What a casino licence is, and what it is for
A gaming licence allows a registered company to operate gambling from the jurisdiction that granted it the licence. The company is required to pay fees, submit forms, and adhere to the regulations set by the regulatory authority. In return, the company is granted a licence number that can be featured in the website footer. This licence number is the only public thread that connects the casino brand to a legal entity that people could direct their complaints to. Hence the reason that licence sections are quoted verbatim in the reviews.
What a licence is for, from your side of the screen, is to provide accountability for when something goes wrong. It is the floor under the relationship. All of the elements above that floor - payout clocks, bonus rules, KYC triggers - exist within the terms of the casino. The safety guide explains why a licensed casino may still cost you money.
Curacao and Anjouan: the two licences in this niche
Curacao has for years been the default jurisdiction for licensees within the crypto niche. However, it has recently reformed its licensing to provide licences directly from the Curacao Gaming Authority. These licences are governed by the new Curacao gaming ordinance, with a public register that states the effective dates of the licence. BetFury displays a licence from the Curacao CGA that is effective from July 2025, the cleanest on the roster.
Anjouan is an autonomous island within the Union of the Comoros that licenses international online gaming. The island has become the fast-growing flag among newer crypto casinos, and three of the seven casinos we profile cite it: Tonplay, BC.Game and JetTon. The enforcement on the island is lighter than in large regulated markets. The numbers do have a property that Curacao's do not, which will be covered in the following section.
| Regime | Issuer | Number tells you | Public check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curacao | Curacao Gaming Authority | Effective date, stated | Register + clickable seal |
| Anjouan | Government of Anjouan | Issue date, embedded in the number | Validation seal |
Reading a licence number: dates hidden in plain sight
The licence numbers for Anjouan follow a specific format: ALSI followed by a sequence of eight digits indicating the date on which the licence was issued. Tonplay's licence number, ALSI-202508040-FI2, indicates the date of issuance as 4 August 2025, the most recent licence issued to any of the casinos we profile. BC.Game's licence number of ALSI-202410011-FI1 indicates an issuance date of October 2024, sitting under an operation that visibly predates it: an old casino with recent paperwork.
The pattern has limits, too. Since JetTon's ALSI-192407050-FI3 number is part of a series of licences we cannot confidently date, we print that instead of guessing. Where it works, the trick is the strongest age signal in the niche. A casino can change its About page a thousand times, but the licence number is issued once. Our new casinos ranking was dated almost entirely from this paperwork.
| Casino | Licence cited | Read from it |
|---|---|---|
| BetFury | Curacao CGA | Effective July 2025, per its footer |
| Tonplay | Anjouan ALSI-202508040-FI2 | Issued August 2025 |
| BC.Game | Anjouan ALSI-202410011-FI1, plus two local | Issued October 2024 |
| JetTon | Anjouan ALSI-192407050-FI3 | Series we cannot date |
| TG.Casino | Not named | Nothing to read |
| Mega Dice | Not named | Nothing to read |
| Betpanda | None cited | Nothing to read |
The gap between licensed and safe
No licence in this niche means approval in your country. A casino licensed in Anjouan and accepting your signup is relying on you to know the laws of your country, which the legality guide breaks down for you. No licence insures your deposits. No licence guarantees you will receive your winnings in a given timeframe. In the event of a dispute, the routes at both regulators are slower and weaker than a chargeback would be, and crypto does not offer a chargeback option anyway.
The sharper test looks at whether the licence is paired with a named operator. A number in the footer means little if there is no company named beside it, and two of our seven name no operating company anywhere we could find. Paperwork you can read is better than paperwork that merely exists, and both are better than a footer that simply says "licensed".
Checking a casino licence in four steps
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Read the footer's licence section
You are looking for two things: the presence of a regulator by name and a licence number. The statement "fully licensed and regulated" with neither is decoration, and we score it as unlicensed.
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Click the seal
A real licence should have a validation badge that takes you to the regulator's confirmation page. A badge that takes you to nothing, or to a page naming a different domain, is a fail.
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Match the company name
The name on the validation page belongs to a legal entity. The casino's terms should state the same one. If they do not, you do not actually know who holds the licence you are relying on.
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Date the number
ALSI numbers date themselves and Curacao licences state an effective date, giving you the real age of the operation regardless of how old it wants to appear in its marketing.
Common questions about casino licences
Is a Curacao casino licence trustworthy?
This is a real licence from a real regulator. Since the reform of Curacao, the licence comes directly from the Curacao Gaming Authority, which has a public register of all licences. Trustworthy is the wrong scale, though: the licence obliges the casino to exist as a company and follow specific rules, and it allows for complaints to be made against it, though of modest strength. It tells you nothing of payout speed or fairness of bonuses, both of which are within the terms of each casino.
What does an Anjouan gaming licence mean?
The autonomous island of Anjouan in the Comoros licenses international online gaming companies. The licence means that a registered company paid for and holds a permission from the government with conditions attached. Usefully, the number on the licence will contain the date of issuance in an ALSI-YYYYMMDD format. It does not mean that the company is approved in your country of residence, and the enforcement of the licence is notably lighter than in large regulated markets.
Is a casino without any licence always a scam?
It is not automatic, but you hold nothing should something go wrong: no regulator, no register entry, and no place to direct a complaint. One casino on our roster has no gaming licence cited at all and still pays its cashback every Wednesday. We score the absence hard anyway, because the whole point of paperwork is the day the goodwill stops.
How do I verify a casino's licence?
Scroll to the casino's website footer and find the section dedicated to the gaming licence. A real licence will contain the name of the regulator as well as the licence number. The clickable seal next to the licence should take you to a validation page that contains the same company name and website address. Any badge that does not link to anything, or any footer statement that reads "licensed" without naming a regulatory body, is decoration and should be treated as no licence.