Anjouan casino licence in the UK for 2026: what it authorises, and what it does not

Updated September 2026

Licensed

Available in GB

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Current as of 23 September 2026, against the Gambling Commission’s public register of remote operating licences.

Why the licence behind the cashier matters

A UK resident who opens an “Anjouan-licensed” site hands over money, but not to a Gambling Commission licensee. The licence shown in the page footer is real, and it is issued somewhere entirely different. The difference is the entire subject of this guide, because the offshore stamp changes who can resolve a dispute, who can self-exclude the player, and which stake and bonus limits apply. Anything beyond the offshore stamp — a feature, a payout time, a bonus headline — exists by the operator’s choice, not by the licence’s force. That is the position this page takes.

The narrow question a player is asking is also the narrow answer: can a casino holding only an Anjouan internet gaming authorisation lawfully take deposits from a person in Great Britain? No. The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 has been clear on this since 1 December 2014, and the Commission still actively disrupts the brands that try it. From there, every comparison in this page — protection, recourse, limits — has a different shape from the same comparison among licensed brands, and that difference is the point.

What an Anjouan licence actually authorises

Anjouan is the easternmost island of the Comoros archipelago, an autonomous island within 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 and tax haven. Under it sits Anjouan Gaming, styled the “Internet Gaming Regulatory Authority”, which issues separate B2C and B2B internet gaming licences. That is the full chain, and each link is offshore.

What it authorises is the right of the licensee to operate an internet gaming business under the law of Anjouan. What it does not authorise is the right to take a deposit from someone in Great Britain. The Central Bank of Comoros stated in 2014 that no licence had been delivered for offshore financial activities on Anjouan and that it does not recognise licences issued by the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority — a position from the issuer’s own central bank, not from a competitor regulator. GIABA’s May 2024 mutual evaluation report on the Union of the Comoros, based on an on-site visit in July 2023, records that gambling is prohibited under the Comorian Penal Code. The offshore gaming licence is therefore not a recognition that gambling is legal on the island; it is an offshore authorisation against a domestic prohibition, sold to a customer who will never set foot on the island.

What the UK’s regime requires instead

The Gambling Act 2005, which received royal assent on 7 April 2005, established the Gambling Commission as the regulator for Great Britain and set objectives of preventing crime, ensuring fairness, and protecting children and vulnerable people. The Commission covers Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), not Northern Ireland. Before the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, operators licensed in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, or “white-listed” jurisdictions such as Alderney, the Isle of Man, Tasmania and Antigua and Barbuda could serve Great Britain customers without a Gambling Commission licence. That window closed on 1 December 2014. From that date, any remote gambling operator transacting with or advertising to consumers in Great Britain must hold a Commission operating licence, regardless of where the operator is based, and must pay 15% point-of-consumption tax on gross gambling yield from GB customers.

The test is the Commission’s own public register of gambling businesses, searchable online and downloadable in full as CSV or Excel files. The register lists each business holding an active remote casino operating licence, and lists each website against the licence account that runs it, with a status of Active, Inactive or White Label. On 18 September 2026, the register listed 139 businesses holding an active remote casino operating licence, with the domain list showing 1065 active and 361 white-label domain entries — a white-label site trades under another company’s licence, which is why a brand’s own licence number can sit elsewhere.

The cost of choosing an offshore-licensed site

The angle on this page is the reader’s cost, and the cost shows up in five places that a UK-licensed operator cannot take away. Each of them is a right a player gives up by depositing elsewhere.

Identity checks before the first deposit

At a UK-licensed site, name, address and date of birth have been verified before the first deposit or any play since 7 May 2019. An Anjouan-licensed site has no such requirement under its home regime, and most will still ask — they just do not have to. A few will not. The check is not the point of the line; the question is what happens when the check is missing. A player who has self-excluded through GAMSTOP is supposed to be blocked at the cashier of every licensed site. An offshore site is not a member. That is the first cost.

GAMSTOP and self-exclusion

GAMSTOP, the national online self-exclusion scheme, has been a mandatory condition of every online licence since 31 March 2020. Periods of six months, one year or five years; the registration cannot be cancelled early. An offshore site is not a participant. A player who has registered with GAMSTOP and then opens an Anjouan-licensed site is, in plain language, bypassing the very tool they registered for. The exclusion is only as strong as the player’s willingness to keep their side of it; an offshore site offers no second check.

