Category: Regulation
The licensing jurisdiction is generally the territory or country that an online casino is legally operating from. Some of these authorities are known for imposing tougher controls over their licensees than others and it is the casinos which operate from these jurisdictions which often rank among the best in the world.
Some of the ‘rubber stamp’ jurisdictions which are known to offer players little or no protection when a dispute arises include South/Central American based jurisdictions such as Costa Rica, Panama, Anjouan and Belize. This doesn’t mean to say that ALL of the casinos that have been licensed by these authorities are dodgy in any way, but many of the scam/fake/rogue casinos have been known to stem from these areas.
The jurisdictions which impose much tougher controls over their licensees are often regarded as ‘second tier gambling jurisdictions’ and these authorities generally uphold relatively high standards of legality and they monitor their licensees with better vetting procedures.
These authorities generally include Malta (the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta) and Curacao, which is in the Netherlands Antilles. This organisation is known as the Curacao Internet Gaming Commission (or CIGA). There’s also the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is located in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in Canada. The other ‘second tier’ authority is in the jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda, a regulatory body which is known as the Directorate of Offshore Gaming.
The ‘top tier gambling jurisdictions’ which always impose extremely tough vetting procedures over their licensees and provide the highest levels of player protection include Gibraltar (the Government of Gibraltar) Alderney (the Alderney Gambling Control Commission) and the Isle of Mann (the Gambling Supervision Commission).
To find out where a casino is licensed, you can either contact the support and they should be happy to divulge this information, or you can generally find the logo of one of these authorities somewhere towards the bottom of the homepage of the casino. It would also be a good idea to double check yourself by visiting the actual website of the licensing authority to find a list of their licensees.
It has been know for some ‘rogue’ casinos to have lied about where they are licensed and have used fake logos etc. This is not a common occurrence, but it’s always better to be vigilant and double check before you hand over your personal details to a fake casino with unscrupulous operator. As the saying goes, ‘it’s always better to be safe than sorry’.