The Alderney Gambling Control Commission

What the AGCC is and what it licenses

Alderney is a small island in the Channel Islands, and its Gambling Control Commission is one of the older offshore online gambling regulators. It does not run casinos, lotteries or sportsbooks itself. It licenses the companies that do, and it keeps a register of who holds what.

The practical point for you as a player is simple. When you see an Alderney license number in a site footer, you are looking at a claim that the operator was vetted by a regulator in a jurisdiction most players will never visit. That is worth something, but it is not the same as the site being legal for you to use, and it is not the same as the site being safe in every respect. It is one piece of evidence among several.

Alderney's licensees are overwhelmingly online businesses. The island has no land-based casino industry of the kind you would find in Macau or Singapore, and the AGCC's work is about remote gambling: sportsbooks, casino games, poker and the software that powers them.

Alderney's two license types: B2C and B2B

Alderney splits its eGambling licensing into two broad categories, and the distinction matters when you are trying to work out what a particular license actually covers.

B2C means business to consumer. A B2C licensee deals directly with players: you open an account, you deposit, you bet, you withdraw. If a site you are using holds a B2C license, that is the category that applies to your relationship with it¹.

B2B means business to business. A B2B licensee supplies something to other operators rather than to you: a casino platform, a sportsbook engine, a payment service, a live dealer studio. You will never hold an account with a B2B licensee, but the games you play may run on its software.

This split is common across offshore regulators, and it is worth understanding because it explains a confusing thing you will see on some sites. A casino page may list several license numbers, and only one of them is the one that covers your account. The others belong to suppliers. If you are checking whether a site is licensed to take your bets, you want the B2C entry, and you want it to name the domain you are actually on.

For a wider look at how these categories work across different regulators, see types of gambling licenses explained.

How to check an Alderney license

Checking is not hard, but it has to be done in the right place. The casino's own marketing page is not evidence. The regulator's register is.

The method is the same one that works for any regulator. Find the license number and the company name in the site footer or the terms and conditions. Then go to the regulator's public register and search for that company. Confirm three things: the company name matches, the license type matches what the site is doing, and the domain you are using is listed⁴.

That last point catches more problems than the others. Licenses are granted to companies and to specific domains. A group may hold a license for one brand and not another, and a site can quietly display a group license while operating under a different domain that is not covered. If the domain in your address bar is not on the register entry, the license does not cover the site you are on.

The same discipline applies to any regulator. The UK Gambling Commission, for instance, tells players to check that the business holds a license and that the details, including activities and website domain names, match the public register before transferring money into a gambling account⁴. That is good advice regardless of which regulator you are checking.

If you want the general method rather than the Alderney-specific version, see how to check if a casino, betting site or lottery is licensed and public gambling license registers.

Player protection and dispute handling

An Alderney license comes with obligations. The ones you will actually notice are age rules and complaint routes.

Alderney licensees may not permit anyone under 18 to play². That is the operator's duty, and it applies whether or not you think you look old enough. If you are asked for documents at withdrawal time, this is usually why.

On the protection side, licensed operators are expected to do more than take bets. Regulators in this space generally require patron education and help services, and assistance to customers who ask for help with gambling problems or who show signs of problem gambling⁵. In Hong Kong, for example, football betting licensees must provide contact details of problem gambling counseling services on request⁶. The exact requirements differ by regulator, but the direction is the same: a licensed operator should have a route for a player who wants to stop or needs help.

Disputes are the other half. If you have a genuine complaint against an Alderney licensee, the AGCC has a player complaints process². The practical sequence is the one that works with any regulator:

1. Complain to the operator first, in writing, through its support channel.
2. Keep the reference number and every message.
3. Give the operator a reasonable window to answer, usually stated in its terms.
4. If it does not resolve the issue, take it to the regulator with the full paper trail.

The regulator will not usually reopen a case you have not raised with the operator first, and it will not help at all if the site is not one of its licensees. If your complaint is against a site licensed somewhere else, you need that regulator instead. Our guide to complaining to the AGCC walks through the Alderney route, and how to complain to a gambling regulator covers the general process.

