Anjouan vs MGA License

Anjouan Online Casino License vs MGA at a Glance

The table compares the 2 licenses on the points that matter most to operators and players.

The figures come from each issuer's published fees and from industry comparisons dated in 2026.

Who Issues Each License?

The 2 licenses come from very different institutions. On one side stands a private administrator acting for a disputed island authority; on the other, the public regulator of an EU state. That difference shapes every comparison that follows.

The Anjouan Online Casino Licensing Authority

The Anjouan online casino licensing authority named in the issuer's own material is the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority (AOFA). Licensing itself is run by Anjouan Licensing Services Inc. (ALSI), a private company that began issuing licenses in May 2023 and assigns license numbers with an ALSI prefix. Casino footers add names such as the Anjouan Gaming Board, which the issuer's published structure does not set out as a separate body. Our Anjouan gaming license guide covers each of these names in detail.

The Malta Gaming Authority

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is the public regulator established under Malta's Gaming Act 2018, and it supervises both online and land-based gambling in Malta. It licenses operators directly, approves their key function holders and receives monthly reports from them, including a report on every ADR dispute. An MGA license is valid for 10 years, subject to annual fees and continued compliance. The contrast here is not between 2 offshore options; it is between an offshore issuer and a regulator inside the European Union.

How Each Regulator's Authority Holds Up

Malta's authority to license is not in question; Anjouan's is. Malta's record has its own point of contention, however, and it concerns how the regulator protects its licensees rather than whether the regulator has any authority at all.

Is the Anjouan Gaming Authority License Recognized Abroad?

Recognition begins at home, and at home the Anjouan gaming authority license is disputed. The Central Bank of the Comoros has described AOFA as a fictitious entity, a former attorney general has called ALSI illegal, and in October 2026 the government of the Comoros asked British authorities for help investigating the network. Abroad, the issuer stated in June 2026 that its licenses are not designed for worldwide use, and the major EU markets that license gambling, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, sit on its own list of excluded countries. What that record suggests is that the license carries standing mainly with the businesses that choose to accept it.

Malta's Gaming Act and EU Membership

The MGA acts under the Gaming Act 2018 and applies EU rules, including the EU directive on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes. Its contested point is Article 56A, added to the Gaming Act in June 2023 through the amendment known in the industry as Bill 55. The article allows Maltese courts to refuse to enforce foreign judgments against Malta-licensed operators where those operators acted lawfully under Maltese law, and Germany's gambling regulator has criticized it. The MGA maintains that the provision conforms with EU law and is not a blanket shield. Critics read the article as protection for licensees against foreign players' claims; the MGA describes it as a statement of long-standing public policy.

Anjouan Gambling Licensing Requirements Compared

Anjouan gambling licensing asks for a company, due diligence on its owners and a set of written policies. Malta asks for those and then tests the operation itself before it may take a bet. The gap is widest on player money and technical checks.

Ownership and Fit and Proper Checks

An MGA operator must be a company incorporated in Malta or another EU country, and its shareholders, directors and key function holders must pass fit and proper checks before approval. Key roles are approved individually, and some cannot be combined in the same person. An Anjouan applicant may form its company in Anjouan or another accepted jurisdiction, and ALSI carries out due diligence on the company and its key people. Both regimes examine who owns and runs the operator, but only Malta ties each key role to an approval of its own.

Player Funds and Technical Audits

Malta treats money held for players as the players' separate property rather than the operator's. Player funds must sit in segregated accounts approved by the MGA, at least 90% of the balance owed to players must be held in those accounts, and any shortfall must be covered by the operator at once. If an operator becomes insolvent with player money mixed into its own, players' claims rank ahead of other creditors. Before launch, an MGA platform must also pass a system audit by an approved auditor. In the Anjouan license conditions as reported publicly, we found no comparable rule on player balances or pre-launch audits.

Player Verification Under Each License

Both regimes require identity checks and anti-money-laundering controls. Malta applies the EU's anti-money-laundering framework, and its rules are enforced by the MGA together with Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU). Anjouan's KYC and AML code, dated October 13, 2026, sits in its license conditions with its start date left to a later notice. Malta's rules belong to a national system with its own enforcement body; Anjouan's are a code inside a license document.

Countries Each License Covers

Neither license opens a country by itself. Anjouan's October 2026 conditions exclude 9 named countries, among them France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, along with sanctioned and FATF-listed jurisdictions. An MGA license gives an operator a base inside the EU, and Malta argues that EU freedoms allow its licensees to offer services across member states. Many of those states disagree, require their own national licenses and have seen players sue Malta-licensed operators to recover losses, the dispute that led Malta to pass Article 56A. Under either license, whether play is lawful depends on the player's country rather than on the license.

