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Internet Gambling Licenses

In order for an online casino to be legal, they must possess a license from a legal jurisdiction. But if you are new, how do you know what a legal jurisdiction is?


First, a jurisdiction is a government of a particular place (most times offshore) that charge a fee for a license and in return agree to ‘police’ the sites they give a license to for adhesion to local gambling laws and fairness and honesty practices. So this is a win-win situation for both the casino in question (who get a legal license) and for the government and people of the jurisdiction (who get the steady stream of income to boost their economy).


Though the majority of online casinos are honest and fair, there are some that are not. They may either illicitly say they are a licensee of a jurisdiction (possibly even using the seal of that place) or may not even display a seal at all, hoping that people either don’t notice, don’t know they should have one, or don’t care. But you can avoid being had by these places by making sure they have a license. Here is a list of the most common jurisdictions that an online casino may get a license from. Please not that this list is long but not exhaustive. But it gives you a great jumping-off point with which to work, since the majority of all jurisdictional licenses are acquired through one of these:


* AFRICA: Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, South Africa


* PACIFIC/ASIA: Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, India, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam


* CARIBBEAN: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Netherland Antilles (Curacau), St. Kitts and Nevis, US Virgin Islands


* CENTRAL AMERICA: Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua


* EUROPE: Alderney, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Gibralter, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Mann, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK (Great Britain)


* MIDDLE EAST: Cyprus, Israel


* NORTH AMERICA: Canada (Kahnawake, Saskatchewan), New Jersey, Louisiana, Oregon, Washington


* SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Venezuela