This guide covers: Crypto

A UK Licence Against an Offshore One: The Verified, the Owed and the Unknown

Every card on this site names a regulator, and the name decides more than any other field. A Gambling Commission licence is a permission to serve Great Britain and a set of conditions that reach a player's money at every stage. A Curaçao, Anjouan or Tobique licence is a real licence from a different regulator for a different market, confirmed by a register, and owing a UK player nothing that the register records.

This page puts the two side by side using only what can be verified: what each register shows, which licence conditions attach to a Gambling Commission licensee and where they bite, what the Commission says about licences from elsewhere, and what we could find no primary source for about overseas regulators. It does not call an offshore operator unsafe, because that is not a verified fact; it says what is owed and what is not, which is.

Tested and written by Eleanor Shaw
Editor · Updated 17 October 2026
Edited by Ben Carver

Our review criteria

Who holds the licence and runs the site
Deposit and withdrawal methods
How fast and how much you can withdraw
Bonus conditions in the full T&C

Eleanor Shaw, 17 October 2026

The registers: what each one shows

A licence exists when the issuing regulator's own records say so. Four registers cover the operators that appear in UK search results for crypto casinos, and they show different things.

Gambling Commission public register — How to search: Company name, trading name or domain · What a valid entry shows: Licensed activities, status, and the domains the licence covers with a status for each
Curaçao Gaming Authority — How to search: Certificate page reached from the footer seal, on the Authority's own domain · What a valid entry shows: Licence number, holding company, status
Anjouan Gaming — How to search: Licence register · What a valid entry shows: Number, holder, validity date
Tobique — How to search: Validation page · What a valid entry shows: Number, holder

Three findings from our own lookups across those operators. A footer number resolved, in the register, to a different company than the one running the site. A company's licence was active while the particular domain was listed as inactive in the Commission's register.

And two licences a register had shown as valid had been revoked or removed by the time we checked. Each is treated as no licence on the card, with the reason shown. Readers who find a different result in a register on a later date are looking at a later state of the register, and the card date tells them which.

A Costa Rican "licence" is a company registration from a jurisdiction that does not license online gambling. An operator showing only that has no gambling licence we can find, and the card says so.

The permission: who may serve Great Britain

Section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005 makes it an offence to provide facilities for gambling without an operating licence, punishable by up to 51 weeks' imprisonment and a fine. Section 36 applies that to remote gambling if the equipment is in Great Britain or if the operator knows, or should know, that the facilities are used here. The Commission's guidance on licences from elsewhere is one sentence: a gambling licence issued in another country does not permit an operator to provide gambling to consumers in Great Britain.

So the first difference is not about quality. A Gambling Commission licence is the only permission to serve this market; every other licence in the table is a permission to serve some other market, held by an operator that serves this one anyway. The Act creates no offence for the adult player who uses such an operator, and the Commission's report on illegal online gambling says the illegal activity is the operator's. It also creates no protection for that player.

The conditions: what reaches a player's money

A Gambling Commission licence comes with licence conditions and codes of practice. The ones that reach a player's balance are these, with the condition number so that each can be checked.

3.2.11 — What it requires: Age verified before any deposit and before free-to-play games · Overseas position: Operator's choice
17.1.1 — What it requires: Identity verified before gambling; no identity documents demanded at payout that could have been requested earlier · Overseas position: Operator's choice; documents at withdrawal routine
3.5.5 — What it requires: Membership of GamStop · Overseas position: Not covered
Stake limit condition — What it requires: Online slot stakes capped at £5 a spin, £2 for ages 18 to 24 · Overseas position: No cap
5.1.1 — What it requires: Bonus wagering at most 10x; no mixed-product offers · Overseas position: Operator's choice
5.1.9 — What it requires: Significant bonus terms within one click · Overseas position: Operator's choice
3.4.4 — What it requires: Financial vulnerability assessment at £150 net deposits in 30 days · Overseas position: None
4.2.1 — What it requires: Disclosure of how customer funds are protected on insolvency · Overseas position: No UK duty
6.1.1 — What it requires: Complaints procedure; free ADR after eight weeks · Overseas position: No UK route

The right-hand column is not a statement that overseas operators do none of these things. Some may, under their own terms. It is a statement that nothing obliges them to, and that no UK body can require it of them. The Commission's blog on illegal gambling describes what such sites typically lack, age verification, responsible gambling tools, secure payment systems and dispute resolution, and names withheld payouts among the outcomes it sees.

