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If you play at crypto casinos, two names keep turning up in the small print at the bottom of the page: Anjouan and Curaçao. Both are offshore licensing jurisdictions, both have become extremely common in the crypto era, and neither offers the protection a European regulator does. But they are not identical, and the difference has practical consequences for what happens when something goes wrong. This is a plain-language guide to what each licence actually covers, using the operators we have opened, funded and tested ourselves.
Why licensing suddenly matters more
For most of online gambling’s history, the licence a player cared about was Malta, the UK or a Nordic authority — strict regimes with real player protection. The crypto boom changed the map. A new wave of casinos launched fast, took deposits in coins, and based themselves wherever a licence was cheap and quick to obtain. That is how Anjouan and the post-2024 Curaçao regime came to power a huge share of the sites you now see advertised. Understanding them is no longer a niche concern; it is the single most important safety question for anyone playing crypto.
Curaçao after the 2024 overhaul
Curaçao was, for years, the archetype of the light-touch offshore licence, run through a master-and-sub-licence system where a handful of master licensees sub-licensed hundreds of operators with little oversight. In 2024 the jurisdiction overhauled that, replacing it with direct licences issued by a single authority, the Curaçao Gaming Authority. Stake, the biggest name in crypto gambling, now runs on a licence under this newer regime (OGL/2024/1451/0918).
The new system is a genuine step up. Direct licensing means the authority actually knows who it has licensed, and there is at least a nominal supervisory body rather than a chain of intermediaries. But it is a step up from a very low base. It still does not deliver the enforced deposit limits, independent dispute adjudication and audited fairness a European licence guarantees, and Stake’s own review record — polarised, with recurring complaints about verification holds — shows the ceiling of what this level of oversight prevents.
Anjouan, the newer offshore option
Anjouan, an island in the Union of the Comoros, has become the go-to jurisdiction for newer crypto brands, largely because a licence is fast and inexpensive to obtain. Two of the operators we rate highly on value hold Anjouan licences: Gamba (ALSI-152512013-F13) and Duel (ALSI-202411026-FI1).
An Anjouan licence lets a site operate legally and publish a licence page naming its operator and number — Gamba is run by Gamba Gaming N.V., Duel by Immortal Snail LLC. That transparency is worth something, and both sites pay quickly and behave well in our testing. But the regulator does not run the player-protection and dispute machinery a stricter authority would. There is no independent adjudicator, and the responsible-gambling tooling on Anjouan sites is typically thin — Duel, for all its genuine 0% edge and fast payouts, offers almost no self-service limits, which we flag plainly in the review.
Anjouan vs Curaçao, side by side
| Anjouan | Curaçao (post-2024) | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical operators | Newer crypto brands (Gamba, Duel) | Established crypto names (Stake) |
| Independent dispute body | No | No |
| Enforced player limits | Rarely | Rarely |
| Operator transparency | Licence number published | Licence number published |
| Oversight vs European regulators | Much lighter | Lighter, improved since 2024 |
The honest summary is that the two are closer to each other than either is to a Malta or Nordic licence. Curaçao’s 2024 reform narrowed the gap slightly, but for a player deciding whether to trust a site, the licence badge alone should not be the deciding factor at either.
What neither licence gives you
Whichever of the two a site holds, three protections you might assume are present usually are not:
- No independent adjudicator. If a withdrawal is unfairly held or a bonus voided on a technicality, the dispute is settled with the operator. There is no external body with power to force a resolution.
- Thin responsible-gambling rules. Deposit, loss and session limits you set yourself are inconsistent and often absent. Sites like Duel pair excellent value with almost no brakes.
- Country restrictions vary widely. Some, such as Stake, restrict 200+ territories; always read the terms for your own country before depositing.
How to protect yourself at an offshore casino
None of this means offshore and crypto casinos are unsafe — many pay faster and behave better than some licensed European sites. It means the licence is not the safety net there that it is elsewhere, so you have to supply some of the protection yourself:
- Read the licensing section of the review before you deposit, and check the tested payout time we recorded.
- Set your own budget and a hard stop, because the site probably will not enforce one for you.
- Hold a stablecoin if you want to avoid price swings on your balance — our crypto payments guide explains why.
- Understand the KYC stance so a check does not surprise you at withdrawal; our KYC guide covers it.
How to check a licence claim yourself
A licence badge in a footer is only worth what you can verify. On a legitimate site, the licence page names the operating company, its registration number and the exact licence number, and often links to a seal you can click to confirm the licence is active. Both Gamba and Duel do this: they name their operator and print an Anjouan licence number, which is the transparency you want to see. A site that shows a licensing logo but no number, no operator name and no clickable seal is failing the most basic test, and that alone is reason enough to walk away before depositing.
The check takes a minute: scroll to the footer, open the licence or “about” page, and confirm three things — a named company, a registration number, and a licence number tied to a real jurisdiction. If any of the three is missing or vague, treat the whole offer with suspicion, however good the bonus looks.
