Offshore Gaming License Comparison 2026: Anjouan to Malta

An Anjouan gaming license costs EUR 17,828 a year at the regulator's window and can be on a casino footer within a month. A Malta MGA license costs EUR 30,000 in fixed fees before the compliance contribution even starts, and takes the best part of half a year. Between those two poles sit Nevis, Curacao, Kahnawake and the Isle of Man, and the license you pick decides which payment processors answer your emails, which countries you have to geoblock, and what a buyer will pay for the business later.

This pillar puts all six side by side. Anjouan gets the deepest treatment because it's the license most first-time operators are pricing right now, and because agent quotes for it vary wildly. Published regulator fees are quoted as published; everything else is marked approximate.

Last reviewed: September 2026

Contents

• What the license actually buys you
• Anjouan gaming license
• Nevis gaming license
• Curacao under the LOK regime
• Kahnawake gaming license
• Isle of Man gaming license
• Malta MGA license
• Offshore licensing matrix
• Which license for which operator
• The upgrade path
• How these numbers were checked

What the license actually buys you

In law, a gaming license is permission to run casino, sportsbook, poker or bingo from a jurisdiction. In commerce, it's a trust signal, and that's where the money is. Acquiring banks, PSPs, game studios, affiliate networks and eventual buyers all keep a mental ranking of licenses, and that ranking sets your card processing rate, your rolling reserve, your content deals and your exit multiple. So the honest comparison isn't "cheap versus expensive" but "what does each one open, and what does it close". Three things move with the license:

• Market access. No offshore license opens a locally regulated market. The UK, Ontario, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil and most US states all require their own license, whatever you hold elsewhere. Offshore licenses cover the grey market: countries where online gambling is neither locally licensed nor actively enforced against.
• Payment acceptance. Gambling is already a high-risk merchant category. Layer a young or lightly supervised license on top and tier-one acquirers step back, which is the whole story of high-risk acquiring in iGaming.
• Cost of compliance. The fee schedule is the visible cost. The invisible one is staff, audits, testing labs, local representatives and the working capital tied up in reserves.

Anjouan gaming license

Anjouan is one of the three islands of the Union of the Comoros, off the coast of Mozambique. Its gaming regime went from obscure to everywhere between 2023 and 2025, and it now sits on more new casino footers than any other license except Curacao. The regulator is the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority (AOFA), which runs licensing through Anjouan Licensing Services Inc. (ALSI) and publishes its schedule on the official Anjouan Gaming site. One permit covers online casino, live casino, sports betting, poker, bingo and crypto-enabled gaming. There's a B2C license for operators and a B2B license for suppliers, both at the same fee.

Anjouan gaming license cost

The published number is refreshingly simple. Everything around it is where budgets go wrong.

Two things stand out. Issuance and renewal fees are identical, so year two isn't dramatically cheaper than year one; only the one-off company and consultant work drops away. And the "Anjouan gaming license cost" headlines you'll see online, anything from EUR 15,000 to EUR 33,000, are agent packages with different bundles inside. Ask for the line items.

There's also a supplier-side cost that lands on your partners rather than on you. Since mid-2025 the authority has expected B2B vendors serving Anjouan licensees to hold their own Anjouan B2B license or a recognition letter, published in a public register. Agents quote the recognition route at around EUR 9,500 a year. It mirrors what Curacao did with supplier licensing and it's the reason some smaller studios now ask which license you hold before they'll sign.

Tax is the easy part: agents market Anjouan as 0% on gross gaming revenue, 0% corporate income tax on the licensed company and 0% VAT. Your tax exposure comes from wherever your management, staff and players actually are, not from the island.

Anjouan gaming license timeline

Two to four weeks from a complete file is the honest issuance window, and it's real. The complete file is the catch. Realistically, budget four to eight weeks from the day you engage an agent to the day the license is in hand:

• Week 1 to 2: form the Anjouan company, collect notarised passports, proof of address, bank references and source-of-funds evidence for every director, shareholder and beneficial owner.
• Week 2 to 3: draft the AML/KYC policy, responsible gambling policy and business plan, and arrange the hosting package the authority expects (agents typically bundle an Anjouan-hosted server arrangement; ask what it costs and whether your platform provider supports it).
• Week 3 to 6: submission, due diligence, clarification questions, issuance.

A director with a thin paper trail or a complicated corporate chain above the licensee adds weeks. Due diligence is light by Malta standards, but it isn't zero.

