Six steps to check a licence claim against the register
A licence claim is a claim until it is matched against the authority's own register. The check takes a few minutes, needs no account, and is the one part of this topic that produces evidence rather than reading.
Entry 1The six steps
Do these in order. If any step fails, the claim has failed at that step, and there is no need to soften it.
- Find the authority. Read the footer, the terms or the licence page and write down the authority the site names. If no authority is named, the check is already over.
- Reach the register yourself. Search the authority by name and open its own published register. Do not use a link from the operator's page unless you know where it leads.
- Match the licencee entity. Search the legal entity, not the brand. The register should name a company; compare it with the entity on your account or in the terms.
- Match the licence number. Search by number if the register allows it. The number must match exactly, including its format. A number in the wrong shape is a warning.
- Read the scope. Check that the register says the licence covers the product you are using and the country you are in. This is the field most often skipped.
- Read the status. Confirm the licence is current, and note the date you checked. A status can change after you sign up, which is why the date matters.
Entry 2What the site claims versus what the register says
The lookup is really a comparison of two columns. Most failures happen in the same place: the first three fields match and the fourth does not.
When the scope fails, the licence is not fake; it is simply not the licence for your situation. That is a different problem with a different answer, and it is worse to discover at a withdrawal than at sign-up.
Entry 3The entity is the hard part, and the useful part
Registers are organised around entities, not brands, because a licence is a legal permission rather than a trademark. That is friction for you and it is also the reason the check works: a brand can be renamed overnight, but the licencee in a register cannot be swapped without the authority recording it.
So find the entity name once, from the terms or the account, and match it against the register. If the brand you recognise appears nowhere in the register and a company you have never heard of does, that is normal — as long as the company is named in your own terms. The failure to watch for is the reverse: a register entry for a company that appears nowhere in your contract.
Entry 4Record what you found
A check you cannot show later is worth less than a check you wrote down. Five lines is enough, and the date is the line that makes the rest useful when the status changes.
- Claim on the site (authority, entity, number)
- as shown
- Register entry found
- yes / no
- Entity matches your terms
- yes / no
- Scope covers your product and country
- yes / no
- Date checked and status seen
- write it
Screenshot the register, not the site
The site can change its footer in an afternoon. The register is the record that other people can also see, so capture that page and its date, and note the address you reached it at.
Entry 5What to do when it does not check out
Three outcomes, three responses. None of them involve the operator's support chat as the first move, because the whole point of the register is that the answer does not come from the operator.
| What you found | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No authority named at all | There is nothing to check | Treat the claim as absent rather than weak, and decide on that basis |
| Authority named, no entry found | Either the entity or the number is wrong, or the claim is not backed by a register | Ask the operator in writing for the entity and number, and keep the reply |
| Entry found, scope does not cover you | The licence is real but not the licence for your product or country | Decide whether to keep playing under a licence whose reach does not include you |
Authority, entity, number, scope and status all match the register, on a recorded date.
Some fields match and one cannot be confirmed, usually the scope — record it as partial rather than as a pass.
No authority, no entry, or a number that does not exist in any register you can search.
Entry 6The limits of your own check
The lookup confirms that a register entry exists and matches a claim. It does not confirm that the operator behaves well, that its games are correctly certified, or that it will still hold the licence next month. Those are separate checks, and this one is deliberately narrow so that it can be done and trusted.
What the check gives you is a fact rather than an impression: either the claim is in a register on a date you can name, or it is not. Everything else in this topic is built on getting that fact first.
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.
What the licence is for, once it exists
A register entry is not the point. The point is what it obliges the operator to do for you when something goes wrong.