Who issued this licence, and who can you complain to if the operator stops replying? An offshore gambling licence answers the first question only in part, and the second only if you know where to look. It tells you which authority supervises an operator and under which rules. It does not say whether the operator needs a local licence where you live, and it does not connect you to a national self-exclusion scheme.

A typical case starts small. A player reads “licensed in” followed by a country name in the footer of a site, deposits, and wins. The withdrawal is refused, support stops answering, and only then does the player ask who supervises the company. By that point the answer is much harder to find.

What an offshore licence tells you, and what it does not

In this guide, an offshore gambling licence means a licence issued in one jurisdiction to an operator that takes players from others. A licence applies to the territory and the rules of the authority that issued it. No global, international or EU gambling licence exists, so “licensed” on its own says very little. The word offshore is not a judgement of quality.

The World Health Organization treats the issue as a regulatory problem for every state: “Unlicensed, illegal or offshore gambling poses significant regulatory challenges for all governments” (fact sheet, 2 December 2024). No source found for this guide gives a reliable size for the offshore market, so no figure appears here.

The sections below put the same three questions to each regime. Who issued the licence, and under which rules? Where can you check it? Where can a player complain? Where an official source does not answer, the table says so, with the date. For the method of reading a register, see how to check an online casino licence in the regulator's register, and for the general rule, see why licences are national, not global.

RegimeWho issues itWhere to check itWho takes player complaints
Kahnawà:keThe KGCPermit holders list, updated 28 September 2023The KGC, after the operator
MaltaThe MGALicensee Register and URL CheckerThe MGA or an ADR entity, after the operator
CuraçaoThe CGALicence certificate for the exact domainIndependent ADR; the CGA handles no individual complaints
AnjouanNot found on an official siteNot found on an official siteNot found on an official site
Costa RicaNo gaming licence under Law 9050Not found on an official siteNot found on an official site

All rows were checked on 5 October 2026. “Not found” means a search of official sites on that date, not proof that nothing exists.

Kahnawà:ke: the age rule follows where you live

The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (the KGC) supervises interactive gaming in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, in Québec, Canada. Its Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming were adopted on 8 July 1999 and last amended on 25 March 2026. The rules set out five types of licence, authorisation and permit, and two of them matter here. A Client Provider Authorization belongs to the operator of the gaming site, while an Interactive Gaming Licence belongs to the data centre that hosts it. The site a player uses should therefore hold the first kind.

The age rule is the part most readers miss. The regulations define the approved age as “the greater of: (a) the full age of eighteen (18) years; or (b) the age that is required to participate in a game of chance under the laws of the jurisdiction in which a person is resident”. The minimum age follows the player's home country, not the territory of the regulator. You must be 18 or over, or older if the law where you live sets a higher minimum age.

What the list shows, and what it does not

The KGC publishes a table of permit holders and their web addresses. The page is marked “Updated September 28, 2023”, and it warns that not all URLs are accessible in all jurisdictions. A listed name and domain therefore show who held a permit on that date. They do not show whether the permit is valid today. Check the domain, not the seal, and note the date of the list.

For complaints, the KGC asks players to write to the operator first. Its page says player complaints must be submitted to the licence holder before they are submitted to the KGC, by email or through a form. Dispute updates are not accepted by phone. The KGC may also end an inquiry if another body is already handling the matter, or if the dispute has been discussed in public or passed to the media. A player who wants the KGC to deal with a complaint should lodge it before posting about it on a forum.

The KGC's complaints page gives no time limit (5 October 2026), but its Regulations do. The operator must give a final decision within 45 days, and a complaint must reach the KGC within six months of the date the matter first arose, unless it was already lodged with the operator within that period (sections 270 and 272). After investigating, the KGC can uphold a complaint and direct the operator to take steps (section 277). A player can also ask the KGC for comprehensive self-exclusion, which is permanent and covers every operator the KGC licenses (sections 301 to 305). The parts of the Regulations read for this guide say nothing on excluded countries.

Malta: a complaint route, and the dispute over Article 56A

The Malta Gaming Authority (the MGA) licenses operators under the Gaming Act (Cap. 583). Malta is an EU member state, but an MGA licence is not an “EU licence”. It is a Maltese licence, and the EU has no sector-specific gambling legislation of its own.