Crypto under each licence

Under a Gambling Commission licence, crypto is permitted on conditions. The licensee must report the change to the Commission as a key event, revisit its money-laundering risk assessment, and bring four named risks under the same control as any other payment method: source of funds, fluctuation against fiat, customer identification, and security of funds. We found no primary source confirming that a licensee currently runs a crypto cashier, and the one licensee in our list is described from its own payments page.

Under an overseas licence, crypto is whatever that regulator and the operator's terms allow, and in practice it is the usual cashier. The regulator's register confirms the licence; it says nothing about how the operator handles the four risks the Commission names, and we have no source on any overseas regulator's crypto requirements. The Financial Conduct Authority is not in this picture at all: it registers exchanges and wallet providers for money-laundering supervision, says registration is not an endorsement, and does not regulate casinos under either licence.

The Commission's executive director has said that part of the audience leaving licensed sites for unlicensed ones does so to use crypto, and has described sites marketed as outside GamStop as illegal online casinos targeting people who chose to self-exclude.

The unknowns, stated

Honesty about gaps is this site's method, and the comparison has three.

Overseas complaints handling. We have no primary source on the complaints procedures of the Curaçao Gaming Authority, Anjouan Gaming or Tobique, or on whether any of them will intervene in a withheld withdrawal for a UK player. The cards say "licensed by" and no more.
Overseas crypto rules. We have no source on what, if anything, an overseas regulator requires of a licensee that accepts crypto.
Whether a particular operator will pay. No regulator rates operators. The cards record each operator's written terms on verification and withdrawals, which is the only forward-looking evidence available, and flag any clause excluding the United Kingdom, since several operators in UK search results carry one.

What is not unknown is the direction of the gap. Everything in the conditions table is owed under one licence and not under the other, and no amount of disclosure by an overseas operator changes who it answers to.

Reading the regulator line on a card

"Gambling Commission, account [number], active, domain listed." The full set of conditions applies. Whether crypto is accepted is on the operator's payments page.
"Curaçao Gaming Authority, [number], active" or the Anjouan or Tobique equivalent. A real licence, no UK permission, no UK conditions; the operator's terms are the whole of your protection.
"Not found." We searched the registers we know and found nothing. Not proof of absence; scored as if it were.
"Revoked" or "removed from register." The operator is at the bottom of the list with the reason shown, and a reader with an account there should know.
"UK excluded in terms." The operator may refuse a payout on residence alone; this outweighs any offer on the same site.

You must be 18 or over to gamble in Great Britain. If you have registered with GamStop, operators outside it are outside the scheme you joined, and the National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, is free on 0808 8020 133 at any hour.

Frequently asked questions

Is an offshore licence fake?

Not where the regulator's register confirms it. A Curaçao, Anjouan or Tobique licence recorded in the issuing body's own register is real. What it is not is a permission to serve Great Britain, which the Gambling Commission says only its own licence provides.

What does a Gambling Commission licence add for a crypto player?

Verification before play rather than at payout, GamStop membership, a slot stake cap, bonus wagering limited to ten times the bonus, free dispute resolution after eight weeks, and a statement on how customer funds are held. The Commission also allows crypto on conditions, though we found no licensee confirmed to accept it.

Can I check an offshore licence myself?

Yes, in the regulator's own register: the Curaçao Gaming Authority's certificate pages, the Anjouan register, the Tobique validation page. Confirm the number, the company and that the status is active. A footer seal is not a register entry.

Does the overseas regulator handle complaints from UK players?

We have no primary source on the complaints procedures of any overseas regulator in our table, and we say so. The register establishes that a licence exists; it does not establish what the regulator will do about a withheld withdrawal.

Why does one operator in your list hold a UK licence?

Because it appears in the Gambling Commission's register. Whether it accepts crypto is described from its own payments page; the Commission permits crypto on conditions, and we found no primary source confirming any licensee runs a crypto cashier.

Is it illegal for an offshore operator to take my deposit?

Providing gambling to people in Great Britain without a Gambling Commission licence is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act, extended to remote operators abroad by section 36. The offence is the operator's; there is none for the adult player.

What is a Costa Rican licence?

There is no such thing for online gambling. A Costa Rican company registration is an incorporation record, and an operator showing only that has no gambling licence we can find.