Anjouan gaming license restricted countries

The restricted list sits in your license conditions rather than in a single public statute, and agents publish slightly different versions of it. The core, which every version agrees on, is:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Austria
• Australia
• The Comoros itself
• Every country on the FATF blacklist (Iran, North Korea and Myanmar at the time of writing)
• Anything else the authority adds to its own list

Some schedules add a handful of Caribbean territories. Treat the list as a floor, not a ceiling: in practice you'll also geoblock every locally licensed market, because the local regulator will pursue you and your payment partners enforce their own, longer, list. Where an Anjouan license works, it works in Latin America outside Brazil, most of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Canada outside Ontario, and the parts of Eastern Europe without their own regime.

Registering the Anjouan offshore company

The license is issued to an Anjouan International Business Company. You don't form it yourself: the agent files the incorporation, supplies the registered address and acts as local agent, and the IBC then becomes the licensee. Expect to provide the same KYC pack for the company as for the license, a short memorandum describing the business, and the names of at least one director and the beneficial owners. There's no requirement for resident staff or a physical office, which is exactly why the license is cheap and exactly why banks are cautious about it.

One recurring confusion is worth clearing up. The same authority licenses forex brokers, offshore banks and other financial businesses, so "Anjouan forex license" and "Anjouan gaming license" show up in the same searches. They're separate permits under separate rules. A gaming license doesn't let you offer trading or payment services, and a brokerage license doesn't let you run a casino. If a package promises both under one umbrella, ask which regulation each activity sits under.

Why payment processors hesitate

Holding an Anjouan license and being able to take money are two different achievements. Acquiring banks underwrite gambling as high risk to begin with. Add a jurisdiction that's young, fast and cheap, and the compliance officer at a mainstream PSP sees very little supervisory substance to rely on. The result:

• Mainstream card acquirers, PayPal-style wallets and most EU or UK banks decline outright.
• Specialist high-risk processors will onboard you, at per-transaction rates well above what a Malta or Isle of Man operator pays, and usually with a rolling reserve of 5% to 10% held for months against chargebacks.
• Local payment methods in your target markets may refuse the merchant category, which shows up as lost deposits, not as a fee.

Crypto-first operators route around all of that, and for a crypto-native audience it's a clean fit. The ceiling is that most gambling spend still runs through fiat, so the moment you want cards or bank transfers to reach mainstream players, you're back in the same conversation. Anjouan solves the licensing problem in weeks; it doesn't touch the payments problem.

Platform support is the good news. In the iGamingHub catalog, SoftGamings, Slotegrator, NuxGame, Hub88 and Gamingtec all list Anjouan among the licenses they support. The right order of operations: get a written yes from two shortlisted PSPs, confirm content availability with your aggregator, then buy the license.

Who Anjouan fits

Anjouan makes sense when you're crypto-first, testing a market on a tight budget, or launching a second brand under a parent that already has fiat rails elsewhere. It doesn't suit a fiat-heavy mainstream brand or anyone raising money from investors who read license names. Plan it as a starting line and budget the migration from day one.

Nevis gaming license

Saint Kitts and Nevis has done offshore banking and citizenship by investment for decades, and in 2025 the Nevis Island Administration added online gaming to the list. The Nevis Online Gaming Ordinance 2025 created the Nevis Online Gaming Authority (NOGA), which issues B2C and B2B licenses directly, with no sublicensing layer, and publishes its fee schedule on the authority's own site.

Nevis gaming license cost

That puts Nevis a clear step above Anjouan and a clear step below Curacao on sticker price. The authority hasn't announced a GGR-based gaming tax, and Nevis entities are marketed as paying no local tax on foreign-source income; confirm both with counsel before you model them.

Timeline and requirements

The regulator doesn't publish a processing target. Operators and agents report eight to twelve weeks from a complete file, so budget two to three months plus preparation. The file looks like a lighter Malta application: a Nevis company, a local agent, background checks on directors and beneficial owners, an AML/CTF programme to FATF-style standards, a responsible gambling policy, a business plan, and game certification from a recognised lab.

Markets and payment acceptance

Same rule as every offshore license: no locally regulated market, everything else subject to your own restricted list and your PSPs'. What sets Nevis apart is acceptance. Early reports suggest processors treat a Nevis license more warmly than Anjouan, mostly because the federation has a long offshore-finance track record and the ordinance was written with FATF-style AML in mind. The regime is still too young for a firm rule, and direct card acquiring will usually want six to twelve months of clean processing history whatever the license says.

Check platform support early. No platform vendor in the iGamingHub catalog lists Nevis as a supported license yet, which says more about how recently the regime opened than about vendor policy. Ask your shortlisted platform directly, in writing.

Curacao under the LOK regime

Curacao is the license most operators are actually leaving when they look at Anjouan or Nevis, so it's the natural benchmark. The National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK) came into force on 24 December 2024, the old master-license and sublicense model is gone, and every operator now holds its own license from the Curacao Gaming Authority. The full picture, including the transition rules, is in the Curacao license guide; here's the cost and access summary.

