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Web-site last updated on 27 February 2004
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Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group
3rd Floor, Enkalon House
92 Regent Road
Leicester
LE1 7PE
Disclaimer
Checking a Casino Licence
You can verify the facts that decide whether a casino pays you, and you can do it before you enter card details. The Gambling Commission's public register holds the answer for every operator that wants your business in the UK.
What a UK licence actually covers
An operator holding a remote casino licence from the UKGC agrees to rules on how it holds your money, how it advertises bonuses, how fast it processes withdrawals, and how it handles complaints. The licence also requires contributions to research, education and treatment funding for problem gambling, which is why GamCare and BeGambleAware appear across licensed sites.
Offshore sites that take UK players without a licence sit outside all of that. They can change terms after you accept them, refuse a withdrawal with no UK appeals route, and leave you with nothing if the company folds. A certificate from a distant regulator gives you a registration number and little else when a dispute starts.
Finding the licence number
Scroll to the footer of any casino homepage. Licensed operators print their UKGC account number there, a six or seven digit figure, and link through to the register entry. Follow that link instead of trusting the logo on the page. Clone sites copy licence numbers, so match the trading name on the register to the company name in the site's terms.
A footer that carries the account number and a working link does most of the checking for you. Look at how Midarion casino handles it: number in the footer, straight link to the register, trading name matching the terms page. If a site shows a regulator logo with no number and no link, ask support to send you the register entry before you deposit anything.
Read three details on the register entry. Check the status: active, suspended or lapsed. Check the domain names listed under the licence, because a valid licence that names a different domain does not cover the site you are on. Read any conditions the Commission has attached, since it adds them when it finds a problem.
Reading the terms before you claim a bonus
Operators attach conditions to welcome offers that decide whether the money is worth having. Wagering requirements tell you how many times you must stake the bonus before it turns into cash you can withdraw. A 40x requirement on a £100 bonus means £4,000 of stakes. At a 3% house edge on slots, you would expect to lose about £120 working through it, which is why the headline amount matters less than the multiple attached to it.
Game weighting changes the maths again. Operators count slot stakes at 100% toward the requirement, then count roulette, blackjack and live dealer tables at 10% or less. Some games contribute nothing at all. A £200 bonus with a 50x requirement on slots is worth less than a £50 bonus at 20x.
Two clauses cause most of the disputes over bonuses. The maximum bet rule caps your stake at £5 per spin while a bonus is active, and a single spin above that limit lets the operator keep the bonus and anything you won with it. Thirty days is the common expiry window, and bonus funds vanish whether or not you have finished the requirement.
Deposits, withdrawals and the credit card ban
Debit cards remain the default deposit option, and Visa and Mastercard both work at licensed UK sites. Credit cards do not. The Commission banned them for gambling in April 2020, and no UK-licensed operator accepts one for a deposit.
PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay clear deposits in seconds and hold your money in an account you already control. Trustly and other open banking transfers move funds between your bank and the casino without sharing card details. Paysafecard suits players who want to deposit without linking a bank account, though fewer operators accept it for withdrawals and the voucher fee comes off your balance.
The operator's processing window sets your withdrawal time. Debit card payouts take one to three working days once the casino releases the funds, and some operators keep requests in a pending queue for up to 24 hours. E-wallets settle faster. Read the withdrawal policy page, because that page carries the timescales the adverts leave out.
Verifying your identity
UKGC rules require an operator to confirm your name, address and date of birth before you can gamble. Most run that check against credit reference and identity data, and it passes without you seeing anything. The rules allow a 72-hour window to finish the process, and no operator can release a withdrawal until the check completes.
If the electronic check fails, you will upload photo ID and a recent bank statement or utility bill. Name mismatches cause most of the delays, so register with the name printed on the account you will use for deposits and withdrawals.
Game rules and published RTP
UKGC-licensed operators must make the rules of each game available before you play, and those rules include the return to player figure. Open the info panel on a slot and you will find a percentage such as 96.2%.
That number describes the share of stakes the game returns to players over millions of spins. It says nothing about your session. A 96% RTP slot can take your whole balance in twenty minutes, and a 94% slot can pay you out. Compare two versions of the same game and you may find the operator runs the lower-paying one, which is legal and common.
