Licensing questions, answered against the record
The questions that come up most when someone tries to check a licence claim, answered the same way throughout: find the register, match the fields, and treat the record rather than the badge as the evidence.
Entry 1How to read these answers
Each answer follows the same method: find the authority, reach the register yourself, and match the fields. Where a question has no general answer, the answer points at the record that does.
Entry 2Two more that come up often
"Can I rely on a licence number I found on a forum?"
No, and there is no need to. A number is only meaningful against a register. If the register search does not return it, the forum copy is worthless regardless of how confident it looked.
"If a site is licensed somewhere, is it legal for me to use it?"
Not necessarily. Legality where you are is a question about your own country's law, which can differ from the operator's licensing jurisdiction. A licence answers who may operate; it does not answer whether the offer is permitted in your market.
Entry 3If you only remember one thing
Remember the direction of the evidence. A licence claim moves from the operator outwards; a register entry moves from an authority towards you. When the two disagree, the register is what a complaint body, a court or another operator would look at, and it is the version worth keeping a dated copy of.
Affiliate disclosure and risk warning
Every affiliate link on this page and in the header is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and we may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. That link pays us; it does not make any operator licensed anywhere, it does not change the terms of any licence, and it is never a recommendation to bet. Nothing on this page is betting, financial, tax or legal advice, and no authority, register, licence number or jurisdiction described here is a recommendation of any operator. 18+ only. Gambling is a real risk of real loss. A licence is a permission to operate, not a guarantee of anything to you: it is issued by a named authority under conditions, it can be suspended, varied or withdrawn, it usually covers only some products and some countries, and the law that applies to you can differ from the law where the operator is licensed. Registers, number formats and player-protection rules differ by jurisdiction and change, so verify anything that matters against the authority's own live register rather than any summary, including this one. Gambling can cause serious financial harm, including debt and damage to relationships and mental health. Never stake money you cannot afford to lose, never borrow to bet, and never increase a stake to chase a loss. Free, confidential support is available in most countries from national gambling-harm helplines, for players and for the people around them.
Run it once on a real claim
The lookup is short enough to do before opening an account rather than after a withdrawal is stuck.