For a casino site to provide gaming services such as casino, live casino and sportsbetting the casino needs a license. In this article we list some of the most common online gambling licenses and explain how they work.
Curacao
One of the biggest licenses in the iGaming world is Curacao. Curacao is a small, Caribbean island which is very profitable for casinos. First of all there is a 0% tax on all casino profits, which of obvious reasons are prefered by many. The process for getting the Curacao license is also very quick, usually it takes somewhere between 1 and 2 months for a casino to get the license. Compared to other licenses, this is a very quick and smooth process. Besides these two factors, the ongoing expenses for a casino with license in Curacao is also low.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission, usually shortened to UKGC, is one of the biggest authorities for gambling in the world. Casinos that have the UKGC license have to follow very strict conditions to provide a safe gambling environment. Some people even describe the UKGC license as one of the most strict ones.
Malta
The Malta license is often shortened to MGA, which stands for Malta Gaming Authority. This is one of the most common licenses for European online casinos. This license is very reputable and trustworthy. Many players tend to specifically look for Malta casinos, as they are known to be very safe to play at.
The process of getting the MGA license is a lot longer compared to licenses like Curacao. Before getting a proper license, casinos are given a temporary license for 6 months. If the casino doesn’t follow the guidelines for the license, they won’t get the proper one.
Sweden
In the beginning of 2019 Sweden introduced a new Swedish gambling law, which stated that all casinos that want to operate on the Swedish market need a Swedish license. Similar to UKGC, the Swedish license is known for being very strict and trustworthy.
The strictness of this license is praised by some players while some players are not too happy with the many rules that exist. Since the Swedish license was introduced there has been an increase in players looking to play in casinos without Swedish license. The reasoning behind this is usually due to Swedish casinos having many restrictions and guidelines that interfere with the flexibility of Swedish players. For instance, it’s obligatory for all Swedish players to put limits on how much they can spend, play and lose. There are also many restrictions in terms of bonuses. Only one bonus per casino and player is allowed.
All casinos in Sweden are also connected to a system called Spelpaus, where players can block themself from all types of gambling. There is no way to cancel a Spelpaus, even if you have requested it by mistake. Due to this, many Swedish players tend to search for “spela trots spelpaus av misstag”, which basically means to play when you have activated Spelpaus by mistake.
Other well known licenses
Besides Malta, Curacao, UK and Sweden there are also plenty of other available licenses for online casinos. Some of the most common ones are Alderney Gambling Control Commission, Kahnawake, Estonia, Isle of Man, Antigua and Montenegro.