The MGA gives players a defined route. A player first writes to the operator. If that fails, the player can go to the MGA's Player Support Unit or to another Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) entity. The MGA says operators must engage an ADR entity before going live. Its complaint page, last updated on 22 September 2026, says it is “strongly recommended” that players first try to settle the dispute with the operator's support and management. The MGA also keeps a Licensee Register and a URL Checker, which the guide to checking a licence in the regulator's register explains step by step.

Article 56A in plain terms

Article 56A entered the Gaming Act through Act XXI of 2023, dated 16 June 2023. It says that, “as a principle of public policy”, “no action shall lie against a licence holder” for matters relating to the provision of a gaming service if the action “conflicts with or undermines the legality of the provision of gaming services in or from Malta by virtue of a licence issued by the Authority” and relates to an activity that is lawful under the Act. It also says that a Maltese court “shall refuse recognition and, or enforcement in Malta of any foreign judgment” given in an action of that type. In plain terms, it is aimed at claims that challenge a service which Maltese law allows and which is provided from Malta under an MGA licence.

The provision is now before the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-683/24, a reference from an Austrian court. On 23 April 2026, Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou gave an opinion, summarised in press release 65/26. His main view was that the request for a ruling is “inadmissible”, because an answer to the questions “does not appear necessary for the resolution of the dispute pending before the Austrian court”. If the Court takes a different view, he found the provision “manifestly incompatible with the rules governing the recognition and enforcement of judgments laid down in the Brussels I bis Regulation”. In that analysis he also wrote that Member States “may, in principle, apply their respective gambling law also to operators which provide services to consumers within their territory from another Member State, such as Malta”.

An opinion is not a judgment. The Court states that the opinion “is not binding on the Court of Justice” and that the judgment “will be given at a later date”. As of 5 October 2026, no judgment in this case was found on the Court's website. In practice, a judgment from another country in a claim of that type against an operator with a Maltese licence may not be enforced in Malta while the provision stands. How the case ends is not known. This guide gives general information and is not legal advice, so it offers no view on whether anyone should bring a claim.

Curaçao: one certificate per domain

Licences in Curaçao are issued by the Curaçao Gaming Authority (the CGA) under the national ordinance on games of chance, the Landsverordening op de kansspelen (LOK), in force since 24 December 2024. Before that, licences passed through a master licence and sub-licence system. The CGA's certificate lists the domains that the licensee is approved to operate, so check that the exact domain of the site appears on it. The CGA also says it “does not handle individual complaints against gaming providers”. Its Player Complaints Policy Guidelines (18 June 2025) say that a player may take the matter to an independent ADR provider, free of charge.

Anjouan: what can and cannot be checked

Some sites state that they hold an Anjouan licence. For this guide, no gaming law of the Union of the Comoros and no official register of gambling licences were found on an official site (5 October 2026). That gap is the reason for careful wording here.

One thing is documented, and it does not concern gambling directly. The Banque Centrale des Comores published a notice on 22 May 2023 titled “Communiqué sur l'exercice illégal d'activités bancaires offshores”, warning the public against illegal offshore banking activity. It concerns banks and does not mention gambling.

The rest comes from the media and is attributed as such. ABC News (Australia) reported on 31 December 2025 that in a 2023 statement the central bank described several Anjouan regulators, and the firms selling their licences, as “fictitious structures”, and that a central bank official said in 2020 that such outfits had “no physical or legal existence” in the Comoros. A former attorney general, Azad Mzé, told ABC that Anjouan Licensing Services is “an illegal entity”. ABC reports that Anjouan Licensing Services did not respond to its emails about its ownership. None of this is an official finding about a particular licence, and no more should be read into it.

Some pages that offer an “Anjouan licence check” are run by the issuers of those licences. A page operated by the issuer is not a register kept by a state authority, and the difference matters. No complaint route on an official site was found (5 October 2026). A player who cannot find out who supervises an operator has no clear place to send a complaint, and with an Anjouan licence that gap can be hard to close.

Is there a Costa Rica gambling licence?

Costa Rica's Law 9050, the Ley de Impuesto a Casinos y Empresas de Enlace de Llamadas de Apuestas Electrónicas of 9 July 2012, is a tax law. In short, it taxes casinos and companies that process betting data. Costa Rica does not issue gaming licences under Law 9050; the law taxes data-processing companies (text read on 5 October 2026, in a copy published by the municipality of Goicoechea).