• Application fee: ANG 9,000, roughly EUR 4,500, payable on filing.
• Annual fees: the license fee and the supervisory fee together come to roughly EUR 47,000 a year for a B2C operator, plus about ANG 500 per domain per year and ANG 250 to 500 in due diligence per key person. These figures are widely reported by licensing firms; the authority's own fee policy has been updated more than once since 2024, so check the current sheet.
• Tax: no GGR-based gaming tax under the LOK. Corporate income tax applies to the Curacao company, and the old e-zone concessions aren't something to assume; take local advice.
• Timeline: three to five months from submission in practice, longer if your file is thin.
• Requirements: a local representative, individual AML and responsible gambling obligations, certified games, annual reporting, and B2B suppliers registered in their own right (the supplier licence concept explained in the Curacao supplier licensing piece).
• Restricted markets: the Netherlands and its Caribbean territories, the US, the UK, and every locally licensed market by operation of local law.

Payment acceptance sits in the middle of the table: better than Anjouan, worse than the Isle of Man, and improving as the LOK regime accumulates supervisory history. Realistic year-one budgets run EUR 65,000 to 115,000 all in.

Kahnawake gaming license

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has licensed online gambling from the Mohawk territory near Montreal since 1999, which makes it the oldest name on this list. The operator permit is called a Client Provider Authorization (CPA), and the commission published its fee changes for 2027 in August 2026, which gives an unusually clear view of both current and future costs.

• CPA application fee: USD 35,000 today, inclusive of the first year's annual fee; USD 40,000 from 1 January 2027.
• CPA annual fee: USD 20,000, unchanged.
• Five-year renewal: USD 5,000 today (excluding the annual fee), rising to USD 40,000 inclusive of the annual fee from 2027.
• Key person permit: USD 5,000 on application (USD 6,000 from 2027), USD 1,000 a year.
• Domains: the standard fee covers six domains; extra domains cost USD 500 a year each.
• Tax: no gaming tax on GGR.
• Hosting: licensees host with the commission's approved data centre in Kahnawake, which adds a hosting line to the budget that other jurisdictions don't have.
• Timeline: two to three months for a prepared applicant.
• Restricted markets: the US, the UK, Ontario since the province opened its own regime, and locally licensed markets generally.

Kahnawake's strength is track record. Processors have seen the license for a quarter of a century, the commission runs meaningful due diligence, and acceptance sits closer to the Isle of Man than to Anjouan. The trade-off is front-loaded fees that are about to rise, so anyone starting late in 2026 should model the 2027 schedule. In the iGamingHub catalog, Softswiss lists Kahnawake among its supported licenses, alongside MGA and Curacao.

Isle of Man gaming license

The Isle of Man isn't offshore in the Anjouan sense; it's a Crown dependency whose regulator, the Gambling Supervision Commission, tier-one banks treat as a peer of Malta. It's the credible middle ground: far more demanding than any Caribbean or Indian Ocean license, cheaper to run than Malta, and non-EU, which matters less now that most EU markets license locally anyway. Requirements and fees are on the Isle of Man government site.

• Application fee: GBP 5,000.
• Annual license fee: GBP 35,000 for a full Online Gambling Regulation Act license. The GSC has revised its schedule upward recently, so treat these as the base and check the current sheet. Sub-licenses and network licenses carry their own fees.
• Gambling duty: 1.5% of gross gambling yield up to GBP 20 million a year, 0.5% from GBP 20 million to 40 million, 0.1% above that. That structure is a textbook example of why the tax base matters more than the headline rate.
• Timeline: the GSC targets roughly ten to twelve weeks from a complete application; three to five months all in is realistic.
• Requirements: an Isle of Man company, resident directors, a designated official on the island, protected player funds, a fit-and-proper review of every controller, certified games, and an AML programme with a named reporting officer.
• Restricted markets: the UK (which needs a UKGC license), every locally regulated EU market, the US.

What the extra money buys is acceptance. Tier-one acquirers, mainstream banks and the better affiliate networks all work with Isle of Man licensees, card rates run a point or two below Curacao's, and the GSC has a clear position on crypto deposits rather than a grey one. Year-one budgets land at EUR 80,000 to 140,000 with staff, legal work and testing included. SoftGamings, Slotegrator, NuxGame and Gamingtec all list the Isle of Man alongside Anjouan, a natural fit for an operator planning to move up.

Malta MGA license

The Malta Gaming Authority remains the reference license for European-facing operators, and the most expensive one to run. The fee schedule is published in the Gaming License Fees Regulations under the Gaming Act 2018.

