UKGC licensed casinos

What a UKGC licence actually obliges

A UK licence is a set of enforceable conditions, not a badge. Operators must keep customer funds separate from operating money and tell you what level of protection those funds have if the company fails. They must verify your identity and age before you deposit — not before you withdraw, which is the reverse of the offshore norm and the reason UK withdrawals rarely stall on paperwork.

Credit cards are banned for gambling in the UK, and have been since April 2020. Any site accepting a UK credit card is not operating under a UK licence, whatever its footer says.

Operators must offer deposit limits, time-outs and reality checks, and must participate in GAMSTOP, the national self-exclusion scheme: one registration blocks you across every UK-licensed site rather than site by site. Marketing is constrained too — bonus terms must be clear, and offers cannot be pushed to anyone who has self-excluded.

A licence is not a recommendation. It means an operator has met a regulator's conditions and can be held to them; it says nothing about whether their offers are good value, whether their terms are fair, or whether you will enjoy the experience. It is the floor, not the ceiling.

Where to complain about a UK-licensed casino

Complain to the operator first; they must have a published procedure and must respond. If eight weeks pass or you reach deadlock, the complaint goes to that operator's Alternative Dispute Resolution provider — an independent body the Commission approves, free to you, and the operator is bound by the outcome in a way you are not.

The Gambling Commission itself does not settle individual disputes and will not get your money back. It regulates the operator, and reports of misconduct feed into its enforcement work, which is a slower and broader lever. Knowing which of the two you need saves weeks.

The ADR provider for a specific operator is named in their terms and on the Commission's register entry, which every profile here links to.

What to check before you play

• Status, not just presence. A register entry can read surrendered or revoked. Presence on a list is not the same as a current licence.
• The licensed entity. The company on the licence may differ from the brand name. A brand can change hands without the register entry moving.
• GAMSTOP. Self-exclusion works across all UK-licensed sites at once. If a site is not on GAMSTOP, it is not UK licensed.
• Debit only. Credit cards are prohibited for UK gambling. Acceptance of one is a licensing red flag.
• Funds protection level. Operators must disclose whether customer funds are not protected, medium or high protection if they fail.
• ADR route. Know which independent body handles that operator's disputes before you need it.

How this list is built

Every operator here appears because a licence record naming them was read from the regulator’s own published register, not from a badge in a website footer. A seal is an image the operator controls; a register entry is not.

We publish the register’s status rather than our opinion of it, which means licences that have lapsed, been surrendered or been revoked stay on the page. Hiding them would remove the single most useful thing a reader could learn here.

A register lists what it lists. Absence from one is not proof that a licence was revoked, and where we cannot confirm a current licence the profile says exactly that instead of guessing. There is no ordering by quality and no operator can buy a position: the order reflects how much verified evidence each profile carries.

Questions about the ukgc licence

What does a UKGC licence guarantee?

That the operator has met the Commission's conditions and can be held to them: segregated customer funds with a disclosed protection level, identity checks before deposit, mandatory deposit limits and time-outs, GAMSTOP participation, and an independent dispute route. It does not guarantee you will be treated well in any particular case — it guarantees there is somewhere to take it when you are not.

How do I check a casino's UK licence myself?

The Commission's register is public and searchable by company or trading name. Each profile here links straight to the register entry for that operator, with the licence reference and the date we last read it. Check the status field rather than the mere existence of an entry.

Is a UKGC licence better than a Malta or Curaçao licence?

It is stricter in the areas that matter when something goes wrong: funds protection, a national self-exclusion scheme, a free binding dispute service and an active enforcement record. Whether that makes a particular operator better is a separate question this site does not answer.

Why do some entries show a revoked or surrendered licence?

Because that is what the register says, and it is the single most useful thing to know about that operator. Removing them would turn this page into a list of casinos we happen to like, which is the opposite of what it is.

Can I play at a UK-licensed casino from outside the UK?

Sometimes, but the UK protections may not travel with you — the licence covers the operator's British business. Which markets an operator is licensed for is shown on its profile, with the evidence we hold for each.

Safer gambling

18+ only. A licence changes what an operator owes you; it does not change the odds of any game, and no regulator makes a losing bet less likely. Where the regime runs a national self-exclusion scheme, one registration covers every licensed operator at once — that is the strongest single control available to you, and it is described in the section above. In the UK, free and confidential help is available from GamCare and BeGambleAware.