Stake and wagering caps

Online slots carry a maximum stake per game cycle — £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 (for example, bet on sport, get casino spins) are banned. None of this binds an Anjouan-licensed site. A “fantastic” headline bonus can sit on top of a 40x wagering requirement, or a £20 spin on a game cycle; the rule is the licensed site’s rule, not the gambling rule. The same marketing claim reads very differently at 10x and at 40x.

Dispute resolution

A dispute with a UK-licensed site runs through the operator, then an approved ADR (alternative dispute resolution) provider, and ultimately the Commission. An Anjouan-licensed site answers to the Anjouan Gaming authority; a UK player is not in its jurisdiction in any practical sense. There is no Commission complaints route. The player can in principle complain to the offshore regulator, but the player is rarely the right address for a complaint that starts with a refused withdrawal. The Commission’s position on its own page is plain: the Commission disrupts illegal sites (cease-and-desist notices, search-engine delisting, payment and hosting referrals) but has no ISP-blocking power. No penalty is aimed at the player; what the player loses on an unlicensed site is protection.

Tax, winnings, and the bottom line

Players pay no tax on gambling winnings in the UK. That is the same on a licensed site and on an Anjouan-licensed site, because tax treatment is set by the player’s residence, not the operator’s licence. The operator side is different: a licensed operator pays Remote Gaming Duty at 40% from 1 April 2026 (raised from 21%) on gross gambling yield from GB customers. An offshore operator paying 15% (or 0%, or whatever Anjouan charges) is not paying into the UK regime that funds the protections the player has just left. That is the structural reason the offshore site can out-bonus the licensed one.

Where the protection sits — and where it does not

The single point that holds the others together: the protections a player gives up are funded by, and conditional on, the Commission’s licence. The Commission does not run GAMSTOP for offshore sites; it does not police an offshore bonus term; it does not police an offshore stake cap; it does not arbitrate a withdrawal dispute with an operator that does not hold its licence. Disrupting an illegal site — the cease-and-desist, the delisting, the payment referral — is a long, slow exercise that does not always recover the player’s money. The most reliable protection is not to deposit in the first place.

What a player choosing a UK-licensed site gets instead

The cover image shows a magnifying glass over a printed offshore licence certificate. The replacement is not a piece of paper; it is the register entry itself. A player who wants the protections listed above should look up the brand on the register before depositing, confirm the licence number, and confirm the domain status (Active or White Label). The register also tells the player which company actually runs the site — useful because several brands can share one licensee.

The minimum age at any UK-licensed site is 18. Auto-play is banned, a slot spin may not be faster than 2.5 seconds, and losses disguised as wins are banned, all since 31 October 2021. Credit cards are banned for gambling since 14 April 2020, including credit cards routed through e-wallets. Operators must prompt a customer to set a financial limit before the first deposit (from 31 October 2025). Financial vulnerability checks run at £150 net deposits in a rolling 30 days (from 28 February 2025) using public data only; the wider financial risk assessments are announced but not yet in force. National Gambling Helpline (GamCare) and GambleAware sit behind every licensed site.

The wagering-turnover band under the 10x cap

The arithmetic on this page comes from one rule, in force since 19 December 2025: a maximum 10x wagering requirement on any bonus offered to a GB player on a UK-licensed site. The question it answers is what the rule costs the player who took the headline bonus.

The formula

Required turnover is the bonus amount multiplied by the wagering factor. At 10x, a £20 bonus demands £200 of qualifying stakes before any of the bonus balance can be withdrawn; a £100 bonus demands £1,000; a £200 bonus demands £2,000. The player does not keep the £200. They have to put £2,000 through eligible games, with most slots contributing 100% and table games often 10% or 0%. The smaller the bankroll, the longer the run.

The band

Stated as a band rather than a single figure, because the inputs vary: bonus amount varies by offer, and stake-per-spin varies by the player. A £20 bonus at 10x means £200 of turnover. At 5 seconds per spin and a 20p stake, that is 1,000 spins, or roughly 1 hour 23 minutes of play. At a 50p stake, the same £200 of turnover is 400 spins, or about 33 minutes. At £1, it is 200 spins, or under 17 minutes. The same bonus at the same wagering factor runs from under twenty minutes to over an hour, depending on the stake the player actually plays.

