The UK Gambling Commission licenses gambling in Great Britain under the Gambling Act 2005. Its public register lists every licensed business and, as of 9 November 2026, held 2,629 records. Each entry shows which activities the business is licensed for. This page explains the licence types behind those entries, so a reader can look at a register line and know what it means.
Two ways to split licences
There are two splits to keep in mind. They cut across each other.
Remote and non-remote. Remote gambling is gambling by remote communication, which in practice means online, by phone or by app. Non-remote gambling happens in person, in premises such as casinos, bingo halls, betting shops and arcades. The Commission's industry statistics for the year to March 2026 report both, with separate figures for non-remote betting, casino, bingo and arcades. Every operator on this site's licensed list holds remote licences, since they are online casinos. The licence numbers in our data all carry an R, which fits the remote class, though the register's field list does not spell this out.
Operating and personal. An operating licence is held by a business and authorises it to run a gambling activity. A personal licence is held by an individual who works in a role the law treats as significant. The register covers both, with a separate section for personal licences on the Commission's public registers page. Our personal licences page covers that side.
The activity names on the register
The register describes an operator's activities by name. The twelve operators in our data show the following, as read on 9 November 2026.
| Activity on the register | Operators holding it | Our page |
|---|---|---|
| Casino | 12 | Remote casino |
| General Betting Standard (real and virtual event) | 8 each | Remote betting |
| Pool Betting, Betting Intermediary | 3 and 1 | Remote betting |
| Bingo | 8 | Remote bingo |
| Gambling Software | 2 | Gaming machine and software |
Other categories exist on the wider register, such as technical licences for gaming machines and ancillary licences for businesses that support gambling operators. They appear less often among consumer brands, and they are covered on their own pages: gaming machine and software and ancillary remote.
Each activity carries a start date, described by the Commission as the date the business was most recently granted a licence to operate that product. It is therefore not necessarily the first date the business ever held the activity. Several start dates in our data fall on 1 November 2014, which matches the date from which the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 changed section 33 and section 36 of the 2005 Act for remote gambling used in Great Britain.
Reading the status values
The register gives the status of each licence. The Commission defines the values this way, which we restate in plain words.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | The licence is in force and up to date |
| Pending | A new licence, or a variation, has been applied for and is not yet active |
| Suspended | The Commission has suspended the licence while it investigates |
| Revoked | The licence was removed after regulatory action or a breach of conditions |
| Revoked (non payment of fee) | The licence was removed because the annual fee was not paid |
| Surrendered | The business gave up the licence because it no longer needs it |
| Lapsed | The licence ended because the business was liquidated, sequestrated or declared bankrupt, or because the licensee became unable to carry out the activities through mental or physical incapacity |
| Expired | The licence reached its end date and the licensee did not apply for a new operating licence |
| Forfeited | A court has ordered the licence to stop having effect |
Only Active means a business may carry on the activity today. All 40 brands on our licensed casinos list belong to operators showing Active at the date of reading. Statuses change, and the Commission's own register is the source of record.
Other fields worth knowing
The register's field list includes the account number, the legal account name, the head office address, and counts of trading names, domain names and premises declared by the business. It also gives a status for each trading name (Active or Inactive) and each domain name (Active, Inactive or White label). The Commission points out that domain and trading names come from the business, and that it cannot guarantee their accuracy. A final field links to regulatory actions, the sanctions and settlements imposed on the licensee.
How to check
Go to the Commission's register of gambling businesses, search by business name, trading name, domain name or account number, and open the entry. Check the status, the list of activities with dates, and the domain list for the site you are looking at. Our step-by-step guide to checking a UKGC licence shows the process, and the operators pages restate what the register shows for each holder.
Gambling help
Gambling is for adults aged 18 and over. If gambling is causing you worry, the GamCare National Gambling Helpline is free on 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, and there is more at GamCare. GAMSTOP lets you exclude yourself from licensed sites, and BeGambleAware gives further guidance.