Types of Gambling Licenses

The main kinds of gambling authorization

When you see that a casino or betting site is "licensed," that single word covers several very different kinds of authorization. Understanding which type a company holds tells you a lot about what it is allowed to do, who it answers to, and what protection you actually get as a player.

The broad families are:

• Casino concessions and land-based casino licenses, which authorize a physical venue, and in concession systems name the exact casinos covered.
• Online B2C licenses, which let an operator offer gambling directly to players over the internet.
• B2B supplier licenses, which cover the companies that build and supply the games, platforms and equipment rather than dealing with players themselves.
• Personal licenses, attached to individuals rather than companies: key persons, senior staff and promoters.

A useful starting point for checking any of these is our guide to gambling regulators and licenses in Asia, and for verifying a specific claim, how to check a gambling license.

Casino concessions and land-based casino licenses

A land-based casino license authorizes gambling at a specific physical venue. The regulator typically approves the games, the rules of play and the premises, and publishes what is permitted. In Singapore, for example, the law requires the casino authority to publish the list of approved casino games, the mode of play and the rules for each casino on its official website, so you can see exactly what a licensed casino may offer⁸.

Some places go further than a license and use a concession. A concession is a contract between a government and a company, granting a small number of long-term rights to operate casinos. Macau is the classic example. Its gaming concession contracts do not just say "this company may run casinos"; they name the individual venues covered. A 1997 concession contract listed nine specific casinos, including Casino Lisboa, Macau Palace Casino, Jai Alai Casino, Kam Pek Casino, Oriental Casino, Golden Dragon Casino, Hyatt Casino, Triumph Casino and the Holiday Inn Casino¹. That is the practical difference between a concession and an ordinary license: a concession is exclusive, negotiated and venue-specific, while a license is a more standard permission that a regulator can issue to any qualifying applicant.

Land-based licenses also come in narrower flavors than full casinos. In the Philippines, PAGCOR issued an online traditional bingo license allowing a company to offer bingo games using both onsite and offsite platforms, a much smaller scope than a casino license⁹. In Hong Kong, amusement game centers hold licenses of different types, and a type B license is breached if bets are wagered or paid at the premises or prizes or cash refunds are given on game results, which can lead to prosecution¹⁰. The lesson: the name of the license tells you what is allowed, and the boundaries are specific.

Online casino licenses: what they permit and where they are accepted

An online gambling license permits an operator to offer games over the internet. What it does not do is make that offer legal everywhere in the world. This is the single most important thing to understand about online licenses.

Japan is the starkest example in Asia. The National Police Agency states plainly that gambling conducted online, whether baccarat, slots, sports betting or anything else, is a crime regardless of the name or content of the game⁷. An online casino holding a Curaçao or Anjouan license is still illegal for a player in Japan to use; the license changes nothing about the player's own position. If you are in Japan, see our Japan guide for the full picture.

Singapore takes a similar line on licensing scope: gambling activities are prohibited unless they are exempted or licensed, and the remote gambling regime there is built around two exempt operators, Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club, rather than open licensing¹¹. Notably, those exempt operators are not allowed to offer casino-style games or poker, so even a licensed operator's menu can be deliberately narrow¹².

Where online licenses are issued, they describe the activity precisely. Reading operator terms and conditions shows how these licenses are worded:

• Rainbet describes itself as "licensed in Anjouan for the provision of online games of chance"²
• Shuffle.com holds a license from the Curaçao Gaming Control Board to offer games of chance³
• Casino Khajana's Curaçao license covers providing "interactive games of chance via the Website"¹³
• Phenom Poker's Anjouan license covers "real-money Internet-based interactive poker services"¹⁴

Notice how specific these are. A license names the activity, the channel and often the games. A poker license is not a casino license; a bingo license is not a slots license.

One practical warning: generic license claims are easy to fake. Guidance on verifying Curaçao licenses says to ignore generic "8048/JAZ" claims unless you can match the company, the domain and the activity in the public register¹⁵. We cover this in more detail in how to verify a Curacao gambling license and how to verify an Anjouan gaming license.

B2C and B2B licenses: who deals with players

The online gambling world splits into two layers, and each layer has its own license type.

A B2C license (business to consumer) is held by the company you actually play with: the casino site, the poker room, the sportsbook. The Anjouan license register lists operators with license type "b2c", and that is the category most player-facing sites fall into⁴. Gibraltar's remote gambling B2C market, for example, spans betting, betting intermediaries (exchanges), gaming including slots, bingo and poker, and other products such as lottery bets and exchange bets¹⁶. One B2C license can therefore cover a wide product range, or a narrow one, depending on what the regulator granted.

A B2B license (business to business) is held by companies that never take your bet directly. They supply the slot games, the live dealer studios, the gaming platforms and the random number generators to the B2C operators. Not every jurisdiction has this layer at all: Cambodia, for instance, functions almost exclusively as a casino and integrated resort jurisdiction, with online gambling essentially banned, so there is little licensed online gaming for suppliers to feed¹⁷. Where a B2B layer does exist, if a supplier loses its status, the games it feeds to licensed operators can be switched off.

For you as a player, the distinction matters in two ways. First, when a site says it is "licensed," it almost always means a B2C license; the B2B chain behind it is invisible but regulated separately. Second, when something goes wrong, your complaint goes to the B2C licensee and its regulator, not to the game supplier. Our page on how to complain to a gambling regulator walks through that process.

