Guide
How to check whether an online casino licence is real
Three checks on the regulator’s own register show whether a casino’s licence is real and covers the site you use. None of the ten brands we checked passed all three.
The short answer
Find the licence line on the exact site you use, look the number and company up on the regulator’s own register, and check that the register lists the domain in your address bar. It takes about ten minutes, and when we did it for ten brands on 28 October 2026, not one passed all three steps. No foreign licence makes an online casino legal in Malaysia.[28]
Step 1: find the claim on the site you actually use
Scroll to the footer and open the terms. You want three things: the regulator, a licence number and the operating company. Read them on the Malaysian page itself, not a portal, a sister site or a review site. BK8 shows why: its main site names an Anjouan licence, but the page its Malaysia option opens claims a Curaçao licence instead.[57][60] W88 shows the other trap: the company name sits in a hidden HTML comment, while the visible terms name no regulator at all.[101][102]
Step 2: look it up on the register
The three regulators that come up most often for Malaysian-facing brands each publish a register. Curaçao’s Gaming Authority publishes its online gaming licence registry as a dated PDF, and warns that the overview does not guarantee a licence is currently valid.[46][47] Anjouan publishes a searchable licence register.[61] The Tobique Gaming Commission lists its licence holders.[105]
Match the number and the company exactly, then read the status. “Valid” or “Indefinite” is what you want to see; Dafabet’s entry, for example, showed a term that ended on 15 October 2026 and an assessment in progress.[68] A number that is not on the register at all, like the #1168/JAZ quoted by Starbuck88, is a claim you cannot rely on.[95][99]
Step 3: check the domain
A licence covers named domains. Anjouan’s register lists them; me88’s licence, for instance, lists me88.com and me88pro.net but not me88myelite.com, the site where Malaysians play, and Anjouan’s own validator returned INVALID for it.[78][80] Curaçao’s registry has no domain column and Tobique publishes no domains, so for those licences this step cannot be completed from the register.[46][105] If the step fails, the licence cannot show it covers the site in front of you.
Step 4: read the result honestly
Even a full pass tells you only that a foreign regulator lists the operator. It does not make playing lawful in Malaysia, give you a Malaysian regulator to complain to, or guarantee a withdrawal. Our results for all ten brands are on the comparison table, and the method page sets out the six checks we use.
Questions readers ask
How do I check if an online casino licence is real?
Find the licence number and company on the exact site you use, look them up on the regulator’s own register, and check that the register lists that site’s domain.
Does a Curaçao or Anjouan licence make a casino legal in Malaysia?
No. No online casino holds a Malaysian licence, and the Court of Appeal ruled in 2023 that online gambling is an offence under the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953.
Why can a valid licence still fail the check?
Because a licence covers named domains. If the register does not list the site you are using, the licence cannot show it covers that site.
Sources
- Online gambling an offence under existing law, rules court (18 Oct 2023)
- Curaçao Gaming Authority - Online Gaming License Registry (last updated 20 October 2026)
- License register
- BK8 home (www.bk8.com redirects here)
- BK8 | Trusted Online Casino in Malaysia
- Licence register
- Curaçao Gaming Authority - Online Gaming License Registry (last updated 20 October 2026)
- License Register | Anjouan Gaming
- Anjouan Gaming Validation Page
- Starbucks88 | Malaysia Trusted Online Casino | Free Credit
- Curaçao Gaming Authority - Online Gaming License Registry (last updated October 20, 2026)
- Terms of Use (en-my)
- Terms of Use (en-my) — HTML comment, not shown to players
- License Holders