For a £100 bonus at 10x, turnover is £1,000. At 20p per spin, that is 5,000 spins and about 6 hours 57 minutes of play. At 50p, it is 2,000 spins and under 2 hours 47 minutes. At £1, it is 1,000 spins and under 1 hour 23 minutes. The deeper the bonus, the longer the same stake takes to clear.

For a £200 bonus at 10x, turnover is £2,000. At 20p per spin, that is 10,000 spins and about 13 hours 53 minutes. At 50p, it is 4,000 spins and about 5 hours 33 minutes. At £1, it is 2,000 spins and about 2 hours 47 minutes. None of these figures is the time a player will actually spend, because players do not bet one stake continuously and many slots contribute less than 100% to wagering. They are an estimate of the qualifying play the bonus demands before the balance becomes withdrawable.

The corollary on the offshore side

The 10x cap does not bind an Anjouan-licensed site. The same headline bonus on the same slot can carry a 30x or 40x wagering requirement, which multiplies the qualifying turnover by three or four for the same bonus. The arithmetic is a band; the comparison is a ratio. At £100 bonus and 20p stake, a 10x cap is £1,000 of turnover and under 7 hours of play; the same bonus at 40x is £4,000 of turnover and under 27 hours 47 minutes of play at the same stake. The cap is what makes the licensed-site bonus worth calculating. Without it, the same headline reads as marketing and behaves as a trap.

The point is not that offshore bonuses are always worse — some are plainly smaller. The point is that the licensed-site number is constrained by a rule the player can read, and the offshore-site number is whatever the operator chose to charge. The same £100 headline sits on top of £1,000 of turnover on one site and £4,000 on another. One site is a marketing offer; the other is a marketing word attached to a marketing claim.

A side-by-side: UK-licensed brands, registered against the licence account

The table below is built from the Gambling Commission’s public register only. It is not a ranking and not a recommendation. It carries no bonus terms. Where research does not cover a cell, the cell is left as a dash. The columns are the matters a player needs to compare an offshore stamp against; the rows are the brands a player will meet when they look at the licensed side. The reference date is 18 September 2026.

A remote casino licence number on the register has the form account-R-number-suffix, where the leading six digits repeat the licence holder’s account number and the “R” marks a remote (online) licence. So Paddy Power’s licence is account 39411’s remote licence 319335, suffix 010. That is how a player checks the brand’s own claim. Several brands can share one licensee — Ladbrokes, Coral and Gala Bingo all sit under LC International Limited — and the register is the way to see that, not the brand’s footer.

The “Subject support” column is empty because the subject here is the absence of an Anjouan licence, not the presence of a feature. The register, the protections, and the limits are the subject. Every GB-licensed online operator must take part in GAMSTOP. The point is not which brand is best; the point is which brands answer to the Commission when something goes wrong.

Paddy Power

Paddy Power is a GB-licensed operator (account 39411, licence 039411-R-319335-010). It is a well-established GB-licensed brand that adheres to all Commission safety standards, including GAMSTOP membership. It operates under full UK regulation.

Unibet

Unibet (unibet.co.uk) is a GB-licensed operator (account 45322, licence 045322-R-324275-019). The .co.uk domain is the GB-facing version. Unibet’s product runs wider than casino — sportsbook, poker, bingo — which is not directly relevant here, but it is the reason the brand turns up on the register. Unibet is GB-licensed, GAMSTOP-enrolled, and ADR-covered.

Sky Vegas

Sky Vegas is a GB-licensed operator (account 65519, licence 065519-R-339675-002). It is a casino-only brand. As with other licensed operators, the licence is the protection. The brand’s specific risk profile, such as game mix, is a separate comparison that lives outside this page.

kwiff

kwiff (Kwiff.com) is a GB-licensed operator (account 44448, licence 044448-R-323408-017). kwiff’s product includes a “supercharged” odds mechanic that exists by operator choice, but the licence ensures all core protections like GAMSTOP, stake caps, and financial checks are in place.

bet365

bet365 (Bet365.com) is a GB-licensed operator (account 55149, licence 055149-R-331499-004). As the largest privately-owned gambling brand in the UK, its registration on the Commission portal is the key point for player protection. Specific product features are separate from the core licensing protections.

