Online gambling regulators in Europe: who licenses what, and how to check

Six European countries, six different answers to the same question. In the Netherlands one regulator licenses every form of online gambling. In Germany the national authority licenses online slots and poker but is expressly not competent for online roulette or blackjack, which only the individual federal states may authorise. In France online casino games are not licensed at all: every online casino accepting French players is illegal, without exception. Spain splits online from land-based, Italy runs a single concession system, and Greece publishes a licence list while its unified self-exclusion register is still being built.

This page sets out, for each of the six markets, the regulator and what it actually licenses, the public register where you can verify an operator, how the national self-exclusion scheme works and what it cannot reach, the legal minimum age, the advertising rules that bind affiliate sites, the free help lines, and where to take a complaint about an operator.

Two rows of the tables above do most of the work. The domain rule is the fastest legality check that exists in Germany and Spain: both regulators state that a licensed operator’s site must sit on the national top-level domain, so a .com address aimed at German or Spanish players is unlicensed before you look anything up. And the online casino games row is the one most English-language guides get wrong, in two different ways: France licenses no online casino at all, and Germany’s national authority is expressly not the body that licenses one.

How we checked this page

Facts here come from the regulators themselves, not from summaries. Each section names the body it came from, and the whole page carries the date it was read.

• Every URL was requested live on 6 August 2026 with a normal browser user agent, following redirects, and the final address is the one printed here.
• Every phone number was matched against the current text of the organisation that operates the line, not against a directory.
• Legal provisions are cited by article number where we read the statute or the regulator’s own summary of it. Where we relied on a secondary legal database, the section says so and carries a [VERIFY] mark.
• Registers that load their tables through JavaScript were opened in a rendering browser, so the contents could be seen rather than the page shell.
• Nothing here was carried over unchecked from an earlier version. Three resources that circulate widely in affiliate content are wrong in 2026, and they are named below so that nobody copies them again.

Regulators change URLs, help lines change numbers and legislation moves. Treat the verification date as part of the fact.

Netherlands

All Dutch links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

Regulator

Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), the Netherlands Gambling Authority. Established in 2012, an independent administrative body supervising all gambling services in the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, funded by industry levies. Political responsibility for gambling policy sits with the Ministry of Justice and Security.

Site: kansspelautoriteit.nl · in English: kansspelautoriteit.nl/netherlands-gambling-authority. Information line 070 302 13 00, option 1, weekdays 09:00 to 13:00.

What it licenses. Everything: online casino games, online slots, online poker, sports betting, land-based casinos, arcades and lotteries. The Ksa is the single authority.

Since when. The Remote Gambling Act — Wet kansspelen op afstand, “Koa” — took effect in 2021, and the Ksa states the practical date plainly: from 1 October 2021 there are legal online gambling companies in the Netherlands with a Ksa licence, and every other online game offered to players in the Netherlands is illegal.

Licence register

Kansspelwijzer, the Ksa’s public register: kansspelautoriteit.nl/kansspelwijzer. English landing page: kansspelautoriteit.nl/register-licensees.

You can search by company name, website, app or licence number. In the Ksa’s words, the register contains all legal operators by company name, website, app and licence number. The results table loads through JavaScript, so it will look empty in a text-only reader.

Self-exclusion: Cruks

Cruks is the Centraal Register Uitsluiting Kansspelen, the central exclusion register, run by the Ksa itself.

• Register at cruksregister.nl/Gokstop, signing in with DigiD
• Minimum term: six months
• Scope, in the Ksa’s own description: once registered you can no longer gamble with legal Dutch providers, online and in arcades or casinos alike
• Third-party registration: a family member, friend, employer, guardian or administrator can ask the Ksa to enter someone in Cruks when other help has not worked

Checking Cruks is a licence condition for Dutch-licensed operators. An operator without a Dutch licence has no such obligation, no access to the register, and no reason to look.

Two resources to avoid. loketkansspel.nl was renamed and now 301-redirects to openovergokken.nl; content still calling it “Loket Kansspel” in 2026 has not been updated. cruks.nl resolves but is a third-party site whose text still reads that the register does not exist yet. It does. The official address is cruksregister.nl.

Minimum age

18 for all gambling. Separately, the Dutch affiliate code of conduct works to a stricter audience target of 24+, and Dutch advertising rules for the permitted online channels require at least 95% of the people reached to be 24 or older.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

Three layers, and affiliates sit inside all three.

