How to check a crypto casino licence

We measure how search and AI engines answer gambling questions. In July 2026 we ran the query “how to verify a crypto casino licence” through four engines, and every first-page result had the same problem: it was written for casino operators, not players. Consultancies explaining how to buy a licence for €15,000. Not one result showed a player how to check whether the licence a casino claims actually exists.

That gap is strange, because checking takes about three minutes. Licence numbers are public. The registers are public. What's missing is a map — which regulator issues what, where the number hides, and what a match (or a mismatch) actually tells you. This is that map, built from the verification work we do daily at BullsRank: we run licence claims from 18 crypto casinos against the registers, record the source and the date, and publish what checks out — and what doesn't.

What licence should a crypto casino have?

There is no single “right” licence, but in 2026 most crypto casinos operate under one of three setups, and they differ in what they give you if something goes wrong.

Curaçao (CGA, “OGL” numbers). Curaçao replaced its old master-licence system with direct licensing under the Curaçao Gaming Authority. Licences issued under the new regime carry numbers like OGL/2024/328/0599 (that one belongs to Cloudbet, operated by Halcyon Super Holdings B.V. — we verified it against the regulator's certificate). The practical upside for players: a public register you can query, and a regulator that accepts complaints. Six of the 18 operators we track publish an OGL-series number. Two more checked out against the register this week: Rollbit (OGL/2024/1260/0494, Bull Gaming N.V. — certificate shows status “Assessment in progress”, granted 23 November 2025) and Bitcasino (OGL/2023/111/0069, Moon Technologies B.V. — Indefinite). Stake publishes its number (OGL/2024/1451/0918, Medium Rare N.V.) in its terms — more on where, below.

Anjouan (ALSI numbers). Anjouan Gaming, an offshore regulator based in the Comoros, has become the fast-growing second home for crypto casinos. Its licence numbers look like ALSI-202411021-FI1 — that's FortuneJack's, and its footer seal clicks through to the official validator, which returned “Operating status: VALID” when we checked on 26 July. An Anjouan licence is a real registration, but the register gives you less: fewer published requirements, and a thinner complaint track record. Four of our 18 hold Anjouan registrations — and two of the four publish no licence number at all, only a company number or a bare “licensed in Anjouan” line in the terms.

Costa Rica (no gaming licence). Some casinos operate as Costa Rica companies with a corporate ID and no gaming licence at all — Costa Rica doesn't issue online gambling licences. Betpanda, for example, is Star Bright Media S.R.L., corporate ID 3-102-880000, with no licence listed anywhere in its terms. That's not automatically a scam marker. It is a fact about recourse: if a dispute goes wrong, there is no regulator to write to.

One more thing a licence tells you: its edges. Rollbit's own footer states that “crypto trading is not considered gambling and therefore not covered by our Gaming license.” Read scope lines like that carefully — a licence covers what it covers, not the whole product.

How do you verify a crypto casino licence in three steps?

Step 1 — find the number. Start at the site footer: look for a regulator seal or a licence line. This is where it gets telling. Stake's footer names the company and a corporate registration number — but no regulator and no licence number; the OGL number sits in the terms. Rainbet's footer says “licensed” in plain text with nothing to click. If the footer gives you decoration instead of a number, open the terms and conditions and search the page for “licen”, “OGL” or “ALSI”. In our checks, roughly half the industry makes you dig.

Step 2 — open the register, not a review site. For Curaçao's new regime, the CGA publishes verifiable licence certificates at cert.cga.cw (Cloudbet links its certificate directly; the register lets you confirm the number is live). For Anjouan, use the official public register — FortuneJack's footer seal, for example, clicks straight through to the validator and returns the entity, the number and a live status. Skip aggregator claims entirely — while verifying our data we found a major industry directory listing one operator under “Curaçao GCB” while the operator's own terms say, in plain words, “licensed in Anjouan” (RBGAMING N.V., company 16077). The register itself settles it: RBGAMING N.V. holds ALSI-152406029-FI2, valid until 13 June 2027 — a number the operator's own site never shows. Registers beat retellings.

Step 3 — match three things: company, domain, status. The certificate names a legal entity — it must match the company in the casino's terms. It lists the domain — it should match the site you're actually on (mind the mirrors: several operators serve EU players from .io domains; the mirror's operating entity can differ from the flagship's). And it shows a status — which is the one field that changes. Even in our own snapshot, the confirmed OGL licences already carry two different register statuses — “Assessment in progress” (Cloudbet, Rollbit) and “Indefinite” (Bitcasino) — which is exactly why the status field, not the seal, is what you re-check. One more detail from this week's checks: Bitcasino's marketing still says “Curaçao eGaming”, the old regime's name, while its certificate is issued by the CGA — the register, as usual, is more current than the copy.

What did we find checking 18 operators?

The verification table lives on our operator profiles and gets re-checked on a schedule; here is the snapshot as of 26 July 2026.

Snapshot: 6 operators publish Curaçao OGL-series numbers, 4 hold Anjouan registrations, 1 lists no licence at all — and 5 of the 18 are confirmed against a register as of 26 July 2026 (Cloudbet, Rollbit, Bitcasino, FortuneJack and Rainbet). Everything else is scheduled, blocked by a missing number, or still in collection; live statuses sit on the profiles.

Four patterns stood out.

Licence claims hide in the fine print. Stake — one of the biggest brands in the vertical — shows no regulator seal in its footer; the OGL number lives in the terms. Rainbet's footer says “licensed” with nothing to click, and its terms settle for “licensed in Anjouan” plus a company number. Duelbits publishes a company registration, not a licence number. A footer without a checkable number is decoration.

Legal entities and licences cross borders freely. Two of our Anjouan-licensed operators are Costa Rica companies (Gamdom's Moon Revolution Limitada, FortuneJack's PlayWave SRL). A Costa Rica company with an Anjouan licence is a normal 2026 configuration — but it means “where the company sits” and “who regulates the games” are two different questions. Ask both.

Mirrors can change the company. Duelbits serves EU players from duelbits.io, operated by Elevated Entertainment Ltd; Betpanda's EU mirror is betpandacasino.io. Same brand, different door — check the entity on the door you actually walked through.

Third-party listings get it wrong. The “Curaçao GCB vs Anjouan” mismatch above came from a major industry directory. Nobody audits these listings. The register is the only source that counts.

Even verified certificates leave threads to pull. FortuneJack's certificate names the same company as its footer — but a different Costa Rica address. Not a red flag by itself; exactly the kind of thing a fact table records and a review site never notices.

What does a changed licence status tell you?

Status is the field people never re-check. A licence that was valid when a review was written can be suspended or revoked by the time you deposit — and the register is the only place that update shows up.

Licence migration is the version of this we see most. FortuneJack moved from Antillephone to Anjouan — a change forum threads discussed sharply at the time; the verifiable part is the change of regulator itself, and that's what belongs in a fact table. Today its Anjouan validator returns VALID, and that's the current fact. When an operator changes flags, the honest questions are: does the old number still resolve, does the new one, and did the terms change with them?

This is why our licence rows carry check dates and get re-checked on a schedule, not archived. A register entry is a snapshot, not a biography.

A licence is a floor, not a rating. It tells you a regulator exists and a complaint has an address — nothing more. We publish every licence claim with its source and check date on the operator's profile, and we re-check statuses on a schedule, because the register is the one page that doesn't care what the footer says.