Casino licences Canadians see

Why the licence matters more in Canada

Ontario runs its own regulated online market, and Alberta has its own provincial site, PlayAlberta. In the other provinces and the territories, the provincial lottery corporation runs the only provincially authorized gambling site, such as PlayNow in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, lotoquebec.com in Quebec, or Atlantic Lottery in the Atlantic provinces. The casinos on our Canadian list are none of these. They hold licences from regulators outside the provincial system.

That means no provincial regulator supervises them or handles a dispute with them. If a withdrawal is refused or an account is closed, the regulator that issued the licence is the authority you can complain to. A licence you can verify is therefore the first thing to check, before the bonus, the games or the payment methods. It is also why the licence carries the most weight in our score, as explained in how we rate casinos.

Where to find a casino's licence

• The footer. Most casinos name the licence holder, the regulator and the licence number at the bottom of every page.
• The seal. Regulators that use a seal link it to a certificate or validation page on the regulator's own domain. Hover over the seal and check the address before you trust what opens.
• The terms and conditions. The first section usually names the company, its registered address and its licence.

Write down three things: the company name, the licence number and the exact domain you are on. You need all three for the check.

Kahnawake Gaming Commission

The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission licenses and regulates gaming within and from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Montréal. According to the Commission, it was established on June 10, 1996, and has regulated online gaming since July 8, 1999, when it enacted its Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming. It is based in Canada, but it is not a provincial regulator.

What the register shows. The Commission's Permit Holders page lists operators and the URLs the Commission has certified, one row per URL. It shows the company name and the web address, not a licence number. The operator permit is called a Client Provider Authorization. On October 21, 2026, the page said the list was updated September 28, 2023, so a site licensed after that date may not appear on it yet.

The logo check. The Commission says its official logo must be posted on every site it licenses and must link to a Certificate of Good Standing with information about that site. It asks players to report a site that claims a Kahnawake licence without that linked logo.

Complaints. The Commission accepts complaints about any operator holding one of its permits, through its contact details and complaint form.

Curaçao Gaming Authority, under the 2024 rules

Curaçao licences changed in 2024. According to the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known by its Dutch initials LOK, came into effect on December 24, 2024, after a phased reform that began in November 2023. The CGA now issues online gaming licences directly. Licence numbers in the current registry look like OGL/2024/169/0146 or CGA/2025/2452/1255: the letters, the year, then two numbers.

If a casino shows an older style of Curaçao number, for example a four-digit master licence number with a suffix, it is not a number from the current registry. Look for a current OGL or CGA number on the site, and treat the licence as unverified until you find one.

Two places to check, and they can disagree.

1. The certificate. A Curaçao seal on the casino's footer links to a certificate page on the CGA's domain (cert.cga.cw). It shows the company, its company number, the licence number, the date licensed, the application status and the licence status, and a list of approved domains: every web address the licensee may operate under that licence.
2. The registry. The CGA publishes an Online Gaming License Registry as a PDF. The edition last updated October 20, 2026, lists for each licence the number, the licensee, the company type (B2C for operators that serve players, B2B for suppliers), the company registration number, the issue date, the expiry date and the status. Statuses in that edition include "Assessment in progress", "Expired" and "Revoked as of" a date.

A certificate can show a licence as active while the registry shows its term as ended and under assessment. When the two disagree, the registry is the later and more complete record, but the CGA itself says that no rights can be derived from its overviews. We record both, and score the licence as unconfirmed until they agree.

The same register page links an enforcement register, and the CGA publishes a Player Complaints Policy on its online gaming page.

Malta Gaming Authority

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) runs a searchable Licensee Register. According to the MGA, you can search it by licensee name, authorization status, URL or gaming service, and see more information through the casino's dynamic seal. The same page has a URL Checker. MGA licence numbers appear in the MGA's own notices in the form MGA/B2C/340/2016.