1. No licence, no advertising at all. The Ksa is unambiguous: without a Ksa licence to offer a game of chance in the Netherlands, you may not advertise it in any way whatsoever. It then defines advertising broadly — promotional statements in an interview count, so do bonuses, so does building name recognition through sponsorship.
2. The untargeted advertising ban. Since 1 July 2023 the Besluit ongerichte reclame kansspelen op afstand prohibits remote gambling advertising on TV, on radio, in newspapers and magazines, in public places such as billboards and bus shelters, and inside publicly accessible buildings. Internet, direct mail, on-demand TV, social media and the in-game environment remain permitted under strict conditions, the central one being that at least 95% of the audience reached must be 24 or older. Role models under 25, or with substantial reach among minors or young adults, may not be used.
3. The KVA Code, the Dutch affiliate self-regulation standard — Keurmerk Verantwoorde Affiliates, version dated 24 March 2026. Not statute, but the practical admission ticket to working with Dutch licensees. Point 1.1 permits links only to holders of a Ksa licence. Point 1.2 goes further and bars even non-linking positive coverage: promotional texts, positive reviews, bonus reviews and lists of advantages for operators without a Ksa licence are not allowed, and only objective reporting is. Point 2.6 requires the marking “Wat kost gokken jou? Stop op tijd. 18+” at the top of the page and in the footer. Point 5.3 requires zero gambling promotion on pages about gambling addiction. Point 6.1 requires an advertising opt-out and counts standalone logos, casino screenshots, bonuses and rating figures as advertising. Point 6.2 requires an age wall and the 95%/24+ audience target.

What is coming. On 12 June 2026 the Dutch cabinet announced it wants to go considerably further: a full advertising ban for online gambling, a ban on offering bonuses such as free bets on account creation, an overarching deposit limit with an affordability test before a player may raise it, better tools against illegal supply, and improvements to Cruks including indefinite voluntary registration with no automatic removal and an easier route for relatives and administrators to register someone. These are announced policy intentions, not yet law.

Where to get help

Service	Contact	Notes
OpenOverGokken	0800 24 000 22, free	The national information and help service. English version at openovergokken.nl/en/; self-test at openovergokken.nl/zelftest/; regional help finder at openovergokken.nl/hulpzoeker/
AGOG	agog.nl	Peer support groups, free
Jellinek	jellinek.nl	Addiction treatment

Where to complain about an operator

The Ksa runs two separate forms at kansspelautoriteit.nl/stel-een-vraag-doe-een-melding-over-een-kansspel: one general form for questions and reports, one specifically for Cruks. The Ksa invites reports about unfair play or fraud by providers, illegal gambling offers, admission of players under 18, and incorrect information given by operators. An anonymous submission cannot be answered, so leave contact details if you want a reply.

Germany

All German links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

Germany is the market where the phrase “online casino” causes the most damage, and the regulator says so itself. The GGL runs a whole FAQ section on it, opening with the observation that very few of the online casinos advertised on the internet are legal.

Regulator

Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), the Joint Gambling Authority of the German Länder, a public-law institution based in Halle (Saale).

Site: gluecksspiel-behoerde.de. Address: Hansering 15, 06108 Halle (Saale). Telephone +49 345 52352 0.

What it licenses, and what it does not. This is the distinction that matters.

Product	Who licenses it
Virtual slot games (virtuelle Automatenspiele)	GGL, nationwide
Online poker	GGL, nationwide
Online sports betting and horse race betting	GGL, nationwide
Nationwide social lotteries, class lotteries, commercial game brokerage across several Länder	GGL
Online casino games: roulette, blackjack, baccarat, live-dealer table games	The individual federal states, not the GGL

The legal definition is narrow. Under § 3(1a) sentence 2 GlüStV 2021, “Online-Casinospiele” are virtual reproductions of banker games and live transmissions of a land-based banker game with the possibility of participating over the internet. Under § 22c(1), only a Land may run these itself or grant a limited number of concessions, capped at the number of land-based casino concessions that Land could have issued as at 17 January 2020. The GGL states its own position without hedging: it issues no permits for online casino games and is not responsible for regulating or supervising them.

The practical consequence: as at 26 May 2025 the Länder of Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria had granted five online casino concessions in total. Everything else calling itself a German online casino is either a virtual slots licensee using the wrong word, or unlicensed.

Since when. The Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 has been in force since 1 July 2021. Before it, online slots, poker and casino games were under a general prohibition.

Licence register

The Whitelist: gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/…/uebersicht-erlaubter-anbieter-whitelist. Filterable by game type, showing each provider’s distribution territory and websites, including which authority is responsible for which product.

Two shortcuts the GGL gives players directly.

• Every licensed operator must state on its homepage that it holds a German permit and is supervised by the GGL. It may additionally display the official GGL Prüf- und Erlaubnissiegel.
• The domain test. In the GGL’s words: providers with a state permit in Germany may use the website domain “.de” exclusively, and offers whose domains do not end in “.de” are always gambling offers not permitted in Germany. A non-.de domain aimed at German players is unlicensed, and you do not even need to open the Whitelist.

Self-exclusion: OASIS

OASIS is the nationwide, cross-product player exclusion system, operated by the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt in Hesse on behalf of all Länder, under §§ 8 to 8d GlüStV 2021.

• Information and application: rp-darmstadt.hessen.de/…/spielersperrsystem-oasis
• Player enquiries: spieleranfragenoasis@rpda.hessen.de · service line +49 6151 12 8611, Wednesdays 09:30 to 11:30 and Thursdays 13:00 to 15:00
• Self-exclusion (Selbstsperre) can be requested at any operator or directly at Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt. Requirements: the signed application plus a copy of an identity document. A driving licence is not accepted.
• Third-party exclusion (Fremdsperre) can be requested by an operator’s staff or by relatives and partners, and requires evidence of one of the statutory grounds: risk of gambling addiction, over-indebtedness, failure to meet financial obligations, or stakes out of proportion to income or assets. The person concerned is given an opportunity to comment first.

