UKGC Licence Check: Five Steps to Verify a UK Casino

The five-step UKGC licence check

1. Search the public register for the casino brand or its operator. The register lives on the Gambling Commission site under public-register/business. Type the brand, operator, account number or domain into the search field.
2. Open the business detail page for the result and confirm the legal operator name and account number. The account number is the identifier the regulator uses for that licensed business. Note it; you will use it for the next three tabs.
3. Read the activity rows. Each licensed product (Casino Remote, Bingo Remote, General Betting Remote, Casino Non-Remote and others) is a separate row with its own licence reference, dates and status. For online casino play, look at Casino Remote in particular.
4. Open the trading-names tab. A licensed operator can publish under more than one trading name. The trading-names tab lists each public brand attached to the account, with an Active or Inactive status next to it.
5. Open the domain-names tab. Licensed operators must register the gambling domains they use with the UKGC. The domain-names tab lists each domain with an Active or Inactive status. Match the URL the player is being sent to against this list.

The Gambling Commission register has its own internal links between these tabs, so once you land on the operator detail page the trading-names and domain-names tabs are one click away.

Aspers Online as a worked example

The Aspers Online record is a clean example because each field has a definite answer.

Reading the five rows together gives a single conclusion: there is no active GB remote casino authorisation for Aspers Online (Malta) Limited, no active trading-name entry under Aspers Online, and no active domain entry for aspers.com. The full field-by-field treatment is on the Aspers licence record page.

Operator, trading name and domain are three checks, not one

A single register hit on the operator name is not the same as a current authorisation to operate. Each of the three identifiers – operator, trading name and domain – sits on its own tab and has its own status field. They have to line up before a current online casino claim is supported.

• Operator. Confirms which legal business is regulated. Aspers Online (Malta) Limited (account 61021) is a different operator from Rank Interactive (Gibraltar) Limited (account 57924) and from Genting Casinos UK Limited (account 537). Each runs under its own account and licences.
• Trading name. Confirms which public brand is currently in use. A trading-name entry can be Active for one brand under the operator while being Inactive for another. For Aspers Online (Malta) Limited, the Aspers Online trading name is recorded as Inactive.
• Domain. Confirms which URLs the operator is permitted to use for the licensed activity. aspers.com is the relevant historic domain under account 61021; it is recorded as Inactive.

If any of the three identifiers does not line up – the operator has changed, the trading name is inactive or the domain has been deregistered – the public register is not supporting a current GB online casino claim for that combination.

Status labels and what they mean

The status field on each row records the regulator’s current position. The labels are short, but they carry specific meaning.

Active

The licence or entry is currently in force. For an activity row, Active means the operator is authorised to offer that gambling product to GB consumers, subject to the licence conditions.

Pending

An application is in progress. Pending is not authorisation; the operator cannot yet offer the activity under that row.

Surrendered

The licence ended because the operator gave it up. The To date field records when.

Revoked

The licence ended because the regulator took it away. The label may include a reason, such as “Non Payment of Fee” in the Aspers Online Casino Remote row.

Lapsed

The licence ended through expiry without renewal.

Suspended

The licence is paused while an issue is being addressed. The operator cannot currently offer the activity.

Inactive (trading name or domain)

The public brand or domain entry is no longer in use under that account. The activity may itself be active for the operator, but not under that specific name or URL.

Reading a status label literally is the safer practice. A row that is anything other than Active is not currently authorising the operator to provide that activity to GB consumers under that account.

A register hit on the operator name is not enough

Three patterns appear regularly when a casino is technically present on the register but does not currently authorise GB online play.

• Account exists, activity row not Active. The legal business is still on the register, but the Casino Remote row is Surrendered, Revoked, Lapsed or Suspended. The Aspers Online Casino Remote row is the textbook example, with a Revoked – Non Payment of Fee status and a To date of 1 December 2025.
• Activity active, trading name inactive. The operator holds the activity, but the public brand searched for is no longer the trading name in use under that account. A current claim using the inactive brand name does not match the active product.
• Operator and trading name look fine, domain inactive. The brand is on the register, but the URL the player is being sent to is not the licensed domain. The licensing condition then attaches to a different URL.

Each of these is a register-side reason to slow down before treating a casino claim as current. The UK casino safety checks page covers the wider research process around the register check.

What the UKGC register covers – and what it does not

The public register is the authoritative source for whether a business is licensed for a particular GB gambling activity. It is not, by design, a full product database. The register does not list current welcome-bonus terms, wagering requirements, KYC document checklists, processing times for withdrawals, app-store availability, current game-provider mixes or daily uptime. Those product-level facts need current operator and terms evidence, sitting on top of the licensing base layer.

That means the register check is the necessary first step for any current GB online casino claim, but not the only check. Once the activity, trading name and domain align as Active, current welcome-bonus, payment and account-handling claims still need current operator evidence. For Aspers Online the question stops at step 1, because the activity is recorded as Revoked. For a currently active operator, the register is the start of the verification, not the end.

Public records used for this page

• UKGC public register – the entry point for licence searches.
• UKGC: Aspers Online (Malta) Limited, account 61021 – the worked-example record.
• UKGC: Aspers Online trading names – inactive trading-name entry.
• UKGC: Aspers Online domain names – aspers.com listed as inactive.
• UKGC remote sector context – the Great Britain remote licence requirement.
• UKGC remote casino operating licence guidance – background on the Casino Remote activity.

Where to go next

• Aspers UK guide – main hub with the full overview.
• Aspers licence status – field-by-field reading of the Aspers Online record.
• UK casino safety checks – the wider safer-research checklist.
• Payment checks – the withdrawal status boundaries.
• Current Aspers status – the closed-or-rebranded answer for old searches.