The law also leaves municipalities with their powers to grant local permits and licences in their area. A municipal permit is a local business permit. It is not a gaming licence with supervision of the games. No official register and no player complaint route were found (5 October 2026).

The conclusion rests on the text of that law, so it applies under Law 9050 and not to the whole country. Registration of a company in the commercial registry, or a municipal permit, does not mean anyone supervises the gambling.

What none of these licences gives you

The regulator checks the operator against its own rules. It does not stand in for the protections of the country where you live. Four gaps recur.

  1. National self-exclusion. These schemes are national, for example Gamstop in Great Britain, OASIS in Germany and BetStop in Australia. They do not reach an operator licensed elsewhere. What remains is self-exclusion with each operator, which blocks you at one site only; the MGA calls this self-barring. Kahnawà:ke also offers a comprehensive self-exclusion request to the KGC, which covers all the operators it licenses.
  2. Your position at home. Some states apply their own gambling rules to operators abroad. Australia is one example, where official guidance describes it as illegal to provide some interactive gambling activities, such as online casinos, to someone in Australia, with the duty placed on the provider. The Advocate General's remark about EU member states points the same way. Check whether operators need a local licence where you live. For a country-by-country view, see who licenses online casinos in each country, and the minimum age.
  3. Tax rules. Tax on winnings follows the rules of the player's country, and sometimes also where the operator holds a licence. See how tax on gambling winnings differs by country. This is not tax advice.
  4. Enforceability. A dispute runs under the rules, and often in the language, of the jurisdiction that issued the licence. The Maltese case above shows how far that can go.

Where to complain and where to get support

What can be done if an operator stops paying winnings? Start with the operator's own complaints procedure, and keep every email, chat transcript and screenshot with its date. Then the route depends on the regime. Also write down the date on which you checked the licence.

  1. Kahnawà:ke: the operator first (final decision within 45 days), then the KGC by email or form, within six months of the date the matter first arose. Phone is not accepted.
  2. Malta: the operator first, then the MGA's Player Support Unit or an ADR entity.
  3. Curaçao: the operator first, then an independent ADR provider. The CGA does not handle individual complaints.
  4. Anjouan and Costa Rica: no official route was found (5 October 2026).

A chargeback is a payment dispute with your bank or card issuer, not a complaint to a regulator, and it may not succeed. Commercial complaint sites are not regulators. No route promises that money will be returned.

If gambling has started to cause harm, support does not depend on the operator's licence. Gambling Therapy, “a global service offered by Gordon Moody”, provides free practical advice and emotional support to anyone affected by gambling. It is an online service, and no phone line is listed on its website (5 October 2026). This guide gives general information and is not legal advice.

FAQ

What is an offshore gambling licence?

No official definition exists. In this guide, the term describes a licence issued in one jurisdiction to an operator that takes players from other countries. It names the supervising authority and its rules. It says nothing on whether the operator needs a licence where the player lives.

Does an offshore licence mean you can play from your country?

No. A licence applies where the issuing authority has power, and some states apply their own rules to operators abroad. The licence alone cannot answer the question, so check whether operators need a local licence where you live.

How do you check a Kahnawà:ke licence?

Open the KGC's permit holders page and look for the operator's name and domain. The list carries the date 28 September 2023. It shows who held a permit then, not whether a permit is valid today. Record the date of your check.

What is the minimum age at a Kahnawà:ke-licensed site?

It is the higher of 18 and the minimum age for games of chance where the player lives. Under the KGC's regulations, last amended on 25 March 2026, home-country law can raise the age above 18.

Can you check an Anjouan licence in an official register?

No official register of Anjouan gambling licences was found on an official site on 5 October 2026. Pages run by the licence issuers exist, but an issuer's own page is not a state register. This guide makes no claim on whether a particular licence is valid.

Does national self-exclusion cover offshore sites?

Generally not. Schemes such as Gamstop in Great Britain, OASIS in Germany and BetStop in Australia are national and do not reach operators licensed elsewhere. Self-exclusion at a single operator remains possible, and it covers that site only. For sites licensed in Kahnawà:ke, the KGC also offers self-exclusion from all the operators it licenses.

Sources