Duration, which is the detail most summaries get wrong. The default minimum for a self-exclusion is one year. A shorter individual minimum can be requested but cannot fall below three months: Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt gives the example plainly, that a request for two months is accepted and then raised to three by operation of law. A third-party exclusion always carries a minimum of one year.

An exclusion never ends by itself. Removal requires a written application by the excluded person, which can only be filed after the minimum period has expired; an application filed too early is void and must be resubmitted. If no application is made, the exclusion continues indefinitely.

Who must check OASIS. Under § 2(2) to (10) GlüStV 2021: arcade operators, sports betting operators and brokers, lotteries drawn more than twice a week, land-based casinos, commercial game brokers, online horse betting, bookmakers, online casino game operators, online poker operators, virtual slot operators, and operators of gaming machines in bars. The query returns one of two answers, blocked or not blocked, against name, first name and date of birth.

Minimum age

18. § 4(3) GlüStV 2021 states that participation by minors is not permitted, and operators and brokers must ensure minors are excluded.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

Section 5 GlüStV 2021 is short and unusually direct, and three of its provisions land squarely on affiliate sites.

• § 5(1): permit holders may advertise, and may commission third parties to carry out that advertising. An affiliate promoting a German licensee is operating inside that licensee’s permit conditions, not outside them.
• § 5(2), last sentence: advertising which creates the impression of being editorial content is inadmissible. The same subsection bans misleading advertising about odds or prizes, advertising aimed at minors or comparably vulnerable groups, portraying results as influenceable by the player, and presenting gambling as a solution to financial problems.
• § 5(3): no advertising on broadcast media or the internet for virtual slots, online poker and online casino games between 06:00 and 21:00 daily. The GGL lists a breach of this window as a reportable violation on its whistleblowing page.
• § 5(5): personally addressed advertising for products excluded players may not use requires prior consent and a check against the exclusion file before sending. Personally addressed advertising to an excluded player is inadmissible.

Player protection limits worth knowing

Two hard numbers apply to every German licensee and are useful for judging whether a site is really German-licensed.

• A cross-operator deposit limit of €1,000 per calendar month, enforced through the LUGAS limit file. Once reached, further deposits are technically blocked across all operators, not per operator.
• A maximum stake of €1 per spin on legal virtual slot games.

Both are default statutory limits — the GGL publishes a separate FAQ on requests for a raised cross-operator deposit limit and a raised maximum stake, so exceptions exist in defined cases. What does not exist is a German-licensed site that simply ignores them.

Where to get help

Service	Contact	Notes
Check dein Spiel	0800 1 37 27 00, free and anonymous	check-dein-spiel.de · self-test at /tests/selbsttest/ · online counselling at /online-beratung/
BIÖG	bioeg.de	The Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit. It replaced the BZgA on 13 February 2025. Material still crediting “BZgA” is out of date; the service itself is unchanged
GGL counselling directory	gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/…/anlaufstellen-gluecksspielsucht	Regional support services

Where to complain about an operator

The GGL runs a whistleblowing system at gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/…/beschwerden-verstoss-melden for unlicensed online gambling, advertising for unlicensed offers, advertising for licensed offers that breaches the rules, irregularities at licensed offers, and money laundering suspicions.

One limitation, stated by the GGL itself: it does not handle complaints concerning transactions with your own gambling provider.

France

All French links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

France is the outlier of the six, and the single most useful fact on this page for anyone comparing markets: online casino games are not licensed in France at all. Not restricted, not limited to a state monopoly, not pending. Not licensed.

The ANJ says it in one sentence on its own player page: in France all online casino sites are illegal, and an international online casino licence has no recognised legal value there.

That has a practical consequence worth stating clearly. Every “best online casino in France” listing is, by construction, a list of unlicensed sites. There is no legal alternative to compare them against, because the category does not exist in French law.

Regulator

Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), an independent authority reporting to Parliament. Site: anj.fr · in English: anj.fr/english.

What it licenses. Three online categories only: paris sportifs (sports betting), paris hippiques (horse race betting) and jeux de cercle (poker and other circle games). The published operator list shows exactly those categories and nothing else. Separately, the ANJ supervises the two exclusive-rights operators, FDJ and PMU, and oversees the responsible gambling policy of land-based casinos.

Since when. The ANJ describes its own lineage: in 2010 the legislator gave the online gaming regulator ARJEL the status of an independent administrative authority, and the Order of 2 October 2019 reforming gambling regulation broadened the remit and created the ANJ in its current form.

Licence register

Liste des opérateurs agréés: anj.fr/offre-de-jeu-et-marche/operateurs-agrees. Each entry names the licensed company, the site or sites it may run, and the categories it is licensed for.