Anjouan Online Casino License Dispute Resolution

Both regimes route unresolved disputes to alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Malta has done so since 2018, inside an EU framework, while Anjouan's route opened in 2026. The difference is less in the rule than in the years of practice behind it.

Anjouan ADR in Practice

Every Anjouan licensee must now name an approved ADR provider, paid for by the operator, and industry reports from October 2026 describe a single provider approved so far. The route has not yet produced a record of decisions. Player reviews of the licensing body, about 25 between January and July 2026, describe complaints escalated to the issuer without a reply.

MGA Player Support and ADR

Since December 3, 2018, MGA licensees serving players have had to name an ADR entity listed under the EU's ADR Directive and engage it before going live. Since April 1, 2019, the MGA's Player Support Unit has not ruled on the merits of individual disputes, though it still accepts complaints from anyone. Licensees report every ADR case to the MGA each month and attach the decision once the ADR entity reaches one. Malta's route has more than 7 years of cases behind it; Anjouan's has months.

How an Anjouan Casino License Check Compares

An Anjouan casino license check and an MGA check follow the same logic: the company, the license number and the domain must all match on the regulator's own register. The registers differ in how much they show and in who stands behind them.

The Anjouan Gaming License Register

The Anjouan gaming license register at anjouangaming.com can be searched by company name or license number, and its entries show the license number, status and validity dates. A copy of the register read on October 21, 2026 listed 1,371 Anjouan gaming license holders and 3,729 authorized domains. Our Anjouan gaming license guide explains each step of the check, including revoked licenses.

What the Anjouan Gaming License Logo Shows

The Anjouan gaming license logo in a casino footer means something only if it links to the issuer's validator and the validator shows the same domain. A logo that opens a static image or another site proves nothing, because an image can be copied onto any page. The MGA seal works on the same principle and links to the operator's entry on Malta's register. The mechanism is shared; the authority behind each register is not.

The MGA Licensee Register

The MGA's Licensee Register can be searched by company name, license number, status or website address, and each entry lists the domains covered by that license. MGA license numbers follow a pattern such as MGA/B2C/123/2018, which names the license type and the year of issue. A match on the MGA register confirms a license from a recognized EU regulator, while a match on the Anjouan register confirms the issuer's own record, whose authority is disputed.

Anjouan vs MGA Casinos: What Changes for Players

The difference between Anjouan vs MGA casinos shows most clearly when something goes wrong. At an MGA casino, deposits sit in segregated accounts treated as the player's property, disputes go to an EU-listed ADR entity, and the regulator receives a monthly record of those disputes. At an Anjouan casino, the license sets written rules on identity checks and disputes, but the ADR route is new and the issuer's authority is disputed. Malta's protection has a limit of its own, since Article 56A can make a court judgment from a player's home country harder to enforce in Malta. On balance, the MGA license gives players substantially more protection. Neither license removes the need to judge each casino on its own record, which is the basis of the rankings on our homepage.

Anjouan License for Casino Cost Compared

The Anjouan license for casino cost is less than half of Malta's minimum yearly bill. Anjouan's fee schedule sets €17,828 for issuance and the same amount for each annual renewal, with €500 for each additional domain and no reported tax on gaming revenue. An MGA online casino pays a €5,000 application fee, a fixed annual license fee of €25,000 and a compliance contribution that starts at €15,000 a year and rises with revenue, up to €600,000 at the top of the scale according to a 2026 industry comparison. Gaming tax of 5% applies to revenue from players in Malta. To those fees, Malta adds the running cost of segregated accounts, approved key persons and a pre-launch system audit. The price gap is, in effect, a measure of what each regulator demands.

Why Anjouan Gaming License Holders Choose It Over Malta

For most Anjouan gaming license holders, Malta was never the realistic alternative, and the reasons are on record. An MGA license requires a company in the EU, individually approved key persons, segregated player funds, a pre-launch system audit and yearly costs that start around €40,000 before tax. An Anjouan license requires a company in an accepted jurisdiction, due diligence by ALSI and €17,828 a year. The issuer also advertises approval in a few months, while industry estimates for Malta run from 4 to 12 months. What the choice suggests is that operators pick Anjouan because Malta's obligations are the obstacle, not only because of Malta's price.

Frequently Asked Questions