Why the register matters
Any company offering gambling to people in Great Britain needs a licence from the Gambling Commission. Advertising or offering gambling without one is a criminal offence, so the register is the one source that settles whether a site is allowed to take your money. It is free to search: open the Gambling Commission public register (opens in a new tab) and type a brand or a company name.
A logo in a website footer proves little on its own. Anyone can paste a badge onto a page; only the register shows whether the licence behind it exists and is current.
The fields, in the order you meet them
Licence holder. The legal name of the company that holds the licence. It is often not the brand you know: many brands are run by a company with a plain corporate name, and one company can run several brands.
Account number. A short number that identifies the licence holder on the register. We print it beside every brand in our index and link it to the entry.
Status. The word that matters most. You want to read Active. Other states, such as surrendered, revoked or suspended, mean the company may not offer gambling to people in Great Britain at the moment.
Licence and activities. The licence number and what it permits: casino, betting on real events, betting on virtual events, bingo, pool betting and so on. A company licensed only for betting cannot legally run a casino under that licence.
Trading names and domains. The brands and web addresses the company uses. This is how you tie the website in your browser to the licence on the register.
Regulatory action. Where the Commission has fined a company or added conditions to its licence, the entry or the Commission's news pages say so.
Three checks before you sign up
First, the status reads Active. Second, the address in your browser bar appears among the domains on the entry, letter for letter; copycat sites often use a near miss. Third, the activity matches what you want to do, for example Casino for slots.
If any of the three fails, do not deposit. If you think a site is offering gambling without a licence, you can report it to the Gambling Commission.
How Gambling Atlas uses the register
Every operator in our index was matched to its register entry when we last checked it, and the date of that check is printed on its entry page. Licences can change between our checks, so the register itself is always the final word.