- Can the licence reach your players?Markets that require their own licence are not covered by an offshore one. No → drop the jurisdiction
- Is the market open to new applicants?Check the regulator's own site, not a vendor deck. No → drop it
- How long until you can trade?From a few weeks to several months, depending on the regulator. Longer than your cash plan allows → drop it
- What substance is needed on the ground?Local company, directors, key people, premises. Unaffordable for the full term → drop it
- How long does the licence last?From one year to indefinite. Short term → add renewals to the cost
- Will banks and payment providers accept it?Ask two or three of them and get the answer in writing. No written yes → drop it
- Only now, compare the moneyFees and gaming tax over three years at your forecast revenue. Choose from what is left
1. Can the licence reach your players?
Start with the markets, not the regulator. A licence from Curaçao, Malta, the Isle of Man or Alderney does not allow you to take customers from Great Britain, which requires a Gambling Commission licence. A Maltese licence does not passport across the EU, because member states license gambling nationally. National licences such as Estonia's, Sweden's or Romania's cover their own market only.
Decision rule: list the countries your players will come from, mark the ones that require their own licence, and drop every jurisdiction that does not cover the rest.
2. Is the market open to new applicants?
A licence that exists on paper may not be available. Spain grants general licences only through ministerial calls; the latest ran from 17 December 2017 to 17 December 2018 and none has opened since. Buenos Aires Province capped online licences at seven and awarded all of them by the end of 2020. Mexico has no stand-alone online licence at all; online betting runs under establishment permits that are rarely granted.
Decision rule: confirm on the regulator's own site that applications are being accepted now.
3. How long until you can trade?
| Jurisdiction | Typical or statutory timeline |
|---|---|
| Alderney | roughly 4–12 weeks from a complete application |
| Isle of Man | typically 10–12 weeks after the acceptance letter |
| Curaçao | about 3–4 months across two review phases |
| Estonia | up to 4–6 months for the activity licence and 2–4 months for the operating permit |
| Romania | a decision within 30 days of complete documentation; advisers report about three months of preparation before filing |
Malta adds a step after the grant: the licensee has 90 days to go live and must complete a compliance audit within 90 days of going live.
Decision rule: put the timeline into the cash-flow plan. Staff, servers and rent are paid while the file is under review.
4. What substance do you need on the ground?
- Curaçao: a local NV or BV managed by a Curaçao resident, a full-time key person on the island and local premises; new B2C operators below ANG 20 million of gross gaming revenue are exempt from the key-person and premises requirements for three fiscal years.
- Isle of Man: an island company with at least two local directors and a resident designated official; B2C player-registration servers must sit on the island.
- Estonia: a company registered in Estonia or another EU state with share capital of at least EUR 1 million for games of chance.
- Spain: a sociedad anónima or equivalent EEA company whose sole object is gambling, with a permanent representative in Spain if its seat is abroad.
Decision rule: cost the people and premises for the full licence term, not only for the application.
5. How long does the licence last?
Terms differ widely. Malta grants ten years and Spain's general licence also runs ten years, renewable. The Isle of Man grants an initial five years. A Curaçao licence is indefinite, with a flat annual fee instead of renewals. Cyprus issues betting licences for one or two years and renews them by a fresh application with the same fee.
6. Will banks and payment providers work with you?
This is the question no regulator answers for you. Before committing, ask two or three payment providers and a bank which licences they accept for merchant onboarding in your target markets, and get the answer in writing. A licence that your payment partners will not accept is a licence you cannot use.
7. Only now, compare the money
With the shortlist reduced, compare application fees, annual fees, revenue-based charges and gaming tax over three years at your forecast revenue. Check each figure on the regulator's site before filing, since rates change: Malta's gaming tax moved to 15% for Type 1 services on 1 October 2026, and Estonia cut its remote gambling tax from 6% to 5.5% for 2026, effective in practice from 1 March 2026 after a drafting gap.
For step 1 and step 2, an overview of gambling laws and licensing by country with regulators and sources is maintained by Gambling Law Index. Timelines and requirements above were checked against regulators and legal texts in September and October 2026 and re-checked on 26 October 2026.