MrQ

MrQ (Mrq.com) is a GB-licensed operator (account 60629, licence 060629-R-337532-004). MrQ is a smaller, casino-focused brand. Its product emphasises no-wagering free spins, which is a conservative use of the 10x cap. The point of including it is that a player who values no-wagering promotions has a fully licensed option.

Midnite

Midnite (Midnite.com) is a GB-licensed operator (account 42647, licence 042647-R-321653-022). It is a newer GB-licensed brand. All regulatory protections are identical to other licensed brands on this register. Checking the licence is important regardless of how long a brand has operated.

Virgin Games

Virgin Games is a GB-licensed operator (account 38905, licence 038905-R-319430-022). It operates as a white-label site, trading under the Gamesys Operations Limited licence. The player receives every protection the licence grants, and white-label status is a register fact, not a downgrade.

BetVictor

BetVictor (Betvictor.com) is a GB-licensed operator (account 39576, licence 039576-R-319370-028). BetVictor is a long-established GB brand with a casino and sportsbook. The licence is the point. Its product decisions are its own, but its regulatory protections are defined by the Commission register.

Grosvenor Casinos

Grosvenor Casinos is a GB-licensed operator (account 57924, licence 057924-R-334666-005). It is a well-known UK brand. The licence is the Commission’s, and it ensures standard protections apply, which the offshore alternative lacks entirely.

What the table does not show

The table is intentionally narrow. It shows what the register shows. It does not show a brand’s bonus policy, its payout time, its RTP, its withdrawal fee, its slot catalogue, or its mobile app rating — all of which are legitimate comparisons, and none of which is the comparison this page is making. The register is the only source of truth on the question “is this brand licensed by the Commission at all”. The register is the only place the player’s question can be answered, because the operator’s footer can say anything.

A brand that is not on the register is not necessarily an Anjouan-licensed brand; it might be licensed in Curaçao, in Malta, in the Isle of Man, or not at all. The register’s absence is not a verdict on the licence; it is the absence of the Commission’s licence. A UK player who cares about UK protections — GAMSTOP, the 10x cap, the financial vulnerability checks, the ADR — is looking for a register entry. Anything else is a marketing presentation.

Where the offshore stamp shows up — and what it costs in concrete terms

A player considering an Anjouan-licensed site is typically comparing it against a licensed site on the headline number: bonus amount, free-spin count, or sign-up offer. The headline is the only number the marketing shows. The full cost is the bonus amount, the wagering factor, the stake-per-spin, the game contribution percentage, the time to clear, and the win-cap. At an Anjouan-licensed site, none of those is constrained by the 10x cap; at a licensed site, every bonus sits under the cap. The same headline at 10x and at 40x is not the same headline.

The 10x cap matters because it bounds the qualifying turnover. A £100 bonus at 10x means £1,000 of turnover. The same bonus at 40x means £4,000. At a 20p stake, £1,000 of turnover is roughly 6 hours 57 minutes of qualifying play; £4,000 is roughly 27 hours 47 minutes. The player is not paid for any of this; they are paid only if a win lands during the qualifying play, survives the wagering, and survives the win-cap. A higher wagering factor lowers the probability of any of those surviving, by increasing the volume of qualifying play and the time during which the player’s bankroll is exposed to variance.

The band of turnover, not the headline. A bonus at 10x has a turnover band; a bonus at 40x has a turnover band four times wider. A licensed site is the place where the band is short. An Anjouan-licensed site is the place where the band is whatever the operator chose.

What a player who has self-excluded through GAMSTOP should know

GAMSTOP is a mandatory condition of every online licence since 31 March 2020. A player who has registered with GAMSTOP is supposed to be blocked from every UK-licensed online gambling site. An Anjouan-licensed site is not a member of GAMSTOP, because it does not hold a Commission licence. A player who opens an offshore site while registered with GAMSTOP is not being blocked by their self-exclusion. They are bypassing it.