Tools that limit what you can lose
Every UKGC-licensed site offers reality checks, deposit limits, session timers and cooling-off periods, because the licence requires them. An operator must apply a lower deposit limit at once and cannot reverse an increase for at least 24 hours. You will find these tools in your account settings.
GamStop carries more weight than any limit you set yourself. Registering excludes you from every UK-licensed operator for at least six months, and operators must act on it. If a site lets you keep playing after you register, it is not running under a UK licence. GamCare runs a helpline and free counselling, and BeGambleAware funds treatment and support across the country.
When a payout goes wrong
Raise the complaint with the operator first and keep the reference number. Licensed operators must give you a written response, and they have eight weeks to resolve the matter before you can escalate it.
After that, you can take the dispute to an alternative dispute resolution service approved by the Commission. These services cost you nothing, and their decisions bind the operator. The Commission does not settle individual payout disputes, though it investigates patterns and can suspend a licence over them.
Screenshot everything: the bonus terms at the time you claimed, your bet history, the chat transcript, and the terms page as it looked on the day. Operators rewrite those pages while a complaint sits open.
Warning signs worth walking away from
Test customer support before you deposit. Send one question about withdrawal limits and time the reply. Licensed operators answer through live chat within a few hours.
Read the terms for clauses that let a casino confiscate winnings. Wording about 'irregular play', 'abnormal betting patterns' or 'professional play' without a definition gives an operator room to refuse a payout. Operators write these clauses to stop bonus abuse, then apply them to accounts with no bonus attached.
Check that the withdrawal section names specific limits and timescales. A site that caps payouts at £500 per week will say so on the policy page. If you cannot find the policy page, ask support for the link before you deposit.
Before your first deposit
Set a budget for the session and treat it as money you are spending on entertainment. No strategy changes the house edge on a slot or a roulette wheel, and a game that claims otherwise lies to you.
Verify the licence, read the bonus terms, check the payment options for withdrawals as well as deposits, and find the deposit limit screen before you need it. Ten minutes of checking saves an argument you cannot win later.
Checking a Casino Licence
You can verify the facts that decide whether a casino pays you, and you can do it before you enter card details. The Gambling Commission's public register holds the answer for every operator that wants your business in the UK.
What a UK licence actually covers
An operator holding a remote casino licence from the UKGC agrees to rules on how it holds your money, how it advertises bonuses, how fast it processes withdrawals, and how it handles complaints. The licence also requires contributions to research, education and treatment funding for problem gambling, which is why GamCare and BeGambleAware appear across licensed sites.
Offshore sites that take UK players without a licence sit outside all of that. They can change terms after you accept them, refuse a withdrawal with no UK appeals route, and leave you with nothing if the company folds. A certificate from a distant regulator gives you a registration number and little else when a dispute starts.
Finding the licence number
Scroll to the footer of any casino homepage. Licensed operators print their UKGC account number there, a six or seven digit figure, and link through to the register entry. Follow that link instead of trusting the logo on the page. Clone sites copy licence numbers, so match the trading name on the register to the company name in the site's terms.
A footer that carries the account number and a working link does most of the checking for you. Look at how Midarion casino handles it: number in the footer, straight link to the register, trading name matching the terms page. If a site shows a regulator logo with no number and no link, ask support to send you the register entry before you deposit anything.
Read three details on the register entry. Check the status: active, suspended or lapsed. Check the domain names listed under the licence, because a valid licence that names a different domain does not cover the site you are on. Read any conditions the Commission has attached, since it adds them when it finds a problem.
Reading the terms before you claim a bonus
Operators attach conditions to welcome offers that decide whether the money is worth having. Wagering requirements tell you how many times you must stake the bonus before it turns into cash you can withdraw. A 40x requirement on a £100 bonus means £4,000 of stakes. At a 3% house edge on slots, you would expect to lose about £120 working through it, which is why the headline amount matters less than the multiple attached to it.
