run under the national gambling supervisor, among them the Kangwon Land casino, horse racing and the lottery (news1 interview). Online casinos are not on that list, and Article 246 of the Criminal Act makes gambling punishable.

Check what the law allows where the player lives before checking any licence. Everything below assumes it does.

2.What the three registers show

A licence number on a site is only a claim until it is checked in the register. The three regulators publish theirs in different ways.

Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA)

The CGA publishes its licence overviews as PDF lists by sector: land-based casinos, online gaming licences, certificate holders and enforcement.

The register page carries a caveat. It says licence status can change over time, so the overviews do not guarantee that a licence is currently valid.

The CGA also says applications filed before the new law took effect are handled under the old regime. So a site footer may still use the name of the older licensing system. Even then, look the operator up in the new authority's lists.

Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)

The MGA website has a Licensee Register together with a URL Checker.

The URL Checker is the useful part. It shows whether the domain open in the browser is an address tied to that licence, not just whether the company name matches.

For disputes, the MGA strongly recommends trying to resolve them first with the operator's support and management.

UK Gambling Commission (UKGC)

The UKGC public register lets anyone search and download information on businesses, personal licences and premises.

Regulatory actions and public statements sit in the same place. Whether a business holds a licence and whether it has been sanctioned can be checked in one visit.

3.Matching the footer to the register

Copy the operating company's name, the licence number and the issuing body from the site footer. A logo image with no text at all is a warning sign in itself.

Then open the regulator's website by typing its address. A verification page reached by clicking the footer logo may be a page the site made itself.

Check that the company name in the register matches the operator's name on the site letter for letter. For a Malta licence, put the current domain into the URL Checker.

4.What a licence does not tell

A licence says nothing about withdrawal speed, the kinds of tables, or whether automated betting works. Withdrawal timing is covered in the baccarat site withdrawal post.

Spotting fake addresses is in the baccarat site address post. A licence check is one step to take together with those two.

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