The ANJ also publishes a blacklist of prohibited gambling sites: anj.fr/liste-noire-des-sites-de-jeux-dargent-et-de-hasard-interdits-en-france.

One warning it gives directly: illegal sites often display the “opérateur agréé” logo to look legitimate. If a site shows that logo but is absent from the list of licensed operators, the logo is fraudulent.

Self-exclusion: interdiction volontaire de jeux

Registration: interdictiondejeux.anj.fr. The ANJ estimates roughly fifteen minutes and requires a copy of a valid passport, ID card or residence permit.

Scope. The ban blocks you from entering a casino or gaming club, from accessing any online gambling site licensed by the ANJ — sports betting, horse race betting and poker — and from FDJ and PMU games played through a player account.

Duration: three years minimum. After three years you may apply to have it lifted. If you do nothing, it stays in force. The procedure is strictly personal and confidential; a legal guardian applying on someone’s behalf must also supply their own ID and the guardianship decision.

One consequence the ANJ flags and most guides omit. A voluntary gambling ban bars you from casinos and gaming clubs, which means it bars you from your workplace if you work in one. It causes the loss of the professional approval required for those roles, and therefore the job; it also blocks recruitment into them. This applies to every role in a gaming establishment that requires approval.

Minimum age

18. The sale of gambling to minors is prohibited, and the ANJ maintains a dedicated minors-protection programme at anj.fr/joueurs/proteger-les-mineurs.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

The content of gambling commercial communications is governed by the décret of 4 November 2020, and the ANJ publishes binding guidelines interpreting it plus non-prescriptive recommendations of good practice.

The layer most relevant to affiliate and influencer content is the set of four charters signed on 7 November 2022, one of which is a charter for responsible digital advertising covering social networks, platforms, mobile applications, websites, influencers and brand ambassadors, signed by every operator licensed in France together with advertising professionals in the Alliance digitale. The television and radio charters, revised under ARCOM, cut gambling advertisements from four to three per advertising break. A poster-advertising charter excludes gambling advertising from the immediate vicinity of schools and addiction treatment facilities. The ANJ reviews implementation annually.

Since online casino games have no legal status in France, promoting them there is promoting an illegal offer. The ANJ’s illegal-supply programme is at anj.fr/lutter-contre-loffre-illegale.

Where to get help

Service	Contact	Notes
Joueurs Info Service	09 74 75 13 13, 08:00 to 02:00, seven days a week	Anonymous, charged as a local call. Run by ADALIS for Santé publique France. Chat available. Self-assessment at joueurs-info-service.fr
Evalujeu	evalujeu.fr	The ANJ’s own self-assessment tool for gambling behaviour
SOS Joueurs	sosjoueurs.org	Association; runs the SELF online programme
Adictel	adictel.com	Listed for completeness only. A hybrid: free tools for players alongside commercial services sold to operators, and no free player help line. Use Joueurs Info Service as the primary French resource

Where to complain about an operator

The ANJ sets out a three-step route at anj.fr/joueurs/resoudre-un-litige.

1. Operator customer service first. A mandatory precondition. Keep screenshots of the exchange.
2. Le médiateur des jeux, at mediateurdesjeuxenligne.fr, which you may approach once the operator has answered unsatisfactorily or twenty days have passed with no reply at all. The mediator handles disputes arising from a contract with an ANJ-licensed operator or an exclusive-rights operator. The proposal is not binding on either party, either side may withdraw at any time, mediation can result in financial compensation, and taking part does not remove your right to go to court.
3. Report to the ANJ if you see practices that look illegal. The ANJ is explicit about what this does and does not do: it cannot obtain compensation for you, and reports are not handled individually, but they can trigger inspections of recurring practices, which can lead the ANJ to refer a case to its sanctions committee. Sanctions available include a warning, financial penalties and withdrawal of the licence.

Spain

All Spanish links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

Regulator

Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling, the Spanish state gambling regulator.

Site: ordenacionjuego.es · in English: ordenacionjuego.es/en. Address: C/ Atocha 3, 28012 Madrid. Telephone 91 571 40 80. Email info@ordenacionjuego.gob.es.

What it licenses. Online gambling at state level: casino games, slots, poker, sports betting, contests. State lotteries are reserved by law to SELAE and ONCE.

What it does not. Land-based gambling, bingo halls, arcades and physical casinos are regulated by each autonomous community and, in the DGOJ’s own words, fall outside the competence of the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego. Spain therefore has the same two-tier structure as Germany, split by channel rather than by product.

Since when. The framework is Ley 13/2011, de regulación del juego. The DGOJ dates the market itself precisely: on 6 June 2012, with the first online gambling authorisations granted, Spain’s legal online gambling market began operating.

A point the DGOJ makes explicitly and that matters to anyone reading operator marketing: authorisations obtained in other states are not valid in Spain. A licence issued elsewhere in the EU or beyond has no effect there.

Licence register

Operadores con licencia: ordenacionjuego.es/operadores-juego/operadores-licencia/operadores.

