A non-GamStop casino's footer can show a genuine Curaçao Gaming Authority licence, a seal from the private Anjouan licensing operation that no state regulator stands fully behind, or nothing you can verify at all. Take the number or seal to the right register before you deposit another penny, because each of the three tells you something different about who is holding your money.
| What the casino shows | How to tell | What to do | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Curaçao licence number | Footer or terms give a number reading OGL/2024/… or CGA/2025/…, ending in a four-digit sequence | Search it on the Curaçao Gaming Authority’s published register, or paste it into our licence checker, then open the certificate at cert.cga.cw | Under two minutes |
| An Anjouan seal | A badge or seal in the footer references Anjouan Gaming or the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority | Click it and confirm it opens a page on anjouangaming.com itself, not a static image hosted on the casino’s own site | Under a minute, though it confirms only that the seal is genuine, not that a government regulator sits behind it |
| No licence claim, or a vague one | No number, no named regulator, or wording like “licensed and regulated internationally” | Search the domain on the UK Gambling Commission’s public register; if it is not there and no other named register returns it, treat the site as unlicensed for your purposes | A few minutes |
| A number that resolves, but to a different status | The register shows Expired, Revoked at the operator’s request, or a company name that does not match the footer | Stop and read the mismatch as the answer; check our Curaçao enforcement register if the status is Revoked | Immediate, once you have looked |
| One licence, several brands | The certificate lists more than one approved domain under the same Curaçao company | Confirm the exact domain you played on is on that approved list, not just that the company itself is licensed | A minute, once the certificate is open |
How do I check a Curaçao licence in two minutes?
Copy the licence number from the casino’s footer or terms page. Search it on our free licence checker, which holds the Curaçao Gaming Authority’s published register, or search the register PDF yourself. Either way, then open the public certificate for that number and read three things off it: the company name, matched letter for letter against the casino’s own terms; the list of domains the certificate approves, checked against the exact site you played on; and the status word, which should not read Expired or Revoked. For the full mechanics, including where the certificate service sits and what each status word means, our Curaçao licence guide goes through it end to end.
How do I check an Anjouan seal?
Anjouan licences are sold by a private operation, Anjouan Gaming, and there is no equivalent to the Curaçao register: no public database you can search a licence number against. What you can check is whether the seal itself is real. Click it in the casino’s footer and see where it lands. A genuine seal opens a verification page on anjouangaming.com. A seal that is just a picture, with no working link, cannot be checked at all and should be treated the same as no licence. Even a seal that verifies correctly only confirms that Anjouan Gaming issued it, not that a functioning government regulator stands behind that issuing. Our Anjouan licence guide covers the disputed legitimacy question and the seal’s own complaint route in full.
What does it mean if the casino shows no licence at all?
Some sites display no number and name no regulator, just phrases like “licensed and regulated” with nothing to check against, or a row of logos that prove nothing. Search the domain on the UK Gambling Commission’s public register first, since that rules out the one register a genuinely protective licence would appear on. If it is not there, and you cannot find a Curaçao number or an Anjouan seal to check either, you are dealing with a site that has made no verifiable licensing claim at all. Our guide on how to check whether a casino is really licensed walks through the UK register search and the footer-reading checklist step by step.
Why does the same licence number show a different status in different places?
A casino’s own footer, its certificate and the current register entry are three separate documents, and they do not always agree, because the footer rarely gets updated once it is written. We have seen a licence certificate date a company’s approval to one day while the register records the issue date differently, and a status of Assessment in progress sit alongside an expiry date that has already passed. None of that alone proves anything is wrong. What it means is that the register, not the footer and not the certificate on its own, is the document that currently governs, so that is the one to trust when the three disagree.
Which licence type gives me the least protection?
In order: no verifiable licence gives you nothing to check and nothing to complain to. An Anjouan seal gives you a published complaint route through the licensing operation’s own site, but no state-run register to check it against beforehand. A Curaçao licence gives you a public regulator with a searchable register and a certified complaint process, though still nothing like the domestic route a UK Gambling Commission licence carries. The detail behind each of those three, including what a Curaçao licence actually requires of the casino, sits in the two guides linked above.
Register checked 6 September 2026 against the Curaçao Gaming Authority register edition of 3 September 2026 (662 licences: 63 Active, 206 Indefinite, 311 Assessment in progress, 50 Revoked at the operator’s request, 32 Expired). Run any Curaçao number against that same dataset in seconds with our licence checker.
Where Clinton & Co comes in
Checking the licence tells you what you are dealing with; it does not get money back on its own. If a Curaçao-licensed casino is holding funds it should not be, our Curaçao refunds service investigates the case and prepares it, then connects clients with regulated legal partners where a claim has merit. There is no minimum amount to ask, and a free eligibility check is the honest way to find out where you stand. No outcome can be promised in advance.
Curaçao brands we have already checked against the register
These are Curaçao-licensed operators from our verified files, checked against the register edition above so you do not have to run the search yourself.
- Stake, licensed to Medium Rare N.V. under OGL/2024/1451/0918, register status Assessment in progress.
- BitStarz, licensed to Gareton B.V. under OGL/2024/165/0185, register status Indefinite.
- 1xBet, licensed to Caecus N.V. under OGL/2024/1262/0493, register status Indefinite.
- Cloudbet, licensed to Halcyon Super Holdings B.V. under OGL/2024/328/0599, register status Assessment in progress.
- Melbet, licensed to Pelican Entertainment B.V. under OGL/2024/561/0554, register status Indefinite.
- BetFury, licensed to Universe B Games B.V. under OGL/2024/1494/0942, register status Assessment in progress.
- Shuffle, licensed to Natural Nine B.V. under OGL/2024/1337/0628, register status Indefinite.
- GodOdds, licensed to Usoftgaming N.V. under CGA/2025/1353/1345, register status Active.
More on non-GamStop casinos and your rights
For the wider picture of what an offshore licence does and does not give you, start with your rights when a casino is not on GamStop. If Curaçao is holding your money specifically, who to contact about a Curaçao casino complaint sets out the escalation route, and what to do when a casino withholds your winnings covers the order to act in once the licence question is settled.
If gambling is causing you harm, free and confidential help is available now. Call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or chat to GamCare (gamcare.org.uk). To stay excluded from UK-licensed operators, register with GAMSTOP (gamstop.co.uk), and BetBlocker (betblocker.org) is free to block gambling sites across your devices.
Sources
- Curaçao Gaming Authority online gaming licence registry (the register's own title uses the American spelling), v2 dataset, edition dated 3 September 2026, as read and tabulated in our Curaçao licence guide. Read 6 September 2026.
- Anjouan Gaming, third-party complaint policy (anjouangaming.com/regulatory-framework/third-party-complaint-policy/), as read in our Anjouan licence guide. Cited there 30 August 2026.
- Gambling Commission, public register of licensed gambling businesses (gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register), as read in our licence-check guide. Cited there 30 June 2026.
- Operator entity, licence number and register status for each brand linked above: Stake, BitStarz, 1xBet, Cloudbet, Melbet, BetFury, Shuffle and GodOdds, each sourced and dated in its own operator file.
General information, not legal advice. We are not solicitors or a law firm. We connect clients with regulated legal partners.