Most sites that rank well for non-GamStop casino reviews earn a commission every time a reader opens an account or deposits at the casino being written about, and a licence claim typed once at launch does not update itself when a Curaçao or Anjouan status later changes. Check the licence number yourself, on the regulator's own register, before you trust a page that never says when it last looked.
| Cause | How to tell | What to do | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The site earns money when you follow its link | No visible disclosure of a commission or partner relationship, or one buried in a footer link most readers never open | Read the site's own about or disclosure page before trusting its recommendation | A minute |
| The licence claim carries no date | The page states a licence number, or just “licensed and regulated”, with no register check date attached | Run the number through our licence checker or the regulator's own register directly | Under two minutes |
| The register status has moved on since the page was written | The article's own publish or update date is old, and nothing on the page confirms the licence status is still current | Recheck the number regardless of how recently the article claims to have checked it | Under two minutes |
| A “verified” or “top rated” badge with no stated criteria | A badge or star rating appears with no explanation of what was tested, against what register, or when | Treat the badge as marketing and check the licence and any complaint history separately | Immediate |
| Complaint history left out | The write-up describes the casino only in positive terms despite public complaint platforms recording disputes about it | Search the casino's name together with “complaint” on a separate site before relying on the review alone | A few minutes |
| Near-identical wording across dozens of casino pages on the same site | The structure, headings and phrasing repeat almost exactly from one casino write-up to the next | Treat the page as templated content and verify every factual claim independently | Immediate |
How do non-GamStop casino review sites make money?
Most of them run on an affiliate or partner arrangement with the casinos they cover: the casino pays the site a share of what a referred player generates, for as long as that player keeps playing. Curaçao-licensed operators publish this openly on their own affiliate programme pages. Cloudbet's own affiliate page, for example, states that affiliates earn lifetime commissions on the players they refer, starting at a 25 per cent share of what those players generate for the casino (cloudbet.com/en/affiliates, read 7 September 2026). That structure is not unusual and it is not hidden. It does mean a review site is paid for players it sends through, not for how accurate or current its licence information is, which is a very different incentive from the one a reader assumes when they read a page headed “review”.
Why is a licence claim on a review site often out of date?
Keeping a licence claim current takes more work than writing it once. Our own verified operator files show why. One brand's Curaçao-licensed entity currently rests on an archived copy of its own site from January 2025, because the live footer returned nothing readable when we rechecked it in September 2026, even though the register itself still lists that licence as active and unbroken. Another brand's site could not be read on the day we rechecked it either, so its entity statement is carried over from an earlier visit rather than confirmed fresh the same day as the register recheck. A third brand shows a straightforward gap between two of its own primary documents: the register gives one issue date for its licence, and the operator's own rules document and certificate give a different one. None of that means any of those three casinos is doing something wrong. It means a licence position needs rechecking on a schedule, not reading once, and a review site that published its verdict at launch and never returned to it has no way of showing you that it has kept up.
Can I trust a “top pick” or “verified” badge?
Treat a badge on its own as marketing, not as a licence check. A badge tells you a site decided to display it. It does not tell you which register was checked, what the entity name and approved domain were compared against, or when any of that happened. A genuine check names its source and its date, the way a licence certificate or a regulator's register does. If a badge cannot answer those three questions, it has not done the work a licence check requires.
Does it matter if the review site names the right licence number?
A correct number is only the first of three things worth checking, and a review site that stops at the number has not finished. The number has to sit against the same company name the casino gives you elsewhere, it has to cover the exact domain you are playing on rather than just the parent company, and the register's current status word matters more than the number itself, since a licence can be Active one month and Expired or Revoked the next while the number printed on it never changes. Our guide on checking whether a non-GamStop casino is really licensed walks through all three in order, with the two-minute routine for a Curaçao number and the separate routine for an Anjouan seal.
Is it against the rules for a site to be paid and still review casinos?
Being paid a commission to rank casinos is an ordinary advertising arrangement and is not, on its own, improper. The concern is not that a review site earns money. It is that a reader cannot tell, from the page alone, whether the licence information in front of them was checked yesterday or two years ago, or whether the writer had any reason to look past a casino's own footer before publishing a verdict. That gap is what the check below closes.
Register checked 7 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). Any Curaçao number can be run against that same register in minutes through the licence checker before relying on it.
Where Clinton & Co comes in
Confirming a licence claim only shows you what kind of operator you are up against; on its own, it will not put a penny back in your account. If a review site pointed you toward a Curaçao-licensed casino that is now sitting on funds it should have released, the Curaçao refunds service looks into what happened and builds the file, and a regulated legal partner takes it on where the evidence holds up. Case size is not a barrier to asking; a free eligibility check gives you a straight answer on where things stand. Nothing about the result is promised beforehand.
Licence claims we have checked and dated ourselves
These are Curaçao-licensed operators from our own verified files, each checked against the register edition above rather than taken from a third-party write-up.
- Cloudbet, licensed to Halcyon Super Holdings B.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/328/0599, its own footer read 6 September 2026 and the register recording that licence Assessment in progress.
- 1xBet, licensed to Caecus N.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/1262/0493, register status Indefinite; the live site returned no readable footer on 6 September 2026, so the entity behind that number rests on an archived copy of the site from January 2025, not a fresh statement.
- BetFury, licensed to Universe B Games B.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/1494/0942, register status Assessment in progress; the operator's own site could not be read on 6 September 2026 either, so its entity statement is carried over from an earlier check rather than confirmed the same day as the register recheck.
- Melbet, licensed to Pelican Entertainment B.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/561/0554, register status Indefinite; the register gives an issue date of 24 December 2025 for that licence while the operator's own rules document and certificate give 15 November 2024, a gap between two primary documents that a one-line review claim would not show.
- Bitsler, licensed to Oyine N.V. under Curaçao licence OGL/2024/930/0387, register status Indefinite, checked against the same register edition on 7 September 2026.
None of that means any of these five casinos is doing something wrong. It means a licence position needs rechecking, not reading once, and it shows the amount of work behind a claim that a review site can state in a single sentence.
Where to read next
To understand more broadly what holding a non-GamStop licence actually entitles you to, our piece on where you stand with an offshore casino is the place to start. Where the licence in question is Curaçao, our guide to raising a Curaçao casino complaint lays out who to approach next once you know the licence position. And where the whole reason you checked the licence was a payout that never arrived, our guide to a casino that will not pay sets out what to do and in what order.
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 register, edition dated 3 September 2026, as set out in the Curaçao licence guide; read 7 September 2026.
- Cloudbet, affiliate programme page (cloudbet.com/en/affiliates), commission structure and lifetime-commission wording. Read 7 September 2026.
- For each brand named above, the licensed entity, licence number and current register status: Cloudbet, 1xBet, BetFury, Melbet and Bitsler, with sourcing and a check date recorded in that operator's own file.
General information, not legal advice. We are not solicitors or a law firm. We connect clients with regulated legal partners.