How to Check Whether a Poker Site Is Licensed in Your Country

Confirm that an online poker room is licensed where you live by checking the regulator's public register, not the badge in the site's footer.

Verified 9 September 2026

Every poker site claims to be licensed somewhere. What counts is whether it is licensed where you live, because that is the only licence that gives you a regulator to complain to and a legal guarantee that your balance is protected. The check takes about five minutes.

Start at the regulator’s register

A licence badge in a site footer proves nothing, because anyone can copy one. Every regulator on this site publishes a searchable register:

  • Germany: the GGL whitelist at gluecksspiel-behoerde.de.
  • United Kingdom: the Gambling Commission public register.
  • Spain: the DGOJ list of licensed operators.
  • France: the ANJ list of approved operators.
  • Italy: ADM’s list of concessionaires with GAD numbers.
  • Netherlands: the KSA register of licence holders.
  • Ontario: iGaming Ontario’s registered operators page.

The country pages on this site link to each register in the facts box at the top.

Match the exact domain

Licences are granted per domain. pokerstars.de is on the German whitelist and pokerstars.com is not. If the register lists a .es, .it or .nl domain, that domain is the only legal one for you, even when the same brand runs a global site that will happily take your registration.

Check that the licence covers poker

Several regulators license products separately. A German brand can hold a slots licence and no poker permission at all. In France the poker agrément is separate from betting. Look for the product column in the register, or for a poker entry of its own.

A site licensed in your country has to connect to the national self-exclusion scheme: OASIS in Germany, GamStop in the UK, CRUKS in the Netherlands, RGIAJ in Spain, Spelpaus in Sweden, ROFUS in Denmark. If the responsible-gambling page never mentions it, the site is not operating under your regulator.

If a site fails the check

Play elsewhere. Every regulated market we cover has at least one licensed poker room, and the country pages list all of them. An unlicensed site can pay out for years and then stop, and no regulator will take your call when it does.