legal
The countries crypto casinos refuse most often, counted across the restricted lists of the 27 operators we track, what the pattern says about licensing, and why a country missing from a list is not permission.
Every crypto casino keeps a list of countries it will not accept. Of the 27 operators we track, 23 publish one we could read. The shortest names 2 countries and the longest 69, the median is 17, and between them the 23 lists name 132 different countries.
The four without a list are not the most open. Bovada and Ignition serve the United States and publish lists of US states instead, Stake.us is a US-only sweepstakes site, and BC.Game's record is unverified.
This guide counts who is refused, explains the pattern, and sets out what happens to a player who ignores the list.
| Country | Lists naming it (of 23) |
|---|---|
| United States | 22 |
| United Kingdom | 19 |
| Netherlands | 19 |
| France | 18 |
| Australia | 16 |
| Spain | 15 |
| Germany | 14 |
| Iran | 13 |
| North Korea | 13 |
| Lithuania | 13 |
| Belgium | 12 |
| Syria | 12 |
| Curaçao | 11 |
| Malta | 10 |
Two different reasons produce that table.
Markets with their own rules. The top seven are the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Australia, Spain and Germany. Each either licenses online gambling itself, through a national or state regulator, or prohibits online casinos outright, and none of the 27 operators on our records holds a licence from any of them. An operator that refuses these markets is staying out of jurisdictions where it would be operating without permission.
Sanctions and financial-crime lists. Iran, North Korea and Syria sit high on the table for a different reason, along with Myanmar and Yemen on 9 lists each and Cuba on 7. These are countries that have long been under international sanctions or on financial-crime watchlists, which an operator has to respect whatever local gambling law says.
Two entries in the table look out of place. Curaçao appears on 11 lists, and 9 of the 18 Curaçao-licensed operators we track name the island that licenses them: BetFury, Bitsler, BitStarz, Cloudbet, Duelbits, Metaspins, MyStake, Sportsbet.io and Thunderpick. The law behind the old regime explains the habit. One source records Bitsler's certificate as issued under the National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard, the 1993 law the Curaçao system rested on until the end of 2024, and a licence issued for serving players abroad is not one an operator uses at home.
Malta appears on 10. It is home to the Malta Gaming Authority, a regulator none of the 27 holds a licence from.
The Anjouan licence works the same way. Its terms reportedly exclude Australia, Austria, the Comoros, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Of the eight Anjouan-licensed operators we track, only FortuneJack's list matches those nine exactly. Our Anjouan page sets out the rest.
Our records carry a structured flag for three markets as well as each list.
United States. 22 of the 27 do not accept US players. Two do, Bovada and Ignition, both under Anjouan licences. Bovada's own help page names 20 US jurisdictions it will not serve, the District of Columbia among them; Ignition's is reported to name five states. Stake.us is sweepstakes-only. For BC.Game and Winna we have no answer. None of this makes an offshore casino legal in any state: our state records mark offshore real-money casinos as illegal in 14 jurisdictions and unauthorised in the other 37. The sweepstakes casino laws guide covers the one model that operates differently.
United Kingdom. 20 of the 27 do not accept UK players: 19 name Britain in their list, and Stake.us serves only the US. For the other seven our records have no answer. None of the 27 holds a UK Gambling Commission licence.
France. 20 do not accept French players, 18 of them naming France in their list. One record, held at low confidence, marks an operator as accepting French players, which French law does not allow: the Autorité nationale des jeux authorises no online casino.
A short list is not a short set of refusals. Shuffle's list on our records names two countries, the United States and France. That is what the source we read listed, not a statement that Shuffle accepts everyone else.
And lists do not always match the licence behind them. Half the Anjouan-licensed operators either publish no country list or publish one that leaves out markets their licence reportedly excludes.
Terms often add a catch-all, barring anyone in a place where online gambling is illegal whether or not it is named. A missing entry tells you only that the list did not mention your country. Before depositing anywhere your country is not clearly accepted, ask support in writing and keep the reply.
The list matters most at withdrawal, because that is when verification usually happens, and verification asks where you live. KYC explained covers when documents are requested.
The terms recorded for four operators show what follows:
The pattern is the same in all four. Access is easy to get round. The withdrawal is not, and that is where a balance built from a restricted country is lost.
The lists come from operators' terms where we could read them and from secondary sources where we could not. Of the 23, 3 are held at high confidence, 19 at medium and 1 at low. Lists change with licences, and an operator that migrates between regimes, as several on our records have, rewrites its list when it does.
Each operator review shows the restricted list we hold and the source behind it. Treat this page as the pattern and the operator's terms on the day as the rule. For the clauses that decide what happens to a balance, see how to read casino terms.
Across the 23 restricted lists we hold, the United States appears on 22, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands on 19 each, France on 18, Australia on 16, Spain on 15 and Germany on 14. Iran and North Korea follow on 13 each.
Very few. Of the 27 operators we track, 22 do not accept US players. Bovada and Ignition do, both under Anjouan licences, and Stake.us is a US-only sweepstakes site. Our state records mark offshore real-money casinos as illegal or unauthorised in all 50 states and DC.
Not necessarily. Some lists we hold are short because that is all the source listed, and terms often bar anyone in a place where online gambling is illegal, whether or not it is named. Ask support in writing before depositing, and keep the answer.
On our records, Gamdom, Roobet and Ignition are each reported to treat it as grounds for closing the account with the balance forfeited. Bitcasino.io is described as tolerating it until verification is triggered, at which point a document showing a restricted country can end the account.
Nine of the eighteen Curaçao-licensed operators we track name Curaçao in their restricted list. The old regime explains the habit: its 1993 law, under which one source records Bitsler's certificate as issued, is the National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard, written for serving players abroad.