The MGA also publishes two lists worth knowing: an Unauthorised URLs list of sites the MGA says have no connection to it, and an Enforcement Register of suspensions and cancellations. If a casino claims an MGA licence, search the register by the exact URL, not only by the company name.

In our checks of the 42 casinos on our Canadian list, none showed a Malta licence. You are more likely to see one at a brand that is licensed in Europe, and an MGA licence on its own says nothing about whether the casino accepts players from your province.

Anjouan

Anjouan is one of the islands of the Union of the Comoros. Its internet gaming licences are issued by Anjouan Gaming, which says it is the designated regulatory authority for internet gaming under the laws of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, with the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority as its governing authority. It issues B2C and B2B licences. Licence numbers in its register begin with ALSI, for example ALSI-202601043-FI2.

What the register shows. The License Register shows, for each licence, the company, the status, the licence number, the type, the issue date, the expiry date and the domains. Its Verify a Licence tool searches by licence number, company name or domain. The authority's status definitions list four statuses, Active, Suspended, Revoked and Expired, and say only entities with an Active licence may conduct licensed activities. In the register rows we read, a current licence was shown as "valid".

Check the expiry date as well as the status. A row can still read "valid" after its expiry date has passed, and we score that licence as expired.

Tobique, the other Canadian name you may see

Some casinos name the Tobique Gaming Commission in New Brunswick. Its License Holders page lists the companies it has licensed, with the licence expiry date and the licence type. It shows no licence numbers and no domains, so the register alone cannot confirm that a particular site runs under a particular licence.

What each register shows

Read on each regulator's own site, October 21, 2026.

How to check that the licence covers the site you are on

A real licence is not enough on its own. Many licences cover dozens of domains, and some casinos run on mirror domains or are copied by look-alike sites. The check takes five minutes:

1. Note the exact domain in your browser's address bar, including the ending: .com, .casino, .io and a numbered mirror are all different sites.
2. Open the regulator's register yourself. Type the regulator's address or use the links on this page, rather than trusting a link or a seal image alone.
3. Find the licence by number or company name and check the status and expiry date.
4. Find the domain on the licence's domain list or certificate. If it is not there, the licence does not cover that site, however real the licence is.
5. Compare the company name on the register with the one in the casino's terms. A different company is a reason to stop and ask support.

If a casino's address sends you to a different domain, compare the new domain with the licence before you sign in or pay. Start from an address you trust, such as the casino's /go/ page on SpinsPilot or its review.

How SpinsPilot scores the licence

The licence is worth up to 1.2 of the 5 points in our casino rating, about a quarter of the score:

• 1.2: the licence is in the regulator's register and its status is current.
• 0.6: the casino claims a licence, but it has expired, it is under assessment, the casino's domain is not on it, or the register cannot be read.
• 0.3: no licence is shown, or it cannot be verified.

We look the licence up in the register ourselves and record the date. Our casino reviews show what we found for each brand, and how we rate casinos explains the rest of the score. A licence problem is recorded, not hidden, and does not by itself remove a casino from our list.

What a licence does not do

• It does not make the casino legal everywhere. Each casino sets in its own terms which provinces it refuses. Check the terms for your province.
• It does not guarantee a payout. It gives you a regulator to complain to, with its own complaint process and limits.
• It does not replace your own limits. Set deposit and time limits in your account. Our self-exclusion guide covers the stronger tools, and our responsible gambling page lists free help in every province we cover.

More guides in the academy

• Beginner's guide to online casinos in Canada
• Wagering requirements explained, in dollars
• Casino glossary
• Gambling winnings and tax in Canada
• Odds formats explained
• The puck line explained
• Parlays explained

Sources

Read October 21, 2026.

• Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission: FAQs and Permit Holders
• Curaçao Gaming Authority: Online Gaming and License register (Online Gaming License Registry, last updated October 20, 2026)
• Malta Gaming Authority: Licensee Register, Unauthorised URLs and Enforcement Register
• Anjouan Gaming: License Register, Verify a Licence, Licence Status Definitions
• Tobique Gaming Commission: License Holders