The DGOJ’s own checklist for players, verbatim in substance:

1. Identify the operator behind the offer.
2. Check the offer is backed by a licence, using the DGOJ’s updated list.
3. If you play over the internet, verify that a .es domain is used, because that is what is required of operators holding a licence.
4. Look for the “juego autorizado” logo.

Self-exclusion: RGIAJ

RGIAJ, the Registro General de Interdicciones de Acceso al Juego, known in Spain as autoprohibición: ordenacionjuego.es/participantes-juego/juego-seguro/rgiaj.

Scope. A DGOJ registration blocks online gambling and, where the relevant rules require it, reserved land-based games such as lotteries, applied at the point of prize payment. Registrations are passed to the autonomous communities for entry in their own prohibition registers.

How to register. Three routes.

• In person, using the RGIAJ form, at any of the registries listed in article 16.4 of Ley 39/2015: public administration electronic registries, post offices, Spanish diplomatic missions and consulates, registry assistance offices, and also at the admission or identification desks of gambling establishments and at National Police stations.
• Online, through the DGOJ’s sede electrónica, which requires a digital certificate.
• By mobile app, “DNIe autoprohibidos”. Currently Android only, and it requires a DNIe 3.0 card plus NFC on the handset.

Duration. The registration is indefinite. Cancellation can be requested only once six months have passed since it was entered. You can request a certificate of your RGIAJ status through the sede electrónica; with a digital certificate it is issued instantly.

A regional caveat. Except where an autonomous community has signed an interconnection agreement with the DGOJ, a registration made directly with a regional register only takes effect within that region. Where an automated interconnection agreement exists, entries in either register replicate into the other. If you want the broadest coverage, register with the DGOJ.

Minimum age

18. Licensed operators must verify identity and age at registration specifically to prevent access by minors.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

The governing instrument is Real Decreto 958/2020, de 3 de noviembre, de comunicaciones comerciales de las actividades de juego. Its five general principles are identification of the commercial communication and the advertiser, veracity, social responsibility, safe gambling, and protection of minors.

Channel-specific rules that reach digital publishers directly:

• Audiovisual media: gambling commercial communications may only be broadcast between 01:00 and 05:00, including during live sports coverage, subject to special rules for contests, deferred lotteries and raffles.
• Information society services — websites and apps: a commercial communication must carry an identifier categorising it as gambling-related, must not overlay the page’s main content, must not block navigation, and must be easy to close or stop.
• Email and equivalent: only with the recipient’s consent, and no commercial communication may be sent to anyone registered in the RGIAJ, anyone who has self-excluded, or anyone showing risk behaviour.
• Video-sharing platforms and social networks: permitted only where tools exist to prevent the communication reaching minors, to let users block or hide pop-up ads, and to control scheduling or audience segmentation.
• Betting tipsters: operators may only sign advertising agreements with tipsters who commit to publishing all of their results in full on the channels where they post their tips, and may not sign such agreements with people who became publicly notable for something other than tipping.

Promoting an unlicensed offer is itself an offence. The DGOJ states that advertising, sponsoring or promoting illegal gambling in any form is prohibited and can constitute a serious infringement with a fine of up to €1 million. Offering unlicensed gambling in Spain is a very serious infringement carrying fines of up to €50 million, disqualification from gambling activity for up to four years, closure of the services used, and interim measures including site blocking and payment blocking.

Where to get help

Service	Contact	Notes
FEJAR	900 200 225, free	fejar.org · English at fejar.org/?lang=en. The federation of rehabilitated gamblers’ associations. Support in Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician and English; includes a test and a self-prohibition section
DGOJ, Juego seguro	ordenacionjuego.es/participantes-juego/juego-seguro	The regulator’s player-protection hub
DGOJ institutions list	/participantes-juego/juego-autorizado/enlaces-interes/instituciones	Directory of organisations to contact about a gambling problem

Do not use jugarbien.es. The domain does not resolve: there is no A record for jugarbien.es or www.jugarbien.es against either 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1, checked 6 August 2026. It still appears in a great deal of affiliate content and in some operator terms.

Where to complain about an operator

The DGOJ handles complaints — reclamaciones — by players against state-level licensed operators, at ordenacionjuego.es/participantes-juego/servicios/denuncias-reclamaciones.

The sequence is fixed. First raise a complaint with the operator’s customer service and ask for the reasons behind its decision, including the contractual clause it relies on. If you disagree with the answer, or receive no answer within one month, you may file a complaint against the operator with the DGOJ. A written submission is required and must include your identity and ID number, contact details, an address for notification, the facts, and what you are asking for.

Separately, denuncias are the route for reporting illegal gambling activity rather than a personal dispute.

Italy

All Italian links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

Regulator

Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), the Customs and Monopolies Agency, under the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Site: adm.gov.it · gambling section: adm.gov.it/portale/giochi · in English: adm.gov.it/portale/en/giochi. Address: Piazza Mastai 12, 00153 Roma.

Path note for anyone maintaining links: several older adm.gov.it/portale/monopoli/giochi/… landing paths now return 404, including the one many guides still cite for the list of authorised sites. The current gambling hub is /portale/giochi. The concessionaire register does still sit under a /portale/monopoli/… path and is reachable; the exact address is below.

