Published on 24 March 2026 • Updated: 4 October 2026 • Reading time: 6 minutes • By the felistragaming.net editorial team
Casino footers list licence names as though they were interchangeable badges. They are not. The gap between an Anjouan licence and a Malta one is not a matter of prestige - it is a difference in what happens to you when a payout is refused. This article sets the main regimes side by side and explains how to verify any of them yourself.
What every licence has in common
Any real licence means three things: the operator is a registered company rather than an anonymous website, it answers to a named authority, and it is expected to run games from certified suppliers whose random number generators have been tested. That baseline matters, and it is the reason the studios behind the games - Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Evolution, Play'n GO and the rest - will supply a licensed operator and not an unlicensed one.
Where the regimes actually diverge
| Regime | Deposit limits | Independent disputes | Segregated funds | Cost of entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malta (MGA) | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
| United Kingdom (UKGC) | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
| Sweden, Denmark, Spain | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
| Curacao (post-2023) | Partly | Yes | Partly | Medium |
| Anjouan (AOFA) | No | Via approved ADR provider, after the operator's own process | No | Low |
Read the second and third columns rather than the first. Mandatory deposit limits protect a player from themselves. An independent dispute body protects them from the operator. Segregated funds protect them from the operator's insolvency. An Anjouan licence mandates neither deposit limits nor segregated funds. On disputes it does provide a route: you complain to the operator first, and if the complaint is not resolved within 30 days you can take it to one of the regulator's approved alternative dispute resolution providers, at the operator's cost. That route is narrower than a European regulator's, and the regulator does not entertain complaints from players in territories the licence does not cover.
This is not the same as saying an Anjouan casino will not pay. Plenty do, routinely. It means that if one does not, your recourse is the operator's complaints process and then an ADR provider - not a regulator that adjudicates on your behalf. The approved providers are listed on the regulator's site: anjouangaming.com.
Curacao changed, and it matters
For years a Curacao licence meant a master licence resold to sub-licensees with almost no oversight. The 2023 reform ended that: operators are now licensed directly by the Curacao Gaming Authority, with a public register and real reporting obligations. A pre-2023 Curacao licence and a post-2023 one are genuinely different things, and reviews written before the reform describe a regime that no longer exists.
How to verify a licence in five minutes
Take the number from the footer and leave the site
A footer claim is a claim. Note the licence number, the holder company and the regulator, then search the regulator's own register. Never follow the operator's own "verified" badge - on many sites it links to an image rather than a record.
Search by company, not only by domain
Most registers store the root domain a licence was filed under. An operator that rotates numbered mirror domains will therefore fail a domain search while being properly registered under its company name. If the domain search is empty, search the company. If both are empty, that is a finding worth weighing.
Compare the entry to the site
The register names a holder, a licence type and a validity period. All three should match the footer. Check the expiry date specifically - a licence in good standing that runs out next month is a different proposition from one with three years left.
What we found for Felistra
The casino's footer names Momentum Gaming Solutions Ltd as the operator of Felistra, under licence number ALSI-152312014-FI3. The register confirms it. A mirror of the Anjouan register (Vantegris License Index, fetched 27 September 2026, vantegris.com, CC BY 4.0) lists that licence for Momentum Gaming Solutions Ltd with status valid, issued 12 December 2023 and expiring 11 December 2026, covering eleven domains including felistragaming.com. On 4 October 2026 the validator linked from the casino's seal also showed the licence as valid. You can check it yourself on the official page: anjouangaming.com.
Three details are worth knowing. First, an earlier version of this article said we could not find the licence: our name search for "felistra" returned nothing because the register lists the holder company and its domains, not the brand - exactly the trap described above. Second, the licence is a group licence covering several brands, not a Felistra-specific one. Third, it expires on 11 December 2026, and on 4 October no renewal was visible yet; check the expiry date again before you deposit. Our licensing page sets out the full picture.
Frequently asked questions
Is an Anjouan licence legitimate?
Yes, it is a real authorisation issued by a real authority in the Comoros. It is also one of the lighter regimes available: no mandatory deposit limits and no segregated-funds requirement, and disputes go to an approved ADR provider only after the operator's own complaints process.
How is Anjouan different from Malta?
Malta imposes deposit limits, an advertising code, segregated player funds and access to an independent adjudicator. Anjouan imposes no deposit limits or segregated funds and offers a narrower dispute route through approved ADR providers. The practical difference appears when a payout is disputed.
How do I check a casino licence myself?
Take the licence number, holder company and regulator from the footer, then search the regulator's own public register by both domain and company name. Compare the holder, licence type and expiry date against what the site claims.