The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission is a body in Canada that issues permits for online gambling. A Kahnawake licence is a permission under that commission's rules. It is not a UK licence. For a player in Great Britain, a site with only this permission is outside GAMSTOP, outside the UKGC complaint route and outside the UK stake, wagering and affordability rules. This page explains what the commission is, how to check a statement against its permit list and what the licence means for a UK reader.
What the licence is
Kahnawà:ke is a Mohawk community near Montréal in Canada. The commission states that its authority comes from the community's right to manage its own affairs. Its licences are called permits, and the commission has issued them for online gambling since 1999.
The permit most often mentioned is the Client Provider Authorization. It is for a company that runs online gambling from the hosted data centre in Kahnawà:ke. The commission issues as many as it approves, with no set maximum, and it also has other kinds of permit. The commission's website describes each kind, and that is the place to read the detail.
Who issues it
The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission issues it. The commission's site at gamingcommission.ca explains its role, and its Permit Holders page lists the holders. It is the primary source for any statement of this kind.
What it means for a UK player
The Gambling Act 2005 requires remote gambling used in Great Britain to be licensed by the Gambling Commission, whichever country the operator is in. A Kahnawake permit does not meet that requirement. A UK player at a site holding only this permit therefore has:
- no GAMSTOP cover. The GAMSTOP page explains why the scheme depends on a UKGC licence.
- no UKGC complaint route and no UK approved ADR provider.
- no UK slot stake limits. See stake limits.
- no UK wagering cap, which licensed operators must follow.
- no UK affordability checks and no customer funds disclosure.
Playing there is not an offence for the player. The Gambling Act 2005 section 33 offence is the operator's. The cost is the missing protection, and the commission's complaint arrangements, if any, are those of a Canadian body serving its own permit holders.
How to check a statement
- Note the name of the company that the site shows beside a Kahnawake logo.
- Open the Permit Holders page on the commission's site and look at the update date first.
- Search for the company name and for the brand, since a brand can sit under a different company.
- Check that the kind of permit matches what the site provides.
- Search the Gambling Commission's register as well, with the UKGC licence check guide, because the two answer different questions.
If you cannot find the company, the statement is unverified. It does not prove that no permit exists, since lists change and names differ. It does mean you have no evidence for the statement.
What a permit shows and what it does not
A permit on the commission's list shows that a named company holds a particular kind of permission from the commission at the date of the list. It does not show which games the company runs, which countries it serves or how it handles disputes. It also does not show whether the brand you are looking at is the one the permit was issued for, which is why the company name and the brand both need to match.
For a UK reader there is a further step. Even a confirmed permit is a Canadian permission. The question that decides UK protection is whether the domain is on the Gambling Commission's register under an active licence, and a Kahnawake permit has no bearing on that.
A long history is not a protection
The commission has a long record of issuing permits. That is a fact about its age. It says nothing about how a particular permit holder treats a UK customer, and a UK customer has no way to bring a dispute to the Gambling Commission. The same point applies to every foreign regime on this site, so Kahnawake is described in the same terms as the others. See the licence countries hub for the full list, which is in no particular order.
In the offshore searches
Searches for non-UK casinos and casinos not on GAMSTOP can lead to many kinds of licence statement, and a Kahnawake permit is one of them. The non-UK casinos page treats the search as information and carries the same warning as this page.
Limits of this page
This page states what the commission is and what its public pages say. We have not reviewed its regulations, and we do not name or assess individual casinos. For rules, fees, complaint arrangements or the current list of permit holders, read the commission's own website. The sources and method page explains how we read sources.
Gambling help
Gambling is for adults aged 18 and over. If it is causing harm, call the GamCare National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 (free, 24 hours) or use GamCare. GAMSTOP is the national scheme for UK licensed sites, and BeGambleAware provides free tools.