What it licenses. ADM is the single authority for gambling in Italy, remote and land-based, and it awards concessions rather than licences. Remote gambling concessions cover casino games, slots, poker and betting under one register; land-based betting outlets and horse race betting are administered by the same agency, which also publishes an outlet finder and an address for reporting unauthorised betting points. Unlike Germany and Spain, product and channel are not split between authorities.

Since when. Remote gambling concessions have existed since the mid-2000s, with casino-type games added later. [VERIFY] We could not confirm the specific commencement years for each product category on adm.gov.it, and the widely repeated dates of 2006 for betting and skill games and 2011 for casino games are taken from secondary sources. Do not publish a year without a primary citation.

Licence register

Concessionari autorizzati al gioco a distanza: the remote gaming concessionaire register on adm.gov.it.

The table lists three columns: concession number, company name, authorised website. It is rendered client-side, so a text-only fetch returns an empty page shell; opened in a rendering browser on 6 August 2026 it returned a full alphabetical list of concessions in the 16000 number range, each tied to a named Italian or EU company and to one specific website address, every one of them on a .it domain.

That is the practical check: concessionaire sites are .it sites, and the concession number is the thing to match. One company may hold several concessions for several brands, which is why matching the website address rather than the brand name is the reliable test.

To report an unauthorised betting outlet, ADM publishes the address puntinonautorizzati@adm.gov.it.

Self-exclusion: RUA

RUA, the Registro Unico degli Autoesclusi, run by ADM.

• Service description: adm.gov.it/portale/-/autoesclusione-dal-gioco-a-distan-2
• The register application itself: arserviziam.adm.gov.it
• Access with SPID through adm.gov.it/portale/loginspid. Without SPID, the request goes to a concessionaire where you already hold an account.

Three modes, which is the Italian system’s distinguishing feature and something no other market on this page offers.

Mode	Effect
Trasversale	Blocks remote gambling with all concessionaires and prevents opening new accounts
Singolo concessionario	Blocks remote gambling with one named concessionaire
Singola categoria di gioco	Blocks one game type, for example fixed-odds sports betting, at one or all concessionaires

Duration, and an unresolved discrepancy. [VERIFY] ADM’s own two systems currently say different things, and both were read on 6 August 2026.

• The service description page states that an indefinite self-exclusion is permanent and can only be revoked after at least nine months, and that a fixed-term self-exclusion runs for a period the player sets, up to 270 days, with no early revocation.
• The RUA application states that a citizen with SPID may request exclusion for a fixed period of 30, 60 or 90 days or for an indefinite period, and that after a fixed period expires the user regains access with no further communication needed.

The same page that carries the three-mode description also carries a legacy paragraph repeating the 30/60/90-day version. Until ADM aligns them, state both and cite both, or state neither.

Minimum age

18.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

Italy has the most restrictive advertising position of the six markets. The so-called Decreto Dignità imposes a general prohibition on advertising and sponsorship of gambling with cash winnings.

[VERIFY] Two things about it are not settled here and are deliberately not asserted: whether the prohibition extends to affiliate marketing and to review sites aimed at Italian consumers that carry no affiliate links, and the extent to which ADM holds a concessionaire responsible for the conduct of its partners. Secondary sources differ on both, and we found no ADM page stating either. Anyone planning commercial activity aimed at Italy should get a legal opinion on the model, not only on the wording of individual pages.

Where to get help

Service	Contact	Notes
Telefono Verde Nazionale	800 55 88 22, free and anonymous	Operated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. ADM itself points players to it, describing it as always active and offering free and anonymous support to people in difficulty because of gambling. ISS gambling hub: iss.it/en/il-gioco-d-azzardo
usciredalgioco	via the ISS gambling hub	An ISS web platform for people who want to stop gambling, in Italian

Do not use giocoresponsabile.it. The domain 301-redirects to admiral.it, a commercial operator site. It is not an independent responsible gambling resource, and it still appears in a large amount of affiliate content and in some operator footers.

Where to complain about an operator

Complaints go to ADM through the “Contatti e assistenza” channels on adm.gov.it. Unauthorised betting outlets have their own reporting address, puntinonautorizzati@adm.gov.it. As in Spain and France, raise the dispute with the concessionaire’s customer service first and keep the correspondence.

Greece

All Greek links and numbers checked 6 August 2026.

Greece differs from the other five in two ways that matter to a player: the minimum age is higher, and there is no working national self-exclusion register yet.

Regulator

Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC), in Greek Επιτροπή Εποπτείας και Ελέγχου Παιγνίων (ΕΕΕΠ).

Site: hgc.gov.gr/en. The former domain gamingcommission.gov.gr now redirects here. Address: 17 Acharnon & Mavrokordatou Square, 104 38 Athens. Telephone +30 211 107 5000. Email info@hgc.gov.gr.