Game weighting changes the maths again. Operators count slot stakes at 100% toward the requirement, then count roulette, blackjack and live dealer tables at 10% or less. Some games contribute nothing at all. A £200 bonus with a 50x requirement on slots is worth less than a £50 bonus at 20x.
Two clauses cause most of the disputes over bonuses. The maximum bet rule caps your stake at £5 per spin while a bonus is active, and a single spin above that limit lets the operator keep the bonus and anything you won with it. Thirty days is the common expiry window, and bonus funds vanish whether or not you have finished the requirement.
Deposits, withdrawals and the credit card ban
Debit cards remain the default deposit option, and Visa and Mastercard both work at licensed UK sites. Credit cards do not. The Commission banned them for gambling in April 2020, and no UK-licensed operator accepts one for a deposit.
PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay clear deposits in seconds and hold your money in an account you already control. Trustly and other open banking transfers move funds between your bank and the casino without sharing card details. Paysafecard suits players who want to deposit without linking a bank account, though fewer operators accept it for withdrawals and the voucher fee comes off your balance.
The operator's processing window sets your withdrawal time. Debit card payouts take one to three working days once the casino releases the funds, and some operators keep requests in a pending queue for up to 24 hours. E-wallets settle faster. Read the withdrawal policy page, because that page carries the timescales the adverts leave out.
Verifying your identity
UKGC rules require an operator to confirm your name, address and date of birth before you can gamble. Most run that check against credit reference and identity data, and it passes without you seeing anything. The rules allow a 72-hour window to finish the process, and no operator can release a withdrawal until the check completes.
If the electronic check fails, you will upload photo ID and a recent bank statement or utility bill. Name mismatches cause most of the delays, so register with the name printed on the account you will use for deposits and withdrawals.
Game rules and published RTP
UKGC-licensed operators must make the rules of each game available before you play, and those rules include the return to player figure. Open the info panel on a slot and you will find a percentage such as 96.2%.
That number describes the share of stakes the game returns to players over millions of spins. It says nothing about your session. A 96% RTP slot can take your whole balance in twenty minutes, and a 94% slot can pay you out. Compare two versions of the same game and you may find the operator runs the lower-paying one, which is legal and common.
Tools that limit what you can lose
Every UKGC-licensed site offers reality checks, deposit limits, session timers and cooling-off periods, because the licence requires them. An operator must apply a lower deposit limit at once and cannot reverse an increase for at least 24 hours. You will find these tools in your account settings.
GamStop carries more weight than any limit you set yourself. Registering excludes you from every UK-licensed operator for at least six months, and operators must act on it. If a site lets you keep playing after you register, it is not running under a UK licence. GamCare runs a helpline and free counselling, and BeGambleAware funds treatment and support across the country.
When a payout goes wrong
Raise the complaint with the operator first and keep the reference number. Licensed operators must give you a written response, and they have eight weeks to resolve the matter before you can escalate it.
After that, you can take the dispute to an alternative dispute resolution service approved by the Commission. These services cost you nothing, and their decisions bind the operator. The Commission does not settle individual payout disputes, though it investigates patterns and can suspend a licence over them.
Screenshot everything: the bonus terms at the time you claimed, your bet history, the chat transcript, and the terms page as it looked on the day. Operators rewrite those pages while a complaint sits open.
Warning signs worth walking away from
Test customer support before you deposit. Send one question about withdrawal limits and time the reply. Licensed operators answer through live chat within a few hours.
Read the terms for clauses that let a casino confiscate winnings. Wording about 'irregular play', 'abnormal betting patterns' or 'professional play' without a definition gives an operator room to refuse a payout. Operators write these clauses to stop bonus abuse, then apply them to accounts with no bonus attached.
Check that the withdrawal section names specific limits and timescales. A site that caps payouts at £500 per week will say so on the policy page. If you cannot find the policy page, ask support for the link before you deposit.
Before your first deposit
Set a budget for the session and treat it as money you are spending on entertainment. No strategy changes the house edge on a slot or a roulette wheel, and a game that claims otherwise lies to you.
Verify the licence, read the bonus terms, check the payment options for withdrawals as well as deposits, and find the deposit limit screen before you need it. Ten minutes of checking saves an argument you cannot win later.