How to Verify a Lottery Operator's Licence, by Country

A licensed operator is a matter of public record. An unlicensed one is not, and that asymmetry is the most reliable consumer-protection tool available in this entire subject.

The check takes about two minutes. This page lists the registers with their URLs, then sets out the method — which matters as much as the links, because it is entirely possible to look at a genuine register and reach the wrong conclusion.

The registers

The Great Britain register is the most useful single example because of how it is structured. It is split into separate searchable registers for gambling businesses, personal licence holders, premises, regulatory actions and public statements. The last two are the ones people forget, and they are the interesting ones — see below.

Is it even a lottery?

Before checking a licence, check that the organisation is a lottery at all. Two membership bodies publish lists of real state and national operators:

• World Lottery Association — lottery members, covering state-licensed operators internationally.
• NASPL — lottery members, the North American state and provincial lotteries.

If a body claiming to be a national lottery appears on neither, and on no regulator's register, you are almost certainly looking at an invented entity. Mega Millions publishes examples of exactly these — "United States National Lottery", "Mega Millions International Lottery" and similar — and notes that none of them exist (Mega Millions). Membership lists are not regulators, so absence is a strong signal rather than proof; a licence register is the authority.

The method: five steps that actually work

Having the URL is not the same as doing the check. The following order matters.

1. Start from the register, never from the site being checked

Type the regulator's address yourself. The single most common failure is following a "verify our licence" link on the operator's own page, which proves nothing — a page that lies about a licence can equally link to a page that lies about the register.

2. Search the legal entity name, not the brand

Licences are issued to companies, not to trading names. A site called something memorable is typically operated by a company with a duller name, disclosed in the footer or terms. Search for that. Where a register lets you search by licence number, use the number from the site's footer and confirm the entity it returns is the entity you are dealing with.

3. Check the scope, not just the existence

A licence is not a general certificate of goodness. It authorises specified activities in a specified territory. Things to look at:

• Activity. A betting licence is not a lottery licence. A company licensed to take bets on the outcome of lotteries is doing something different from a company selling lottery tickets — the distinction is set out in lottery betting sites: legal and safe? and lottery couriers explained.
• Territory. A Malta or Gibraltar licence does not authorise business with consumers in Great Britain; that requires a Gambling Commission licence. Australian consumers should check ACMA rather than assume an offshore licence covers them.
• Status. Registers show whether a licence is current, lapsed, surrendered or suspended. A lapsed licence displayed as current is a serious sign.

4. Read the regulatory actions and public statements

This is the step almost nobody takes, and it is where the value is. The Gambling Commission's regulatory actions register records enforcement against licensees; its public statements explain what happened and why.

A licensed operator with a history of enforcement is still licensed — but you now know something material that its marketing will not tell you. Regulators also act against unlicensed operators: the ACMA publishes ongoing blocking of illegal online gambling websites by Australian internet service providers.

5. Confirm the domain matches

Register entries name the domains a licence covers. An operator licensed for one domain, contacting you from a similar-looking one, is the whole ballgame. Compare character by character.

The United States is the exception that needs care

There is no federal lottery register. Lotteries are run by individual states, and the regulatory structure differs state by state — Texas, for instance, moved lottery regulation to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, while other states have standalone lottery commissions or gaming control boards.

Two practical consequences:

• The state lottery's own site is the authority for that state's games, claim rules and retailer licensing. Use the NASPL member list to find the genuine site rather than searching for it.
• Direct-to-consumer sales are restricted. The Texas Lottery states plainly that "State laws and regulations do not permit the sale of tickets by mail, phone, or Internet... You must buy your tickets from a licensed retailer here in Texas" (Texas Lottery FAQ). Any service offering to sell you tickets in a jurisdiction that forbids remote sale is, at minimum, not doing what it says.

What a licence check does and does not tell you

It tells you the entity exists, is authorised for stated activities in a stated territory, and whether a regulator has taken action against it.

It does not tell you that a message claiming to come from that operator is genuine. A real licensed operator's name and logo can be used by anyone — Mega Millions notes scammers are "fraudulently using our name and our logo." The licence check confirms the organisation; it cannot authenticate the message.

That is why the two checks are complementary. Verify the operator on the register, and separately apply the red-flag checklist to whatever contacted you — remembering that real lotteries do not contact winners at all.

Registers change, regulators are created and merged, and URLs move. If a link here fails, search the regulator's name directly rather than trusting a link from anywhere else.