If you've scrolled to the footer of an online casino, you've probably seen a licence number next to a flag or a regulator's logo. For South African players, that licence almost never comes from South Africa itself — it comes from Curaçao, Malta or, less commonly, Anjouan. These regimes differ a lot in how they supervise operators, handle complaints and protect player funds. None of them make online casino play legal under South African law, a point we unpack separately in our explainer on the National Gambling Act. This article focuses on what the licences themselves actually mean.
Curaçao: the old master licence system is gone
For years, Curaçao operated on a master licence model. The Curaçao government issued a small number of master licences (held by entities such as Curaçao eGaming, Antillephone, Gaming Curaçao and Cyberluck), and those master holders then sub-licensed hundreds of individual operator brands under their own number. This produced the familiar footer format with a licence number and the name of a master holder, but very uneven oversight — some master licensees vetted sub-licensees properly, others barely did.
That system has been replaced. Curaçao's gambling law (the Landsverordening op de Kansspelen, or LOK) came into force, and a single regulator — the Curaçao Gaming Control Board — now issues licences directly to operators. The old master/sub-licence structure is being phased out, and operators previously trading under a sub-licence have had to apply for their own direct licence under a transition process set by the Board. In practice this means:
- New licence numbers look different from the old master-licence format, and are issued and tracked centrally by the Gaming Control Board rather than by a private master holder.
- Direct licensees are subject to requirements on player fund segregation, anti-money-laundering checks and responsible-gambling tools that weren't consistently enforced under the old system.
- Any operator still citing an old-style master licence number without a current direct licence should be treated with caution, since the transition period has a cut-off.
Because this is a live transition, exact deadlines and enforcement timelines have shifted more than once. If a licence number matters to you, don't take a footer claim at face value — check it directly, which we explain below.
Malta: a stricter, EU-anchored regulator
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is a different proposition. It's the regulator of choice for operators targeting EU and UK-adjacent markets, and it applies tighter requirements around player fund segregation (keeping customer balances separate from operating capital), auditing, and formal dispute handling through MGA-approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers. Few brands that actively market to South African players hold an MGA licence specifically for this market, since the MGA's framework is built around EU consumer protection law rather than African markets. Where you do see an MGA reference on a site used by SA players, it typically applies to the operator's EU-facing entity rather than the one accepting South African signups — worth checking which entity actually holds your account.
Anjouan: lighter-touch and less transparent
Anjouan (part of the Union of the Comoros) issues offshore gaming licences through locally appointed agents. It's a newer entrant in the space operators use as an alternative to Curaçao, generally seen as having lighter ongoing supervision and less public information available about complaint outcomes or enforcement actions than either Curaçao's new regime or Malta. That doesn't automatically mean an Anjouan-licensed operator is untrustworthy, but it does mean there's less independent verification available if something goes wrong, and fewer published rulings to judge a regulator's track record by.
How complaints and disputes actually work
The licence a site displays should tell you where to escalate a dispute if the operator itself won't resolve it. In broad terms:
- Curaçao (Gaming Control Board): The Board has its own complaints channel for issues with directly licensed operators, separate from the informal complaint desks some master licensees used to run. Expect a formal written process rather than a quick turnaround.
- Malta (MGA): Players can lodge a complaint with the MGA directly, or use an MGA-approved ADR body if the operator is a member of one — this is usually the most structured route of the three, with published timelines.
- Anjouan: Dispute routes are less standardised and often depend on the individual operator's own terms rather than a public regulator portal.
Before escalating anywhere, read the operator's own terms on dispute resolution — bonus and wagering disputes in particular often hinge on clauses most players never read. We go through those clauses in our guide to how casino bonus terms actually work.
Player-fund rules: what's meant to be protected
Reputable licensing regimes require operators to hold player balances separately from company operating funds, so that a casino's cash-flow problems don't swallow customer deposits. Malta's MGA has enforced this for years; Curaçao's new direct-licence regime includes similar segregation requirements, though as a newer system its enforcement record is shorter. Anjouan's framework is less specific in public documentation. In all cases, segregation rules protect your balance from the operator's business risk — they don't insure you against the operator vanishing outright, and they say nothing about how quickly you'll actually be paid. For the mechanics of getting money in and out of South African-friendly casinos, see our deposits and withdrawals guide.
How to verify a licence number yourself
Don't rely on the footer badge alone. A few minutes of checking is worth it:
- Find the full licence number in the operator's terms and conditions or footer, not just the regulator logo.
- Go to the regulator's own site — the Curaçao Gaming Control Board's licence register, or the MGA's public licence search — and search that exact number.
- Confirm the registered operating entity name matches the one named in the casino's terms, not just the brand name you see on the homepage.
- If the licence can't be found, or the entity doesn't match, treat that as a real red flag rather than an oversight.
Two brands operating across African markets illustrate how this plays out in practice. Stake and 22Bet both publish licence details in their terms, and both are discussed, market by market, in our regional reviews — see how payments and local rules work for Kenyan, Nigerian, Tanzanian and Ghanaian players, which is a useful comparison point even for South African readers weighing up how different offshore operators handle similar regulatory questions; our overview of how the continent gambles covers this in more depth.
The bottom line for SA players
A Curaçao, Malta or Anjouan licence tells you an operator is supervised by somebody — but the depth of that supervision, and your options if a dispute goes wrong, differ significantly between regimes. None of these licences make play legal under South African law; they simply tell you which overseas authority, if any, has oversight of the operator you're dealing with. Checking the licence number against the regulator's own register takes a few minutes and is the only way to know the claim is current rather than copied text in a footer.
Online gambling carries financial risk regardless of licence quality. If you gamble, set a budget you can afford to lose, keep track of time spent playing, and seek support through a service like the National Responsible Gambling Programme (0800 006 008) if it stops feeling like entertainment.