What it licenses. Online gambling including casino games and betting, land-based casinos, and video lottery terminals operated as OPAP PLAY. As at 6 August 2026 the HGC’s own player tool reports 18 licensed gambling operators and more than 14,000 websites on its blacklist.

Since when. [VERIFY] The current online licensing regime dates from a 2019 reform of Law 4002/2011, with the first online licences issued in 2020 and 2021. We could not confirm the reform’s law number, the licence term or the first-issue dates on an hgc.gov.gr page; do not publish those specifics without a primary citation.

Licence register

Greece has two useful tools and one broken link.

1. Website Legality Check at hgc.gov.gr/en/public-players/website-legality-check is the one to use. Enter a website address and it tells you whether the site:

• belongs to a licensed online gambling operator (Whitelist),
• belongs to an affiliate of a licensed operator, or
• appears in the Register of Unlicensed Providers (Blacklist).

The middle category is unusual and worth noting: Greece tracks affiliates of licensed operators as a checkable category in its own right. No other regulator on this page exposes that to the public.

2. Register of Licence Holders (Μητρώο Κατόχων Άδειας), the formal public register, at certifications.gamingcommission.gov.gr. Greek-language only, searchable by licence number, table rendered client-side.

3. The broken one. The HGC’s self-exclusion page tells players the White List is published on the HGC website and links to gamingcommission.gov.gr/index.php/mitroa/white-list. That URL returned 404 on 6 August 2026. Use the Website Legality Check instead.

The HGC’s own framing of what the list means is worth repeating because it sets the evidentiary standard: publication of the list constitutes sufficient notice and proof of the existence of the relevant licence or certification, and only operators included on the White List are licensed by the Hellenic Gaming Commission.

Self-exclusion, and what is missing

Greece has exclusion types but not yet a unified register. The HGC states it plainly: the Unified Register of Excluded Players is under development and preparation by the Hellenic Gaming Commission prior to becoming operational, and until the official launch it is not possible to register players in the Register, nor can their exclusion be automatically and universally applied across all Licence Holders. [VERIFY] No launch date is given.

Until it launches, this is how exclusion actually works.

Type	Duration	How it ends	Applies to
Indefinite self-exclusion	At least one year from the date of exclusion	Never automatic. Only on the player’s request, filed after one year has passed, with a new Participation Agreement and completion of all required procedures	Online gambling, OPAP PLAY VLTs, land-based casinos
Temporary self-exclusion	Set by the player, minimum one month	Automatically, when the player’s chosen period expires	Online gambling, OPAP PLAY VLTs. Not available for land-based casinos
24-hour time-out	24 hours	Automatically	Online gambling
Day Stop	Until 00:00 the same calendar day	Automatically	OPAP PLAY VLTs
Land-based casino exclusion	Mandatory six months from the declaration	Never automatic; only on request by the excluded person	Land-based casinos

Getting a universal exclusion today. Two different procedures, and the difference is not obvious.

• Universal temporary self-exclusion: there is no central route. You must submit a separate temporary self-exclusion request to each licence holder with whom you hold an account.
• Universal indefinite self-exclusion: you may either submit a separate request to each licence holder, or ask the HGC to administer it for you. For the HGC route, send to info@hgc.gov.gr a clear copy of both sides of your identity card or passport, and a solemn declaration bearing an authenticated electronic signature through gov.gr stating which categories you wish to be excluded from — online gambling, OPAP PLAY VLTs, land-based casinos, in any combination — and consenting to the processing of your data. The HGC then notifies all relevant licence holders.

Exclusion may also be initiated by a court-appointed guardian or legal representative, by a court decision, by a reasoned decision of the licence holder, or, for land-based casinos only, by a first-degree relative or spouse.

The HGC adds the limit that applies in every market on this page: in all cases, exclusion applies only to licensed gambling operators.

Minimum age

21 for casino games and betting, not 18. This is the highest threshold of the six markets and the reason a blanket “18+” mark is wrong for Greece.

[VERIFY] The statutory basis is Law 4002/2011, where Article 32(1) restricts participation to natural persons who have completed their twenty-first year and Article 33(1) bars access to gambling venues by minors and by anyone who has not completed their twenty-first year. We obtained those article references and wording from secondary legal databases, not from a .gov.gr source: the HGC’s own minors-protection page states only that participation by minors is prohibited, without naming an age. Confirm against the Government Gazette text before publication.

Advertising rules that bind affiliates

The HGC’s page on protecting minors and vulnerable groups sets out the principles: commercial communication and gambling advertising are subject to restrictions designed to prevent targeted or indirect approaches to minors and other vulnerable groups, and practices that may encourage excessive participation or present gambling as a means of solving financial or personal problems are prohibited. Venues and their digital equivalents must carry clear signage about the prohibition on participation by minors, and breaches attract administrative and criminal sanctions.

Two points specific to affiliates. First, the Website Legality Check treats “affiliate of a licensed operator” as a registered, publicly checkable status, which means affiliate sites are within the regulator’s field of view by design. Second, [VERIFY] secondary sources state that the Greek regulation on commercial communication requires a “21+” marking on gambling advertising; we could not confirm this on an hgc.gov.gr page.

