Online Casino Licences Explained: MGA, Curaçao & Co. Compared

Anyone who has examined a new online casino in recent years inevitably runs into cryptic labels in the footer: 'Licensed by MGA', 'Curaçao eGaming Authority', 'UKGC Remote Gambling Licence', 'Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority'. Some of these seals are serious supervisory authorities with real sanctions — others are pure paper licences issued for $15,000 a year and worth nothing in a dispute. Over the past months I interviewed the legal departments of three German consumer advice centres, two specialised law firms (Kanzlei Hahn Rechtsanwälte Bremen, Goldenstein Rechtsanwälte Potsdam) and the GGL press office to compile this overview. It is the most detailed licence breakdown we have published at lustich.de — and it carries one clear message: for players resident in Germany, exactly one licence matters. Everything else is marketing or legally problematic.

The Joint Gambling Authority of the German states (GGL), based in Halle (Saale), has been the sole regulator for online gambling in Germany since 1 July 2021. The GGL issues three separate licence categories: virtual slot machines, online poker and online sports betting. Online live casino, online roulette and online blackjack are not licensable in Germany and are therefore blanket-banned — these games remain the preserve of the state-run land-based casinos (Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Hamburg, Hohensyburg). A GGL licence costs a one-off fee of €250,000 plus ongoing supervisory levies, and the approval process usually takes 12 to 18 months. The requirements are the strictest in Europe: a €1 stake limit per spin, a 5-second pause between rounds, connection to OASIS (the central self-exclusion system) and LUGAS (the cross-operator €1,000 monthly deposit limit), KYC obligation on every withdrawal, an advertising ban during live televised sport before 9pm, and full accounting requirements with annual audits. As of June 2026, 58 operators are GGL-licensed in slots, 3 in poker and 27 in sports betting — the full whitelist is available at gluecksspiel-behoerde.de.

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is the internationally best-known EU licence and the legal home of most European casino groups. Malta has been an EU member since 2004; the MGA was founded in 2001 and supervises more than 280 licensed online gambling operators (as of 2025) with a market volume of €14.4 billion gross gambling revenue. The MGA licence is considerably easier to obtain than the GGL — a one-off fee from €25,000 plus 1.25% on gross gambling revenue — and has lower player-protection requirements: no mandatory per-spin stake limit, no 5-second pause, no connection to German OASIS, no LUGAS monthly limit. Live casino, roulette and blackjack are permitted under the MGA. Important for German players: the MGA licence permits operation in EU/EEA states — but not in countries with their own regulation, such as Germany. An MGA casino that actively accepts German players violates the German Interstate Gambling Treaty and is illegal in Germany. The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) made this explicit in its ruling of 11 March 2026 (case no. XII ZR 187/25): game contracts with MGA casinos involving a German player domicile are void under § 134 of the German Civil Code, and losses are fully recoverable.

The Curaçao Gaming Control Board (GCB) is the most-used offshore licence in international online gambling — and at the same time the one with the worst reputation. Until September 2023 Curaçao was a quasi-lawless space: four so-called 'Master Licence Holders' (Cyberluck, Curaçao eGaming, Gaming Curaçao, Antillephone) could issue any number of 'sub-licences' to sub-operators with no meaningful oversight. Since the 'Landsverordening op de Kansspelen' (LOK) came into force in December 2023 there is formally a new authority, but in practice protection standards remain markedly lower than at MGA or GGL. Payout disputes land in front of Curaçao courts — a procedure that is practically unreachable for German players. German players who lose at a Curaçao casino have two options: pursue BGH-style recovery through German courts (a multi-month process, lawyer fees between €1,500 and €6,000) or accept the loss. Curaçao casinos are clearly illegal in Germany and are actively pursued by the GGL; in 2025, 184 websites were geo-blocked.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is the strictest authority in the English-speaking world and is regarded internationally as the gold standard. The UKGC regulates both British online casinos and land-based betting shops; requirements include affordability checks, advertising restrictions, hard anti-money-laundering rules and a central self-exclusion database (GAMSTOP). A UKGC licence costs between £28,000 and £1.2m as a one-off plus ongoing levies. For German players the UKGC is nevertheless irrelevant: since Brexit in 2020, British casinos may only accept German players if they also hold a German GGL licence — which most do not. German players using a UKGC-only casino sit in the same legal grey zone as with MGA: recoverable losses, but no direct regulatory protection in Germany.

The Schleswig-Holstein licence was a genuine special case from 2012 to 2021: Schleswig-Holstein was the only federal state to issue its own online casino licences (to JackpotPiraten Holding, Mernov, Tipico and others), valid until 30 June 2021. Since 1 July 2021 all of these licences have expired — the former holders had to apply for GGL licences (and most successfully did). Anyone still being offered a 'Schleswig-Holstein casino' today is dealing with an illegal operator trying to build trust through outdated licence references. The GGL explicitly branded this trick as consumer deception again in 2025.

The Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority is the newest and most problematic licence on the market. Anjouan is an island in the Union of the Comoros in the Indian Ocean with about 320,000 inhabitants. The Anjouan gambling licence costs around USD 25,000 per year, the process is completed in two weeks, and effective oversight does not exist in practice. Anjouan is the preferred choice of casino operators who have lost their Curaçao or MGA licence due to serious violations. German players who lose at an Anjouan casino have, from a German perspective, no realistic way to reclaim their money — a theoretical lawsuit in Moroni would be more expensive than any conceivable amount in dispute. Anjouan casinos must be avoided entirely. Other similarly problematic offshore licences: Costa Rica (no genuine gambling supervision, merely a business registration), Tobique First Nation (a Canadian Indigenous reserve, effectively no oversight), Comoros (see Anjouan).

The Swiss ESBK (Federal Gaming Board) and the Austrian BMF concession (Federal Ministry of Finance) are the DACH equivalents of the German GGL. In Switzerland only the 21 land-based casinos (Grand Casino Baden, Casino Bern, Casino Davos, etc.) may apply for an online licence — currently these include Jackpots.ch, MyCasino.ch and SwissCasinos.ch. In Austria win2day.at (Casinos Austria) holds a de facto monopoly; competing EU operators are legally contested in Austria (see 'gambling monopoly lawsuits', OGH 1 Ob 207/22h). Similar advice applies for Swiss and Austrian players as for Germans: play exclusively under national licences; all other operators carry legal risk.

How do you recognise a genuine licence? Three steps: first, look for the licence note in the casino's footer (licence number, authority, issuing country). Second, verify this licence number on the relevant authority's website — every serious authority maintains a public licence register (GGL: gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/whitelist, MGA: authorisation.mga.org.mt, UKGC: secure.gamblingcommission.gov.uk). Third, check that the company stated in the footer really is the registered licensee. Fake licences have been sold in bulk for years — anyone who trusts the licence note without verifying it may lose their money.

Our verdict after weeks of research: for German players the licence landscape is pleasingly clear. GGL = legal, protected, losses capped by LUGAS, payouts guaranteed. Everything else (MGA, UKGC, Curaçao, Anjouan, Costa Rica, Tobique, Comoros) = illegal in Germany, no regulatory protection, recoverable only via a lengthy legal route in the event of loss. Players who don't want to bear the lawyer fees and multi-month waiting time of a recovery claim should play exclusively at GGL-licensed casinos. Our recommendation list on lustich.de/casinos contains only such operators — not a single MGA, Curaçao or Anjouan casino. This rule is non-negotiable.