An online casino is licensed in Great Britain if its exact domain appears on the Gambling Commission's public register against an active remote casino operating licence. That is the whole test. The badge in the footer is not the test, the brand name is not the test, and neither is a "licensed and regulated" line in the terms.
The register is free, public, and downloadable as open data. Checking a site takes under a minute.
The four-step check
- Open the Gambling Commission's public register of gambling businesses.
- Search the exact domain, without the `https://`. The register indexes domains, not logos.
- Confirm the status reads Active. Lapsed, surrendered and revoked licences stay visible in the register — the status column is what separates them.
- Confirm the activity includes Casino. A remote betting licence does not cover casino games, and the two are recorded separately.
If the domain is not there, it is not there. There is no secondary list.
The three mistakes
Checking the brand instead of the domain. One licensed company routinely operates a dozen brands, and the licence attaches to the domains recorded against it. A site carrying a familiar brand on a different domain is not covered by that entry.
Assuming a betting licence covers the casino. Remote betting and remote casino are different activities on the register. Plenty of operators hold one and not the other.
Trusting a check somebody else did months ago. Licences lapse and get surrendered. A "top 10" written in spring and never re-read still lists operators whose licence has since gone. Any published list that does not carry the date it was read cannot be audited — which is the point of publishing the date.
What the register does not tell you
It does not tell you whether the bonus is fair, whether withdrawals are fast, or whether support answers. No public source certifies any of that, so any list scoring those things is publishing an opinion dressed as a test.
What you can read off the register is tenure. The licence start date tells you how long that company has operated under Commission supervision. That does not make it better, but it does make it checkable.
We publish the full extract — every active remote casino licence holder, with licence number, start date and recorded domains — at best online casinos.
What this has to do with our work
This check is step one of every campaign we build: no active entry in the register means no gambling certification on Google or Meta, and no certification means no campaign. The full mechanics are in our Google Ads gambling pre-clearance guide.
Responsible gambling
Gambling is for adults aged 18 and over and can be addictive. GAMSTOP blocks you across every UK-licensed site at once, and free confidential support is available from BeGambleAware and GamCare.