How to check a blackjack app's UKGC licence

The check is the same whether you found the app in a store, through an advert or on a comparison page like ours. Do it before you register, because registering already hands over your personal details.

1. Find the statement. Licensed businesses must display that they are licensed and link to the public register. In an app it is usually in the footer of the home screen, the "About" or "Legal" section, or the terms. It reads along the lines of "licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number" followed by the number.
2. Note the account number and company. Write down the number and the full company name exactly as shown.
3. Search the register. Open the Gambling Commission public register and search the businesses register by account number, or by the company name or the name of the website or app.
4. Read the entry. Check the licence status is current, then look at the address, the trading names and the website domain names listed under it, and at the activities the licence covers. Casino games, which include blackjack, should be among them.
5. Compare. The domain the app connects to, or the site you would use in a browser, should appear among the domains. The brand you see should appear among the trading names.
6. Look for regulatory action. The register also shows whether the Commission has taken action against the business. That does not mean the licence has gone, but it is worth reading.

If anything does not match, stop there. Do not register, and do not deposit.

The ten operators on our blackjack apps list each show their account number and licensed company next to their listing. What counts is that the number, the company and the domain all line up on the register entry.

• Age and identity. Operators must verify age before a customer can deposit funds or gamble with their own money or a bonus. The Commission adds that a customer cannot place a bet until verified, and that ID should not first be demanded when you try to withdraw.
• Fair games. The Commission's remote technical standards require results to be acceptably random and games to run according to the rules and payouts described to you. New products must be tested by an approved test house before release.
• Rules before you stake. The rules of a game, and information that lets you judge your chances, such as the house edge or return to player, must be easy to find before you commit to gamble.
• Deposit limits. The system must offer limits over 24 hours, 7 days and 1 month, stop deposits once a limit is reached, and make you wait at least 24 hours before an increase takes effect.
• Complaints. Every licensee must have a fair complaints process and, if a complaint is not resolved within eight weeks, let you take it to an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, free of charge.
• Your balance. The operator must tell you, in its terms, which of three levels of protection applies to your money if it goes out of business.
• Self-exclusion. GAMSTOP blocks accounts with gambling companies licensed in Great Britain, so a licensed app is covered by it.

Our guide to safer gambling tools lists which limits and time-outs each of the ten operators offers.

• Missing or vague licence wording. "Licensed overseas" or a licence from another regulator does not cover a business offering gambling to people in Great Britain.
• A number that does not resolve. The account number is not on the register, belongs to a different company, or the licence status is not current.
• A domain that is not listed. The app or site runs on an address that does not appear among the domains on the register entry.
• Staking before verification. A licensed operator verifies your age before any deposit. An app that lets you play first and asks for ID only at withdrawal is not following the rules.
• Payments the rules exclude. Since 14 April 2020, gambling businesses in Great Britain may not let customers gamble on borrowed card money. An app that offers it is outside the rules.

The Commission says that a business without its licence is acting illegally, and that major payment providers may withdraw their services from it. If you come across one, you can report it to the Commission confidentially.

If an operator offers its Android app as a download from its own site, the domain check above is the one that matters.