What an Anjouan License Marked Not Active Means

What a license status marked Not Active means

A license status is a live field, not a permanent badge. When a register shows a license as Not Active, it means the permission is not currently in force. The operator may have let it lapse, may be mid-renewal, may have been suspended, or may never have held it at all and simply copied someone else's seal.

The practical point is simple. A Not Active entry is not a "pending" or "temporarily paused" state you can wait out while you keep playing. Until the register shows the license active again, the operator is not being supervised, and the protections that come with a license are not running.

This matters more with Anjouan than with a heavy regulator, because the Anjouan regime is deliberately light. The Authority has said it does not process individual self-exclusion requests, and it does not provide direct support services to players, instead requiring licensed operators to signpost independent support resources³. So even an active Anjouan license gives you less than a Malta or UK license would. A Not Active one gives you nothing at all.

Who issues Anjouan gambling licenses

The regulator is the Anjouan Gaming Authority, based on the Autonomous Island of Anjouan in the Union of Comoros. It issues Internet Gaming Licenses and describes them as covering online games of chance.

Operators describe the license in slightly different ways, which is normal. CoinPoker says it is licensed by the Government of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan⁵ and elsewhere refers to the Anjouan Gaming Authority⁶. Live Casino House says it is licensed and regulated by the government of the Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Union of Comoros⁷. Rainbet says it is licensed in Anjouan for the provision of online games of chance⁸. Lucky Block cites licensure by the Offshore Finance Authority of the State of Anjouan⁹.

Those are not contradictory in themselves, but they are a reminder to check the register rather than the footer text. The register is the only place where the status is authoritative.

Anjouan licenses are not open to everyone. The license register for ALSI-202412004-FI1 lists excluded territories as Australia, Comoros, France, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA, plus all FATF-blacklisted countries and sanctioned jurisdictions, and any territory the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority deems excluded². If you are in one of those places, the license does not cover you, and disputes from players in excluded territories fall entirely outside the regulator's scope and will not be entertained².

Claims that Anjouan regulators are fictitious entities

Anjouan Internet Gaming License No. ALSI-202412004-FI1 states that disputes, claims or complaints from players in excluded territories fall outside the regulatory scope and will not be entertained².

The Comoros central government has publicly disputed the regulator's standing, and reporting has described Anjouan regulators and license sellers as operating illegally according to Comoros authorities, with more than 1,300 gambling licenses issued at around 17,000 euros per license per year. The same reporting traced the modern licensing operation to domain registrations made in May 2023, one for a gaming control board and one selling gambling licenses.

That does not mean every Anjouan-licensed site is a scam. It means the license is a weak signal. Some established crypto casinos hold Anjouan licenses and operate normally. Others use the seal as decoration. The register tells you which is which for a given brand on a given day.

How to check whether a license is valid

The Anjouan Gaming Authority publishes a verification page. You enter the brand's domain, its license number or its IP address, and the page returns a result.

A valid result looks specific. For coinpoker.com, the validation page generated on September 26, 2026 shows operating status VALID for Precise Interactive Inc under License No. ALSI-202412004-FI1¹. Note the three things that make it checkable: a named company, a license number, and a status word.

If you enter a domain and get no data, the license is likely fake or borrowed¹⁰. That is the single most useful test. A site can display any seal image it likes, but it cannot make the regulator's database return a record that is not there.

A few practical checks:

• Match the company name. The register names a company, not just a brand. If the site's terms name a different company from the one in the register, ask why.
• Match the domain. A license issued for one domain does not cover another.
• Check the date. A validation page is a snapshot. Re-run it rather than trusting a screenshot.
• Look for the direct link. Guidance on spotting fake licenses flags blurry or distorted logo images with no direct link to the licensing body, and a registered company name that differs from the brand name used¹⁰.

For a broader walkthrough of the same process across regulators, see How to Check if a Casino, Betting Site or Lottery Is Licensed and How to Verify an Anjouan Gaming License.

What a Not Active status means for players

If the register shows Not Active, here is what changes in practice.

No regulator will take your complaint. The Anjouan Authority already excludes disputes from players in excluded territories entirely², and it does not run a player support service³. With a lapsed license there is even less to appeal to.

Your account terms still bind you, not them. Operator terms are written to survive a license change. Inactivity clauses are a good example of how one-sided these documents can be.

None of those clauses care whether the license is active. They apply to you either way.

Deposits still work. Nothing technical stops a site with a lapsed license from taking a deposit. That is exactly why the status check matters before you deposit, not after.

Withdrawals get harder. Without a regulator to escalate to, your only routes are the operator's own complaints process, then your bank or card issuer. Both are weaker when the counterparty is offshore and unlicensed.

If you want the general picture of what goes wrong on unlicensed sites, see Risks of Playing on Unlicensed Gambling Sites. If a license has been formally pulled rather than lapsed, What Happens When a Gambling License Is Suspended or Revoked covers that process.

Signs a license may not be legitimate

Beyond the register check, a few patterns show up again and again.

The seal does not link anywhere. A real license claim usually links to the regulator's verification page. Guidance on fake licenses flags exactly this: a blurry or cropped logo, no direct link to the licensing body, and a registered company name that differs from the brand¹⁰.

The license number is generic. With Curaçao, guidance is to ignore generic "8048/JAZ" claims unless you can match company, domain and activity in the public register¹⁷. The same logic applies to Anjouan: a number that does not resolve to your brand on the regulator's page is not your brand's license.

The regulator is the wrong one. Anjouan and Curaçao are different regimes. A Curaçao license number such as CUR-365/JAZ⁴ will never appear in the Anjouan register. If a site mixes seals from several regulators, check each one separately. Anjouan vs Curacao Gambling Licence compares the two directly.

The site claims a license it cannot hold. Some operators state plainly that they do not run online games at all. SJM Holdings says it does not operate any online games, whether as operator or sponsor, and does not take part in any phone or online contests, prizes or lotteries¹⁸. If you see a brand using that name for an online casino, the claim is false.

The terms do not name a regulator. A licensed operator normally names its regulator and license number in its terms. If you cannot find either, that is your answer.

What to do next

Run the register check before you deposit, not after. Enter the domain on the Anjouan verification page and look for a status word, a company name and a license number that all match the site you are on¹.

If the status is Not Active, treat the site as unlicensed. If it is active but you are in an excluded territory such as Australia, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK or the USA, the license does not cover you².

If you are already playing somewhere with a lapsed license and a withdrawal is stuck, gather your account records, the site's terms and any chat logs, then work through the operator's complaints process first. If that fails, your bank or card issuer is the next step. For the wider picture of how complaints work across regulators, see How to Complain to a Gambling Regulator About a Casino or Betting Site and Gambling ADR: How Independent Dispute Resolution Works for Players.