Where to get help

The HGC names two organisations on its support services page, and only two.

Service	Contact	Notes
EOPAE (Εθνικός Οργανισμός Πρόληψης και Αντιμετώπισης Εξαρτήσεων)	1145	eopae.gr describes 1145 as its telephone line for psychological support. Greek-language site, no English version
Ανώνυμοι Τζογαδόροι (Gamblers Anonymous Greece)	anonymoitzogadoroi.gr	Athens: 3 Themistokleous Street, 3rd floor, entrance through the arcade, 10677 Athens, Omonia. Thessaloniki: 19 Odysseos Street, 2nd floor, entrance through the arcade, 54629 Thessaloniki, Vardaris

The HGC also links Gamalyze, a player behaviour self-assessment tool, from hgc.gov.gr/en/public-players/responsible-gaming.

Two naming corrections that circulate widely. The Greek treatment programme is KETHEA ALFA, not “KETHEA-ALPHA”, and the domain kethea-alpha.gr does not respond. The main KETHEA site at kethea.gr could not be reached on 6 August 2026 either: its TLS certificate has expired, so browsers will show a security warning. Until that is fixed, we are not linking it. The HGC does not list KETHEA among its named support services in any case.

Where to complain about an operator

The HGC operates a dedicated electronic complaints platform at hgc.gov.gr/en/public-players/complaints, for reporting violations of legislation, of the terms governing gambling activity, or of players’ rights. A separate channel handles reports of illegal betting locations. The HGC recommends reading the submission instructions first so the report is usable.

How to check if a casino is licensed in your country

Five minutes, in this order. The steps are deliberately ordered by speed: the first two settle most cases before you open any register.

Step 1. Check the domain. In Germany and Spain this is decisive on its own.

• Germany: the GGL states that operators holding a German permit may use the website domain “.de” exclusively, and that any offer on a domain not ending in .de is always unlicensed in Germany.
• Spain: the DGOJ tells players to verify that a .es domain is used, because that is what is required of licensed operators.
• In Italy, every concession in the register is tied to a .it address, and the register shows the exact one.
• In France, every site in the licensed operator register is a .fr site, although the ANJ does not publish a domain rule as such.
• In the Netherlands and Greece there is no domain rule to lean on, so go to step 2.

Step 2. Look for the licence statement on the operator’s own site. German licensees must state on their homepage that they hold a German permit and are supervised by the GGL. Spanish licensees display the “juego autorizado” logo. Dutch licensees carry a licence number. Be careful here: the ANJ warns that illegal sites display the “opérateur agréé” logo fraudulently, so treat any logo as a claim to be verified, not as proof.

Step 3. Search the official register. One per market, and the addresses are in the table at the top of this page.

Search by website address, not brand name. One company often runs several brands under several concessions or licences, and brand names on marketing pages do not always match the entity in the register.

Step 4. Check the product, not just the operator. This is the step most people skip, and in three of six markets it changes the answer.

• France: if the site offers casino games, it is illegal regardless of any licence it holds elsewhere. French licences exist only for sports betting, horse race betting and poker.
• Germany: a GGL permit covers virtual slots, online poker and betting. It does not cover roulette, blackjack or live-dealer table games, which need a concession from an individual Land — and as at 26 May 2025 only five such concessions existed, in Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria.
• Spain: a DGOJ licence covers state-level online gambling only. Land-based venues are licensed by the autonomous communities.

Step 5. Check the blacklist. France and Greece both publish one. The Greek one holds more than 14,000 entries; the French one is at anj.fr/liste-noire-des-sites-de-jeux-dargent-et-de-hasard-interdits-en-france.

A licence from somewhere else is not a licence here. The DGOJ states it directly: authorisations obtained in other states are not valid in Spain. The ANJ says the same about international online casino licences: no recognised legal value in France. Curaçao, Malta, Anjouan and the rest are not answers to the question “is this legal where I live”.

What a national self-exclusion register cannot do

All six schemes share one boundary, and it is the most important paragraph on this page for anyone who has already registered.

A national self-exclusion register only binds operators licensed in that country. Checking the register is a licence condition. An operator without a licence in your country has no such obligation, no access to the register, and no reason to look. The HGC puts it in one line: in all cases, exclusion applies only to licensed gambling operators.

So if you have registered with Cruks, OASIS, RGIAJ, RUA, the ANJ ban list or a Greek licence holder, and you can still open an account somewhere, that is not a bug in the register. It means the site is operating outside your country’s licensing system, and outside every protection that comes with it: no age verification you can rely on, no deposit limits, no exclusion check, no complaints route, no regulator to appeal to.

In that situation the register is not the tool that will help. A device-level blocker works independently of any licence, because it runs on your side:

• BetBlocker: free, funded by charity, blocks tens of thousands of gambling sites across devices
• Gamban: paid, same principle

Blockers are also the answer when the exclusion you set is per-operator rather than national, which today is the situation in Greece for temporary exclusions and in Italy if you choose the single-concessionaire mode.