• Application fee: EUR 5,000, non-refundable.
• Fixed annual license fee: EUR 25,000 for a B2C gaming service license.
• Compliance contribution: a sliding percentage of GGR, starting at 1.25% and falling to 0.40% as revenue grows for a Type 1 (casino) license, with a floor of EUR 15,000 and a cap of EUR 375,000 a year.
• Gaming tax: 5% of GGR generated from players based in Malta.
• Timeline: four to six months is realistic, and applications regularly run longer when the authority raises questions.
• Requirements: a Malta company, key function holders including an MLRO and a compliance officer, segregated player funds in an EU bank, a data protection officer, annual audited accounts, certified systems and games, and regular compliance reporting.

Two corrections to common assumptions. An MGA license doesn't passport you into Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain or Italy; each needs its own license. What it buys is tier-one acceptance from banks, PSPs and affiliates, plus legal standing in the shrinking set of European markets without a local regime and across the rest of the world. And the protection Malta offers licensees against foreign judgments, the subject of the Bill 55 dispute, is a live political question in the EU rather than a settled advantage, so don't price it in.

Year-one budgets of EUR 120,000 to 220,000 are normal once staff and audit costs are counted, and compliance is a standing function, not a project. In exchange, MGA operators get the best card rates in the industry, the widest choice of PSPs, and the highest exit multiples: buyers discount offshore-licensed revenue heavily, and a book of MGA or Isle of Man players is the one they'll pay for.

Offshore licensing matrix

Published fees are quoted as published. "Approximate" means the figure comes from agent quotes or widely reported schedules rather than a regulator's page.

Read it top to bottom and the pattern is obvious: fees, timelines and payment acceptance rise together. The outlier is Kahnawake, which charges Isle of Man money for Curacao-tier reach and justifies it with two decades of supervisory history.

Which license for which operator

Choose Anjouan if you're crypto-first, you have under EUR 50,000 for licensing and setup, your players sit in Latin America outside Brazil, Africa or South Asia, and you've already had two PSPs confirm in writing that they'll onboard an Anjouan licensee. Treat it as a twelve-to-eighteen-month license.

Choose Nevis if you have EUR 50,000 to 100,000, you want direct licensing with no sublicense baggage, and your PSP shortlist is warmer to Nevis than to Anjouan. Accept that platform and content partners will ask more questions because the regime is new.

Choose Curacao if your platform, PSPs and content deals are already built around it, or Curacao's name recognition still matters in your markets. The LOK regime costs more than it used to, but leaving working payment rails costs more still.

Choose Kahnawake if you want a license with real supervisory history at Caribbean-plus prices, you can live with hosting in the territory, and Canada outside Ontario is part of your plan. Model the 2027 fees.

Choose the Isle of Man if you have EUR 100,000 to 150,000 in year one, you want tier-one payments and affiliates without Malta's overhead, and you're building toward an exit in three to five years.

Choose Malta if you have EUR 200,000 or more, your business is European-facing, and you expect institutional investors or acquirers to read the footer. Nothing else gives the same commercial terms across payments, content and affiliates.

If you're still at the "which vertical, which platform" stage, the online casino launch guide walks through where licensing sits in the wider budget.

The upgrade path

Most successful operators don't pick one license; they pick a sequence. The pattern iGamingHub sees across platform vendors' client lists is consistent:

1. Year zero to one: Anjouan, Nevis or Curacao. Validate the market, build the compliance muscle, generate the first GGR, learn which payment methods your players actually use.
2. Year one to two: Isle of Man, Kahnawake or a properly run Curacao license. Better card rates, wider PSP choice, affiliate networks that previously declined you.
3. Year three onward: Malta, if the business is European-facing and an exit is on the table.

The migration is the hidden cost of starting cheap. Moving licenses means re-papering PSP contracts, re-integrating payment methods, re-certifying games under the new regulator, sometimes rebranding, and running two licenses in parallel for a quarter or two. Budget EUR 30,000 to 60,000 for the move on top of the new license's fees, plus three months of whoever owns compliance. The mistake isn't starting on Anjouan; it's staying there while doing EUR 200,000 a month in GGR and paying high-risk rates on every deposit.

How these numbers were checked

Regulator fees come from the fee pages published by the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority, the Nevis Online Gaming Authority, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority, as read in September 2026. Curacao's annual fee is the figure consistently reported by licensing firms since the LOK fee policy update rather than a number lifted from the authority's site, which is why it's marked approximate. Agent-quoted items, restricted-country lists and year-one totals are ranges drawn from several licensing firms' guides and from operators' own accounts, and they'll drift. Vendor license support is self-reported by each platform in the iGamingHub catalog. Before you sign anything, ask the regulator for the current schedule and ask your PSPs the only question that matters: will you onboard this license, in writing.