Where Alderney-licensed sites accept players in Asia

This is where the license stops being interesting and your own situation starts to matter.

Alderney-licensed sites, like most offshore operators, accept players from a long list of countries. Offshore casinos commonly welcome players from Japan⁷. One operator's country-of-residence dropdown includes Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, among others⁸. Others advertise player pools across Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam⁹, or market to Malaysia¹⁰ and across Asia and Latin America¹¹.

So the operator will usually take you. The question is whether you may play.

That depends entirely on the law where you are sitting, and it varies sharply across the region.

In Japan, gambling online by connecting from Japan is a crime regardless of whether it is legal in the country where the server sits, and police enforce it³. That applies to residents and visitors alike while they are in Japan.

In India, online gambling is illegal under the Information Technology Act, 2000¹², and real-money skill gaming is banned outright in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana¹³.

In South Africa, the National Gambling Act 7 of 2004 is the only law surrounding gambling, legal gambling is defined only for land-based venues, and online poker sits in a gray area¹⁴.

The pattern to take away is that an Alderney license tells you nothing about your own legality. It is the operator's permission slip, issued by a regulator in a jurisdiction you are not in. Your position is set by your local law, and in several Asian countries that law is restrictive. If you want the country-by-country picture, start with can I gamble in Japan?, can I gamble in India? or can I gamble in Singapore?.

What an Alderney license does not cover

It is worth being blunt about the limits, because license badges are used to imply more than they deliver.

It does not make your play legal. A license regulates the operator. It does not change the law in your country. In Japan, playing on offshore casino websites is illegal, and players have been prosecuted³.

It does not cover land-based casinos. Alderney's remit is remote gambling. If you walk into a casino in Macau, Singapore or Manila, the Alderney license on some website is irrelevant to what happens there. Land-based gambling is governed by local licensing, and in Singapore the regulator's harm minimization work sits with the Gambling Regulatory Authority⁵.

It does not cover other operators in the same group. Brands under one parent company can hold licenses from different regulators, or none. A Gibraltar register entry, for example, lists brands such as 777, 888, 888 Casino, 888 Poker and 888 Sport under one company¹⁵, and another lists Ladbrokes, Coral, Gala Bingo, Gala Casino and Gala Spins under a different licensee¹⁶. Seeing a familiar brand name tells you nothing about which regulator stands behind the specific site you are using.

It does not guarantee a payout. Licensing raises the odds that there is a process if something goes wrong. It does not remove the risk that an operator fails, disputes your withdrawal or closes your account under its terms.

It does not extend to everything a site does. Regulators carve out categories. Singapore's Gambling Control Act 2022, for instance, states that a particular section does not extend to conduct within a casino or to a class licensee providing a gambling service under a class license¹⁷. Every licensing regime has edges like this, and the edges are where disputes live.

It does not mean the site is honest about its license. Fake and cloned license claims are common enough that checking the register is the only reliable test. Our page on fake gambling license claims covers the tells.

Questions players ask about Alderney

Is Alderney the same as the UK Gambling Commission? No. They are separate regulators in separate places with separate registers. A site may hold one, the other or both, and each register lists only the licenses that regulator has issued. A site claiming a UK license appears on the UK Gambling Commission public register.

Does an Alderney license mean the games are fair? It means the operator is subject to Alderney's rules, which include the standards the Commission sets for its licensees. It does not mean every game has been independently audited by a third party. If fairness testing matters to you, look for audit certificates as well, and see how to check RNG fairness audits.

Can I complain to the AGCC if the site is licensed elsewhere? No. The AGCC can only act against its own licensees. Check the register first, then complain to the right regulator. If the site holds a Malta license, that is the Malta Gaming Authority complaint route; if it holds a Gibraltar license, it is the Gibraltar route.

What if the site has no license at all? Then you have no regulator to appeal to, and the practical risks rise sharply. Our page on the risks of playing on unlicensed sites sets out what you are giving up.

Does an Alderney license protect me if I am in Asia? Only in the sense that the operator answers to a regulator. It does not change your local law, and it does not give you a route to a local court or authority. If your local law prohibits online gambling, the license does not shield you.