How Crypto Casinos Are Licensed in 2026: Curaçao, Anjouan, Malta and the Rest

Scroll to the bottom of almost any crypto casino and you will find a licence number and a regulator's logo. What that licence actually promises a player can range from quite a lot to almost nothing.

2026 has been a busy year for the rules behind those logos. Curaçao, the most common home for crypto casinos, has finished most of a two-year overhaul and added crypto-specific rules. Anjouan has become the cheap alternative and is now under pressure. Regulated markets such as the UK and several US states have kept pushing offshore crypto brands out.

This explainer covers what each licence requires, what has changed this year and how to check a site yourself.

Why licensing matters more with crypto

Crypto gambling is no longer a niche. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs estimates on-chain gambling volume at about $51 billion in 2025 and $14 billion in the first quarter of 2026. About 70% of that volume was in stablecoins. These are betting flows, not casino revenue, but they show the scale.

Crypto payments are also final. If a casino refuses to pay out, there is no card chargeback to fall back on. That makes the regulator, and its complaints process, the main protection a player has.

Global watchdogs are paying attention. In September, the Financial Action Task Force published a report on the risks of gambling, drawing on more than 80 jurisdictions, which listed virtual assets among the payment methods most open to abuse and said illegal gambling markets rival or exceed legal ones in many countries, according to the FATF.

Curaçao: the old system is gone

For years, most Curaçao licences were sublicences sold by a few private master-licence holders. That system has ended.

The National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known by its Dutch initials LOK, took effect on December 24, 2024. The Curaçao Gaming Authority, or CGA, became the sole licensing body that day and issued provisional licences to existing operators, AGBrief reported. Those provisional licences were later extended to December 24, 2025. Suppliers have until December 24, 2026 to complete their own transition, according to Global Law Experts.

The new regime brings real obligations:

• A complaints process. Operators must publish a complaints procedure. Players can complain for up to six months after an incident. Responsible-gambling complaints must be handled within five business days and others within four weeks, Curaçao Chronicle reported.
• Independent dispute resolution. If a complaint is not resolved, the player can escalate to an independent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider certified by the CGA. The operator pays, and the player does not, AGBrief reported in June.
• Local substance. Operators are expected to have a genuine presence on the island, not just a mailbox.
• Higher fees. Annual fees for a casino licence are around €47,000 including supervision, according to industry guides. The CGA does not publish a single fee table, so treat that figure as indicative.

Curaçao's new crypto rules

In June 2026, the CGA issued a crypto policy guideline for casino licensees, iGaming Business reported. Its main points, as summarised by European Gaming:

• Casinos must not accept funds from sanctioned wallets or mixing services, and must not allow player-to-player transfers.
• Casinos must not act as a crypto exchange.
• Withdrawals should normally go back to the wallet and the coin the player deposited from.
• Fiat-backed stablecoins are preferred, and the FATF "travel rule" on sharing sender and recipient information applies.
• Operators had to file a crypto policy by September 2026, complete risk assessments by December 2026 and be fully compliant, including blockchain analytics and withdrawal whitelisting, by June 2027.

For players, the withdrawal rule is the one you will notice. Expect to be paid back to the address you deposited from, in the same coin.

Anjouan: cheaper, faster, and under scrutiny

As Curaçao became stricter and more expensive, many crypto operators moved to Anjouan, one of the islands of the Comoros. Anjouan's regulator reported more than 1,650 licences issued, about 1,500 of them active, in July 2026, AffPapa reported.

The regime is now under pressure from its own national government. The Comoros government has asked the UK for help against the Anjouan licensing network, and the Comoros central bank considers the regime illegal, according to a Gambling.com report on October 20 citing the Guardian. The same report said Anjouan licences had been advertised from about £19,000.

Anjouan itself said in June that its licences are not designed to be used globally, CDC Gaming reported, after betting group Flutter criticised black-market operators during the World Cup. Anjouan has added ADR as a licence condition and says it has tightened its licence terms, though it has not published the details.

Malta and the Isle of Man: crypto with conditions

The Malta Gaming Authority allows licensees to accept virtual financial assets with its approval, provided they do not act as exchanges and apply strict anti-money-laundering checks, BusinessNow.mt reported when the policy was published. Its 2026 supervisory plan includes a dedicated review of controls around crypto, SBC News reported.

Malta's bigger fight is in Europe. In April, the EU's top court ruled in the Lottoland case that EU law allows national bans on online casinos and that players can sue to recover losses, SBC News reported. That puts pressure on Malta's Bill 55, which shields Malta-licensed operators from some foreign court judgments.

The Isle of Man's Gambling Supervision Commission lets operators accept crypto, but only in set ways. Players can convert crypto to fiat before playing, or deposit and withdraw in the same crypto. Mixed models, such as crypto in and fiat out, are not allowed because the operator would be acting as an exchange, according to the GSC's licence guidance.

The UK, Ontario and the US: keep out

Large regulated markets have mostly kept crypto out.

The UK Gambling Commission has not banned crypto outright, but no British licensee takes it at scale. In February, the Commission asked its industry forum to explore a possible route for crypto payments, a step it described as tentative and without a timetable, Bird & Bird reported. Stake, the best-known crypto casino brand, closed its British site in March 2025, iGaming Business reported.

Ontario's standards for regulated operators state that cryptocurrency is not legal tender and must not be accepted, according to an analysis by Ifrah Law.

In the US, the pressure has landed on sweepstakes casinos, including Stake's US brand. The Los Angeles City Attorney sued Stake.us and several game suppliers in August 2025, and Indiana's ban on sweepstakes casinos took effect on July 1, 2026, Public Gaming reported.

How the main licences compare

A five-minute check before you deposit

1. Click the seal. For Curaçao, the licence seal should open a certificate page on cert.cga.cw showing the same website address, the operator's name and a current status, under the CGA's certification policy. A seal that is just a picture is a warning sign. In January, the CGA warned about sites using copied seals, Curaçao Chronicle reported.
2. Find the complaints route. The terms should name the operator's complaints process and the ADR provider you can escalate to.
3. Read the withdrawal rules. Look for limits, verification requirements and which coins and networks you can withdraw to.
4. Expect identity checks. A licensed operator will ask for verification, often before your first withdrawal. A site that promises it never will is telling you something about its licence.
5. Check your own country's rules. A foreign licence does not make a site legal where you live.

The direction of travel is clear. Offshore regulators that want to stay credible are adding complaint rights, dispute resolution and crypto controls. The ones that do not are being squeezed by their own governments and by the markets around them. For players, the licence logo is the start of the check, not the end of it.