Anjouan casino licence in the UK: what changes when the badge on the footer is offshore
Available in GB23 September 2026, checked against the Gambling Commission’s public register of gambling businesses.
A casino carrying an Anjouan licence looks like every other casino from the lobby inward: the same game thumbnails, the same cashier button, the same deposit screen. What it does not carry is a Gambling Commission licence, and that absence is the whole story. Everything else on this page — the stake caps, the self-exclusion register, the dispute route, the bonus rules — flows from it. The right question is not “is an Anjouan licence real?” but “what does a UK player give up by choosing a site that has one?”
Table of Contents
- The Anjouan licence at a glance
- Why an Anjouan licence has no standing in Great Britain
- What changes for a player who crosses that line
- The licensed landscape the player is comparing against
- Protection measures for Great Britain players
- Practical paths a UK player has
- The protection that does and does not travel
- What the player can check in five minutes
- Frequently asked questions
The Anjouan licence at a glance
Anjouan is the easternmost island of the Comoros archipelago, an autonomous part of the Union of the Comoros with its capital at Mutsamudu. The Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority was established in 2002 to promote the island as an offshore financial centre. A gaming branch sits beneath it, styled the “Internet Gaming Regulatory Authority” (Anjouan Gaming), issuing separate B2C and B2B internet gaming licences. That is the body whose badge appears in the footer of a casino marketing itself as Anjouan-licensed.
The licence is real in the sense that a company has paid a fee and received a certificate. It is also a licence that the Central Bank of Comoros stated, in 2014, it does not recognise, and a jurisdiction whose own Penal Code prohibits gambling, according to GIABA’s May 2024 mutual evaluation report. For a UK player the relevant test sits elsewhere.
The Gambling Commission’s public register is the only authoritative check of whether a casino is licensed to take Great Britain customers. On 18 September 2026 it listed 139 businesses holding an active remote casino operating licence. The register can be searched online or downloaded in full as CSV or Excel, and each remote casino licence number follows the pattern (account)-R-(number)-(suffix) — the leading six digits repeat the licence holder’s account number, the “R” marks a remote (online) licence.
The register’s domain list is where the practical question lands. Every website sits against the licence account that runs it, with a status of Active, Inactive or White Label. A white-label site trades under another company’s licence. On 18 September 2026 the register held 1065 active and 361 white-label domain entries — a working picture of who is actually licensed, and who is not.
Why an Anjouan licence has no standing in Great Britain
Before November 2014, a casino licensed in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, or any of several “white-listed” jurisdictions could serve Great Britain customers without a Gambling Commission licence. That door closed when the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 came into force on 1 December 2014. From that date, any remote operator transacting with or advertising to consumers in Great Britain must hold a Commission operating licence, regardless of where it is based, and must pay 15% point-of-consumption tax on gross gambling yield from GB customers.
The statute’s plain wording does the work: under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, providing or advertising remote gambling facilities to GB consumers without a Gambling Commission licence is a criminal offence, regardless of any other authorisation the operator may hold. The offence sits with the operator, not the player. The Commission disrupts illegal sites through cease-and-desist notices, search-engine delisting and payment and hosting referrals, but it has no ISP-blocking power. What the player loses is protection, not criminal exposure.
Three things follow from that single legal point, and they are what makes the choice real.
First, GAMSTOP — the national online self-exclusion scheme — is a mandatory condition of every online Gambling Commission licence. It has been so since 31 March 2020. Self-exclusion periods run six months, one year or five years, and cannot be cancelled early. An Anjouan-licensed site is not on GAMSTOP, so a player who has registered to stop themselves gambling, and then moves to an offshore site, has not moved at all.
Second, the stake and bonus caps that UK players read about in headlines do not apply offshore. Online slots carry a maximum stake per game cycle of £5 for players aged 25 and over (from 9 April 2025) and £2 for 18-24 (from 21 May 2025). Since 19 December 2025, wagering requirements are capped at 10x and mixed-product bonuses are banned. None of those rules travels with the player to an offshore site.
Third, the dispute route disappears. A licensed casino in Great Britain sits under an approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider and the Commission’s complaints process. An offshore site offers its own terms, in its own jurisdiction, with no GB-approved backstop if it refuses a withdrawal.