The reputation test: what a licence cannot tell you
Because neither Anjouan nor Curaçao offers strong recourse, the licence tells you a site is legitimate but not that it is good. For that you need the reputation test, which is exactly what our reviews are built around. The most important single data point is the payout record: does the operator actually pay, and how fast? We open, fund and withdraw from every casino we cover and publish the tested time, precisely because the licence will not guarantee it. Community sentiment matters too — a site with a huge, active user base and a mixed-but-transparent reputation, like Stake, is a different proposition from an unknown brand with no track record, even if both hold the same class of licence.
Put the two together and you get a usable rule: the licence is a floor, not a verdict. A well-run Anjouan casino can be a safer bet in practice than a poorly run one on a nominally better licence, because the payout behaviour is what you actually experience.
A short history: how crypto reshaped the licence map
It is worth understanding why this shift happened, because it explains where things are heading. A decade ago, the prestige licences dominated the market and offshore permits were a fringe. Crypto changed the economics: a casino that takes coins does not need banking relationships, which were the main reason operators sought respectable licences in the first place. Freed from that, a new generation of brands optimised for speed and cost, and jurisdictions like Anjouan competed to license them. Curaçao’s 2024 overhaul was, in part, a response — an attempt to modernise and keep the business it was losing to newer rivals. The likely trajectory is more of this: offshore jurisdictions gradually tightening to look more credible, while regulated markets like Finland’s build licensed alternatives. For now, though, the gap between the two remains wide, which is why the checks in this guide still matter.
Does an offshore licence affect you as a player?
A common worry is whether playing at an Anjouan- or Curaçao-licensed site is itself a problem for the player. The licence governs the operator, not you, and it is what lets the site legally provide gambling from its jurisdiction. What actually applies to you as a player is two separate things: your own country’s rules on online gambling, and the site’s restricted-territories list. Those are what determine whether you may open an account, not the specific offshore licence the operator holds. This is why we tell readers to check the terms for their own country on every crypto casino, and why a site like Stake that restricts 200+ territories is a reminder to read before you register, not after.
Tax is a separate matter again and depends entirely on where you live. An offshore licence does not decide your tax position; your national rules do. If winnings are taxable where you are, that obligation exists regardless of which licence the casino holds. When Finland’s own licensing system arrives with the 2027 reform, the tax treatment of play at licensed versus unlicensed sites is one of the things that may change, which is another reason the reform is worth following.
The one-minute safety routine
Pulling it together, here is the routine we would run before depositing at any offshore or crypto casino, regardless of whether it is Anjouan, Curaçao or unlicensed. Open the footer and confirm a named operator, a registration number and a licence number. Read the bonus and withdrawal terms, and the restricted-territories list for your country. Check the tested payout time and licence notes in our review. Set a deposit budget and a stop before you play, because the site likely will not. Prefer a stablecoin if you do not want price swings on your balance. It takes a couple of minutes, and it replaces the protection the licence itself does not provide — which, at this level of oversight, is most of it.
Why we still review offshore casinos at all
If offshore licences protect players so weakly, a fair question is why we cover these sites instead of steering readers only toward regulated operators. The answer is that this is where a large share of players already are, and pretending otherwise helps no one. A reader who is going to play at a crypto casino is far safer doing it at one we have opened, funded and cashed out from, with the licence, the terms and the tested payout time laid out, than at whatever a search ad points them to. Our job is not to approve or forbid offshore play; it is to make it legible, so that a reader choosing an Anjouan or Curaçao site does it with the same information they would have about a regulated one. That is also why, when the 2027 reform brings Finnish-licensed alternatives, we will review those on exactly the same terms and let readers compare the two head to head.
Frequently asked questions
Is an Anjouan licence safe?
An Anjouan licence lets a site operate legally and usually means it publishes its operator and licence number, but it provides no independent dispute body and little enforced player protection. Treat it as a baseline of legitimacy, not a guarantee, and judge the operator on its payout record and terms.
Is Curaçao better than Anjouan?
Marginally, since Curaçao’s 2024 reform introduced direct licensing and a single authority. But both are light-touch compared with a European regulator, and the practical protection for a player is similar at each.
Which casinos use these licences?
Among the sites we review, Gamba and Duel hold Anjouan licences, and Stake holds a post-2024 Curaçao licence. Each review states the exact number and operator.
Can I get my money back if an offshore casino refuses to pay?
There is no independent adjudicator under either licence, so your recourse is limited to the operator itself and, at most, the licensor. This is the core reason we measure and publish a tested withdrawal time for every casino, and why an operator’s payout reputation matters so much.
For the current picture of which operators pay fairly today, and under which licence, browse our reviewed casino list — and for how a domestic licence would change all of this for Finnish players, see our piece on the 2027 gambling reform.