Personal licenses: key persons, staff and promoters

Beyond company licenses, many regimes license individuals. These go by names such as key person licenses, key person permits, gaming promoter licenses and staff licenses, and they attach to the people who run or front the gambling business rather than to the business itself.

Personal licenses work differently: instead of authorizing a company, they vet a named individual. A key person permit means the regulator has cleared that person, typically a director, senior manager or compliance officer, and holds that individual accountable for what happens under the license. Not every regime relies on them to the same degree: Cambodia's licensing is built around land-based casinos, integrated resort gaming and a heavily restricted online market open only to foreign players, rather than around a web of individually vetted key persons¹⁸.

In Macau, gaming promoters (the licensed junket operators who bring players to casinos) historically needed their own licenses, separate from the casino concessions, and the individuals running them needed approval too. This is the pattern across Asia: the company holds the venue or online license, and the people with operational control hold personal licenses on top.

For players, personal licenses are mostly background. You will rarely check one directly. But they matter when something goes wrong, because a regulator can act against a named individual, suspending or revoking a personal license, without pulling the whole company's license. See what happens when a gambling license is suspended or revoked for how that plays out.

Cambodia: casino-only licensing with online gambling suspended

Cambodia is a live case study in how the license types above interact, and how quickly they can change.

The country functions almost exclusively as a land-based casino and integrated resort jurisdiction. Its allowed market categories are land-based casinos, integrated resort gaming, and a heavily restricted "limited online" category strictly for foreign players¹⁹. Online gambling for the domestic market is essentially banned.

The history: in 2019 the prime minister formally banned all online gambling, ordering all forms of online gaming to stop by the end of 2019²⁰. After that, the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia (CGMC) issued no online gambling licenses at all²².

Then, in 2026, the government went further. From the beginning of October 2026, all online gambling operations linked to casinos were suspended nationwide⁶. The suspension applies specifically to online gambling activities operated or broadcast from casino premises, while ordinary casinos themselves are not closed⁵. The government described the move as an effort to address unmonitored financial flows, and the suspension is described as temporary, though no end date has been given⁵.

The practical takeaway for a visitor: a Cambodian casino license is a real, verifiable land-based license, but it no longer covers any online activity run from the premises. If a site claims a Cambodian online license, that claim is out of date at best. See our Cambodia guide for what you can actually do there.

Curaçao and Anjouan: why operators switch online licenses

Offshore online licenses are not permanent attachments. Operators move between jurisdictions, and 2026 provided a high-profile example.

Bitcasino, owned and operated by Moon Technologies B.V. of Curaçao, long operated under a Curaçao gaming license issued by the CGA (the Curaçao Gaming Authority)²³. In September 2026 it announced it would transition to an Anjouan gaming license, with the site operated by EZ Spins Ltd, and stated there would be no change to the player experience²⁴. Other operators show the same spread, as the table below shows.

Why switch? Regulators differ in cost, paperwork, tax treatment and regulatory demands. Curaçao, where all forms of online gambling are legal and the government offers attractive packages for operators, has long been the volume choice²⁷. Anjouan has grown as an alternative, licensing operators for online games of chance, including real-money internet-based interactive poker²⁷. For players, the practical point is that a switch like this is normal and does not itself signal a problem, but it does mean the license name on a site's footer can change over time. Our comparisons of Anjouan vs Curacao licenses and the Curacao Gaming Authority and Anjouan gaming authority pages go deeper.

One caution from the verification world: because these licenses are claimed so often, they are faked often too. Always match the company, domain and activity in the regulator's public register rather than trusting a license number pasted on a site¹⁵. Our page on fake gambling license claims covers the common tricks.

What a license does not guarantee for players

A license tells you a regulator has approved the operator. It does not tell you that playing is legal where you are, that the regulator will help you, or that the protections are strong.

Three limits matter most:

A license does not override your local law. Japan's position, that online gambling is a crime regardless of the game, applies no matter what license the operator holds⁷. Singapore likewise prohibits gambling unless exempted or licensed under its own regime¹¹. The operator's license and your own legal position are two separate questions.

A license does not guarantee access for everyone. The Philippines' offshore gaming rules require licensed offshore operators to accept no wagers from Filipinos, no persons below 21 years of age, and no players from jurisdictions where such gambling is prohibited²⁸. A fully licensed site can be legally obliged to refuse you.

A license does not guarantee equal protection. Jurisdictions differ enormously. Independent guidance rates the UK and Malta as providing the best protections, especially in responsible gambling requirements²⁹. The UK Gambling Commission tells players to check that a gambling business holds a British license before transferring money into an account³⁰. At the other end, a thin offshore license may offer little beyond a registration number. Player-protection tools also vary: self-exclusion lists, where problem gamblers voluntarily register so casinos are obliged to bar them, operate in US states such as Michigan, New Jersey, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi, and in Canada and Austria, while Nevada has no statewide scheme though casinos will bar problem gamblers on request³¹.

Even licensed operators operate under strict limits that a license alone does not loosen. Licensed offshore gaming operators must ensure that no wagers are accepted from Filipinos, from persons below 21 years of age, or from jurisdictions where such forms of gambling are prohibited¹⁴. In Singapore's exempt operator regime, exempt operators are not allowed to offer casino-style games or poker at all¹⁵. A license creates obligations; it does not guarantee they are always met.

For what a licensed operator must actually do for players, see what licensed gambling operators must do to protect players, and for the other side of the coin, the risks of playing on unlicensed sites.