Alderney Gambling License
Updated: 2025
Alderney is an island located in the English Channel about 8 miles off the coast of France.
It is a self-governing dependency of the British Crown and the respected home of the Gambling Control Commission. The commission, which was established in 2000, is responsible for licensing and regulating some of the biggest names in online gambling.
Alderney is allowed to advertise in the UK, being a member of the whitelisted Gambling Commission in the UK. Just being on the whitelist lends Alderney many credits as a place where gambling can be regulated in a legitimate way. Alderney is also home to a number of famous gambling operations that, by and large, have conducted their business in a decent and good-faith manner for a very long time.
Any site carrying a license from Alderney is very likely to be a safe site for customers to engage in online gaming. The one stain on the commission's record is the demise of Full Tilt Poker in 2011. This involved a real and surreptitious transfer of funds that didn't show up in the accounting records that Alderney was reviewing. As a conseqe, without knowing it, Alderney carried the illusion that Full Tilt was a safe site.
Aside from that unpleasant episode, Alderney has a clean slate as a regulator. It is neither easy nor inexpensive to acquire a license from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. Only companies that are financially sound and fully able to provide fair games win awards to licenses.
Licensing Process
To obtain an egambling license, an applicant must first form a company that is registered in Alderney. The company must then give public notice of its intention to apply for an online gambling license in the Alderney Gazette. Next, the applicant must fill out the application form that can be found on the website of the Gambling Control Commission and submit the form along with a deposit of £10,000.
After the submission of the application and deposit, the chief inspector of the commission will gather with the applicant to confer over the business plan, to engage with the applicant's top directors and executives, to hash out any necessary details about corporate entities connected to the new business, and to meet with any key personnel who may need to obtain individual certifications.
Subsequent to this meeting, the Gambling Control Board will evaluate the application and will factor in the face-to-face meeting into its deliberation. The Board will also look at the internal controls of the gambling operation, the gambling software, and the finances of the operation. If the Board decides to grant a license, it notifies the applicant in writing, and the applicant can then start operating.
The firm's finances will be under the watchful eye of the Gambling Control Board. The gambling site must always have a cash balance greater than the total balance of all players and must always exceed liabilities by at least 25%.
The board will additionally check the gambling site now and then, with financial inspections and independent audits that confirm the site offers genuinely random and fair games. Every such site must pass these tests, and they are an absolute prerequisite for offering even the most basic casino games. Alderney also monitors each site to ensure it retains agreeable terms and conditions, takes steps to keep minors from gambling, and has systems in place to combat money laundering.
Gambling websites that are licensed in the UK must pay a flat fee of £35,000 for their first year of operation. For any year that follows, the figure they pay is contingent upon last year's "net gaming yield." That is, if these sites are making a lot of money, then they pay a lot in fees. And vice versa. The annual fee can thus range from £35,000 to £140,000.
In the wake of the Full Tilt Poker scandal of 2011, Alderney enacted new laws mandating that online gaming companies keep player money in separate bank accounts from the accounts used for the day-to-day operations of the sites.
Final Word
We do not have the practice of mindlessly endorsing gambling regulatory bodies, so it should carry some weight when we say that Alderney is as solid as they come. Alderney is NOT one of those jurisdictions that you sometimes come across that issue licenses to anyone who can barely manage a heartbeat.
The applicants must demonstrate to the gambling commission their financial and technical ability to provide a safe and legal environment for real money players from all over the world. If your site has a license from Alderney, you should feel quite comfortable playing there. You can go to the Alderney website any time to see an up-to-date list of current licensees or to get in touch with them through phone or email. All of their information is below:
- Website: http://www.gamblingcontrol.org/
- E-Mail: [email protected]
- Phone: +44 (0)1481 823978
