How We Verify Casino Licences — and What We Found
A casino licence is the single most important fact about any gambling site, and it is also the one most often taken on trust. Before a casino earns a place on FavCasinos, we verify its licensee against the UK Gambling Commission’s public register — not the badge in the site footer, not a third-party listing, but the Commission’s own record. We ran that check across every casino we list in July 2026. It did more than confirm a clean bill of health: it turned up changed licensees, dead account numbers still doing the rounds, outright imposter sites, and enforcement history that some sources had missed. Here is exactly how we verify a licence, and what the process surfaced.
Key takeaways
- Every listed casino’s licensee is verified against the UK Gambling Commission’s public register before it appears on FavCasinos.
- Three brands quietly changed licensee — Sky Vegas, Casumo and MrQ — so older sources still cite dead account numbers.
- The register surfaced enforcement some sources had missed: sanctions against Unibet (Sept 2025) and Virgin Games (Nov 2023); both safety scores were revised down.
- A “clean” sanctions page can still mislead — Betway’s £11.6m and LeoVegas’s £1.32m are recorded as settlements, not formal actions.
Why the footer badge is not enough
Almost every UK casino shows a licence number and a “licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission” line near its footer. That is a legal requirement, and for a legitimate operator it is accurate. But a footer is just text on a page. It can be out of date, it can be copied wholesale onto a site that holds no licence at all, and it can point to a company that no longer has the permissions it claims. A licence badge tells you what a site says about itself; the public register tells you what is actually true. Our whole method rests on checking the second against the first, every single time, and never treating the badge as the answer.
How we check the register, step by step
The register is free and public, and the process is the same for every casino. First, we find the operating company — the licensed entity is usually named in the site’s terms or footer, and it is rarely the same as the brand you see. Then we search that company on the Commission’s register and confirm the licensed activities (remote casino, remote bingo) are current, not surrendered or lapsed. We match the licensed domains to the exact site in question, because a licence covers named URLs. Finally, we read the account’s regulatory history. Only then does a casino move forward to be scored against our eight criteria, which you can read in full on our how-we-score page. A licence that fails any of those checks is not a low score — it is no listing at all.
Finding 1 — three casinos have quietly changed licensee
The most common surprise was how often the licensee behind a familiar brand has changed. Three of the casinos we list now operate under a different company and account number than most older sources cite. Sky Vegas moved from Bonne Terre Limited (account 38718) to Bonne Terre Gaming Limited (account 65519) in November 2024. Casumo now runs under Recro Limited (account 61549) rather than the older Casumo Services Limited (account 39265). And MrQ changed from Lindar Media (account 51250) to Tek Fox Ltd (account 60629) in August 2024. None of this is wrongdoing — corporate restructuring is routine — but it means older reviews and aggregators are citing dead account numbers as though they were live. A dead number is a tell: it shows that whoever published it has not re-checked the register since the change. We verify the current licensee, and we record it in each review.
| Brand | Older entity / account | Current entity / account | Changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Vegas | Bonne Terre Limited / 38718 | Bonne Terre Gaming Limited / 65519 | Nov 2024 |
| Casumo | Casumo Services Limited / 39265 | Recro Limited / 61549 | — |
| MrQ | Lindar Media / 51250 | Tek Fox Ltd / 60629 | Aug 2024 |
Finding 2 — imposter sites citing licences that are not theirs
During verification we ran into something more troubling than stale data: clone and imposter sites citing wrong or surrendered licence numbers as if they were current. We encountered several, the most brazen being multiple fake “Mr Green UK” sites all quoting a licence number that no longer authorises UK play. This is exactly the hazard the footer badge creates — a number copied onto a site means nothing unless the register confirms that site is covered by it. We cover the Mr Green case in detail in why Mr Green isn’t listed on FavCasinos, because it is the clearest example of a surrendered licence being paraded as a live one.
Finding 3 — the register knows about enforcement your sources may not
The register’s regulatory pages also surfaced enforcement that some of our earlier sources had missed. A September 2025 sanction against Platinum Gaming Limited — the licensee behind Unibet — and a November 2023 sanction against Gamesys, the licensee behind Virgin Games, both concerned anti-money-laundering and customer-interaction failings. Because our ratings are built from facts, this is not a footnote: we revised both casinos’ safety scores downward and dated the changes, so the record shows when and why the number moved. That is the same principle set out on our how-we-score page — when the underlying facts change, the score changes with them.
Finding 4 — a “clean” sanctions page can still mislead
The most subtle finding is that a sanctions page which looks clean is not always the whole story. Some widely reported penalties do not appear as formal enforcement actions on the register at all. Betway’s £11.6m case from 2021 and LeoVegas’s £1.32m case from 2022 are recorded as settlements and regulatory payments in lieu, which sit differently from a listed action. So the absence of a formal sanction is not the same as an absence of history, and anyone reading only the sanctions tab could conclude a “clean” record that the wider public record contradicts. We read the full account history, not just the headline tab, before we score a casino on safety.
| Brand | Penalty on record | A formal action on the register? |
|---|---|---|
| Unibet (Platinum Gaming) | Sanction, September 2025 — AML + customer interaction | Yes — listed |
| Virgin Games (Gamesys) | Sanction, November 2023 — AML + customer interaction | Yes — listed |
| Betway | £11.6m, 2021 | No — recorded as a settlement |
| LeoVegas | £1.32m, 2022 | No — recorded as a settlement |
How to check a casino’s licence yourself
You can run the same check we do in a couple of minutes, and it is worth the habit before you deposit anywhere. Start at the Gambling Commission’s public register. Find the operating company — look in the site’s terms and conditions or the small print by the footer for the licensed entity, not just the brand name. Search that company and open its licence. Confirm the activities you care about (remote casino, remote bingo) are current, and check the status and any end date: a surrendered or lapsed activity is a hard stop. Then match the domain — the licence lists the web addresses it covers, so make sure the exact site you are on is named. Finally, read the regulatory history. If any step does not line up — a number that does not resolve, a domain that is not listed, an activity marked surrendered — treat the site as unlicensed until proven otherwise.
Verifying Casino Licences — Your Questions Answered
Isn’t the licence number in the footer enough?
No. The footer is text the site controls, and it can be stale, copied, or attached to a company that no longer holds the permissions shown. The only reliable check is the Commission’s public register, which records the current status of the actual licensed company.
Why do so many casinos have different licence numbers than older reviews show?
Corporate restructuring is common. Sky Vegas, Casumo and MrQ have all changed operating company and account number in recent years. It is not wrongdoing, but it means older sources cite dead numbers — a sign they have not re-checked the register.
Does a clean sanctions page mean a casino has no regulatory history?
Not necessarily. Some penalties are recorded as settlements or payments in lieu rather than formal actions, so they may not appear on the sanctions tab. We read the full account history, which is why we score on the complete record rather than one page.
What happens if a casino fails your licence check?
It is not listed at any score. A verified, current UK licence is the precondition for appearing on FavCasinos at all — if the register does not confirm it, the casino does not go on the site.
How often do you re-verify?
On a rolling cycle and whenever an operator materially changes. When a check turns up new enforcement or a changed licensee, the affected scores are recalculated and the change is dated, as our methodology page explains.
See our full list of verified licensed British casinos — every casino checked against the UKGC public register.
See how we score casinos →18+ only. Please gamble responsibly.
Free help available: begambleaware.org | Helpline: 0808 8020 133
Related Posts