The frame to hold is short: an Anjouan licence lets the casino exist; only a Gambling Commission licence lets it serve the UK.
What changes for a player who crosses that line
A player is not committing an offence by opening an account. The offence sits with the operator. The cost of the choice, though, is the protection built up since the Gambling Act 2005 received royal assent on 7 April 2005: the age and identity verification required before the first deposit, the financial vulnerability check that runs after £150 in net deposits across a rolling 30 days (from 28 February 2025), the auto-play ban in force since 31 October 2021, the minimum spin interval of 2.5 seconds, the ban on losses disguised as wins, the prompt to set a financial limit before the first deposit (from 31 October 2025), the credit-card ban in force since 14 April 2020.
On an Anjouan-licensed site the player takes what the site chooses to offer. That might mean a faster signup, fewer spending prompts, no GAMSTOP block, no approved ADR. It might also mean a casino that closes without warning and a balance that does not come back. The Commission’s regulatory model rests on the idea that the player is the weaker party; the offshore model rests on the contract the player signed.
The licensed landscape the player is comparing against
The register’s domain list is the working list of who may lawfully take GB customers. A licence number is not, on its own, a recommendation — it is permission to operate. Each brand below sits on that register against the named licence account, with the licence number carrying the format described above.
| Brand | Licence holder and GB remote casino licence | Domain status on the register |
|---|---|---|
| Paddy Power | PPB Games Limited, account 39411 — 039411-R-319335-010 | Active domain |
| Unibet | Platinum Gaming Limited, account 45322 — 045322-R-324275-019 | Active domain |
| Sky Vegas | Bonne Terre Gaming Limited, account 65519 — 065519-R-339675-002 | Active domain |
| kwiff | Eaton Gate Gaming Limited, account 44448 — 044448-R-323408-017 | Active domain |
| bet365 | Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, account 55149 — 055149-R-331499-004 | Active domain |
| MrQ | Tek Fox Ltd, account 60629 — 060629-R-337532-004 | Active domain |
| Midnite | Dribble Media Limited, account 42647 — 042647-R-321653-022 | Active domain |
| Virgin Games | Gamesys Operations Limited, account 38905 — 038905-R-319430-022 | White-label domain |
| BetVictor | BV Gaming Limited, account 39576 — 039576-R-319370-028 | Active domain |
| Grosvenor Casinos | Rank Interactive (Gibraltar) Limited, account 57924 — 057924-R-334666-005 | Active domain |
The cluster is heterogeneous by design. Sky Vegas and bet365 are the larger consumer brands. MrQ and Midnite are smaller and newer. Virgin Games appears as a white-label — its domain sits against Gamesys Operations Limited’s licence rather than its own — which is a reminder that one licence can carry several brand fronts. Several well-known brands sit under a single licensee without being independent operators.
What the table does not show is the second column every UK-licensed site shares: GAMSTOP enrolment, the 10x wagering cap, the £5 / £2 stake limit, the financial vulnerability check at £150, the credit-card ban. Those are conditions of the licence, not entries in the table.
Protection measures for Great Britain players
| Measure | Status |
|---|---|
| GAMSTOP self-exclusion | Mandatory |
| Stake limit (£5 / £2) | Mandatory |
| 10x wagering cap | Mandatory |
| Credit card ban | Mandatory |
| Financial vulnerability check | Mandatory |
| Auto-play ban | Mandatory |
Two regimes meet on the wagering line. Since 19 December 2025, a UK-licensed casino cannot set a wagering requirement above 10x the bonus. An Anjouan-licensed site can set whatever figure its own terms choose, and a 30x, 40x or 50x multiple is common in that market.
The arithmetic the player is asked to do is the same in both cases: required turnover is the bonus multiplied by the wagering factor. What changes is the magnitude of the result. Take a £100 bonus.
At the 10x cap, required turnover is £1,000. At a 30x offshore multiple, it is £3,000. At 50x, it is £5,000. The result is a band, not a point: the same nominal bonus requires between £1,000 and £5,000 of wagering depending on which side of the licence line the player sits. The bonus amount does not change; the cost of clearing it does, by a factor of up to five.
That is the value of the 10x cap, expressed as the difference between two cashiers. It does not make a bonus good; it makes a bonus honest about how much play it asks for, in a way the offshore equivalent often is not.
Practical paths a UK player has
There are essentially three.