The Commission’s position is clear on this point: what the player loses on an unlicensed site is protection. The exclusion tool is meant to be a wall, not a fence the player walks around. The honest reading is that an offshore site, at the moment of self-exclusion, is the wrong answer to a question GAMSTOP was registered to answer. There are better answers: GamCare, the National Gambling Helpline, GambleAware, and a conversation with a treatment provider.

The licence at a glance: what to look for in the footer

A UK-licensed site will, in its footer, name the Gambling Commission and display its licence number. The number will be on the register. A player can copy the number from the footer, search the register by licence number, confirm the licence holder’s name, confirm the domain status (Active or White Label), and confirm the licence is active. That is the whole check, and it takes a few minutes. An Anjouan-licensed site will name the Anjouan Gaming authority and display an Anjouan licence number, which will not be on the Commission’s register, because the Commission does not list offshore authorisations.

The Commission also lists each business’s licence type, which is how a player can confirm the brand holds a remote casino operating licence specifically. The licence number format (account-R-number-suffix) is a Commission convention; an Anjouan licence number will not match.

How the regulatory frame closes the comparison

The Gambling Act 2005 set the Commission’s three objectives: preventing crime, ensuring fairness, and protecting children and vulnerable people. The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 made the point-of-consumption regime operational. The 10x wagering cap and the £2 / £5 stake caps are the substantive consumer-protection rules in force from 2025; the financial vulnerability check at £150 net deposits in a rolling 30 days is the operational test. Every one of these is the Commission’s licence, applied through the Commission’s licence.

An Anjouan-licensed site applies none of these, by structure. The offshore authority’s brief is to license online gaming businesses; it does not run GAMSTOP, it does not enforce the 10x cap, it does not enforce the £2 / £5 stake cap, it does not run financial vulnerability checks, and it does not handle UK player disputes. The brief is the brief. The protection is the protection. A player who wants the protection has to be on the licensed side of the comparison.

Frequently asked questions

What does an Anjouan gambling licence actually authorise?

It authorises the operator to run an internet gaming business under the law of Anjouan, the easternmost island of the Comoros. It does not authorise the operator to take deposits from a person in Great Britain; that requires a Gambling Commission licence, and providing or advertising remote gambling facilities to GB consumers without one is a criminal offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005.

Are identity checks still carried out before the first deposit at an Anjouan-licensed site?

Some sites will ask for ID, but the requirement comes from the operator’s policy, not from the licence. UK-licensed sites must verify name, address and date of birth before the first deposit or any play, a rule in force since 7 May 2019. An offshore licence has no equivalent obligation, so the absence of a check is structurally possible on an Anjouan-licensed site in a way it is not on a licensed site.

Does GAMSTOP self-exclusion apply at an Anjouan-licensed casino?

No. GAMSTOP has been a mandatory condition of every Gambling Commission online licence since 31 March 2020, with self-exclusion periods of six months, one year or five years that cannot be cancelled early. An Anjouan-licensed site is not a Commission licensee and does not participate in GAMSTOP. A registered player is not blocked from depositing at an offshore site.

Do the UK’s stake and wagering-requirement caps apply on an Anjouan licence?

No. Online slots carry a maximum stake of £5 per game cycle 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 these rules bind an Anjouan-licensed site, because none of them is a rule of the Anjouan regime; they are conditions of the Commission’s licence.

Can a UK player use a UK dispute-resolution service if an Anjouan-licensed site refuses a withdrawal?

No. The Commission’s complaints route and the approved ADR providers only cover Commission licensees. An Anjouan-licensed site answers to Anjouan Gaming, and a UK player is not in its jurisdiction in any practical sense. The Commission’s disruption tools (cease-and-desist, delisting, payment referrals) do not include player-by-player recovery of disputed funds.

Is an Anjouan licence the same thing as a Gambling Commission licence?

No. They are authorisations issued by different authorities under different legal regimes, with different consumer-protection conditions. The Central Bank of Comoros stated in 2014 that it does not recognise licences issued by the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority, and GIABA’s May 2024 mutual evaluation report records that gambling is prohibited under the Comorian Penal Code. The two licences do not substitute for each other, and a UK player who wants the Commission’s protections must be on the Commission’s register.

Published by the welcomeoffersuk team.