The first is to play at a Gambling Commission-licensed casino, accept every safeguard that goes with the licence, and treat the offshore market as not available. That is the path the law assumes the player takes, and it is the path that costs the least in unexpected outcomes. The register’s domain list is the lookup.
The second is to play at an offshore site, accept that the protections of the UK regime do not apply, and self-manage what the regulator would otherwise manage. That means a personal GAMSTOP equivalent, an external deposit cap, a separate ADR arrangement, and a clear understanding that the casino’s own terms are the contract. The marketing promise of “more generous bonuses” or “fewer restrictions” is, mechanically, the absence of the GB regime rather than an addition on top of it.
The third is to not play at all, or to use the National Gambling Helpline (GamCare) or GambleAware first. For someone who has self-excluded, that step is the only one the regulator recognises.
The right path depends on the player. A player who has signed up to GAMSTOP and intends to keep gambling has already told themselves which path is open to them. A player choosing a casino by the size of its welcome offer has been told what the offer is worth by the wagering multiple alone.
The protection that does and does not travel
Travel with the player: nothing. The licence is site-bound, not player-bound.
Stays behind at the GB site: GAMSTOP enrolment, the £5 / £2 stake cap, the 10x wagering cap, the credit-card ban, the 2.5-second spin interval, the auto-play ban, the losses-disguised-as-wins ban, the financial vulnerability check, the mandatory financial-limit prompt before the first deposit, ADR access, Commission complaints access, the £150 net-deposit vulnerability threshold.
Comes along to the offshore site, if the offshore site chooses to offer it: nothing is automatic. The site can set its own stake ceiling, its own spin speed, its own self-exclusion period, its own ADR — or none of these. The contract the player signs is the contract that applies.
The player does not gain anything by crossing the line that the licensed site refuses to offer. They gain the freedom from the licensed site’s terms. Whether that is a gain or a loss depends on what the player was trying to do.
What the player can check in five minutes
Open the Gambling Commission’s public register, search the casino name or domain, and read the licence number back against the licence account. The format is account-R-number-suffix; the account number is the first six digits. If the casino is not on the register, it is not licensed to take GB customers. If it claims an Anjouan licence in addition, that licence is real in its own jurisdiction and irrelevant in Great Britain under the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014.
That single check is the answer to almost every question that follows it.
Frequently asked questions
What does an Anjouan gambling licence actually authorise?
It authorises the operator to run an internet gaming business under the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority’s gaming branch, in a jurisdiction whose own Penal Code prohibits gambling and whose central bank does not recognise the licence. It does not authorise the operator to take customers in Great Britain; only a Gambling Commission licence does that under the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014.
Are ID checks still carried out before a first deposit at an Anjouan-licensed site?
Sometimes, sometimes not — the operator decides, because the operator is not bound by the Commission’s verification rules. At a UK-licensed casino name, address and date of birth must be verified before the first deposit or any play, and that obligation is enforced. Offshore, the player cannot assume the same gate.
Does GAMSTOP self-exclusion apply at an Anjouan-licensed casino?
No. GAMSTOP enrolment is a mandatory condition of every online Gambling Commission licence, in force since 31 March 2020. An Anjouan-licensed site is not on GAMSTOP, so a self-excluded player who moves to one has not moved at all in the eyes of the scheme.
Do the UK’s stake and wagering-requirement caps apply on an Anjouan licence?
No. The £5 / £2 per-game-cycle stake cap (from 9 April 2025 and 21 May 2025 respectively) and the 10x wagering-requirement cap (from 19 December 2025) are conditions of the Gambling Commission licence. They do not extend to an operator licensed only in Anjouan, which can set its own stake ceiling and its own wagering multiple.
Can a UK player use a UK dispute-resolution service if an Anjouan-licensed site refuses a withdrawal?
No, not through the Commission’s route. Approved ADR and Commission complaints sit over a GB licence. An Anjouan-licensed site’s contract is the contract that applies, and the dispute is in the site’s own jurisdiction. That is the loss of protection, in plain words.
Is an Anjouan licence the same thing as a Gambling Commission licence?
No. They are issued by different authorities, in different jurisdictions, under different rules. A casino holding only an Anjouan licence is not licensed to take Great Britain customers under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, regardless of what its footer says.
Published by the bankingcasinouk team.
