Technology and platforms
How an online casino is put together
Who does what between a player and a game
Reference last reviewed 27 October 2026
Four pieces that carry most of the structure of the industry.
Technology and platforms
Who does what between a player and a game
Legal and compliance
What a licence actually permits
Legal and compliance
Why the tax base matters more than the rate
Legal and compliance
Grey, black and licensed: the distinction
Licensing is national, so the region is where any market assessment starts.
22 jurisdictions
The most densely regulated region in the industry, and the one where the licence-per-country model was established.
5 jurisdictions
Regulation is set state by state and province by province rather than nationally, so an operator deals with a separate regulator, a separate tax rate and a separate licence for.
5 jurisdictions
The region where most of the industry's recent licensing work has been concentrated.
3 jurisdictions
Licensing exists in most of the larger economies but is fragmented, and in several countries it is split between national and state or provincial boards.
1 jurisdictions
Domestic online gambling is prohibited across most of the region, and the licensing that does exist is often aimed at operators serving players elsewhere.
2 jurisdictions
Online sports and race betting is licensed and heavily advertised, while online casino is prohibited for domestic customers.
The licensing position, the regulator and the tax base for each one.
Open licensing, point of consumption
The largest regulated online market in Europe, and the one whose licence conditions are most often used as a benchmark.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
Authorisation per operator, limited brands per authorisation
The largest market to move from unlicensed to licensed in recent years, with betting and casino under one authorisation.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
Open licensing, with online table games excluded
Europe's largest economy licenses online slots and poker but not online table games, and taxes stakes rather than revenue.
Partly restricted online casinoLicensed sports betting
Registration with a provincial conduct-and-manage entity
The first competitive regulated online market in Canada, open since April 2022 and the largest in North America for casino play.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
Open licensing
A licensed market since October 2021, now one of the most advertising-restricted in Europe.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
Open licensing
A licensed market built around a single national self-exclusion register and a one-bonus rule.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
Concession awarded by public tender
A large licensed market entered only through periodic concession tenders, and closed to advertising since 2018.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
State regulator that also operates casinos
A domestic licensed market overseen by a body that is both regulator and casino operator, with offshore licensing shut down.
Licensed online casinoLicensed sports betting
How the mechanics of the industry actually work, written for people who need to use the answer.
Technology and platforms
Between a player pressing spin and a game paying out there are at least five separate companies. This is who they are and what each one is paid for.
Legal and compliance
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.
Casino and games
Two numbers describe a slot, and almost everything written about them is wrong in the same way. What they measure, and what they cannot tell you.
Technology and platforms
The least visible company in the chain runs the accounts, the wallet, the bonuses and the regulatory reporting. Why almost nobody builds their own.
Nine sectors sit between a licence and a game on a screen.
11 companies
The companies that hold the relationship with the player: they take the stake, hold the account, pay the winnings and carry the licence in each market they serve.
13 companies
The companies that design and build the games themselves, principally slots.
2 companies
Businesses that run physical studios where dealers host games streamed to players in real time.
5 companies
The systems layer: player account management, wallets, bonusing, reporting, compliance tooling, and the single integration that gives an operator access to thousands of.
2 companies
Companies that collect what happens in a match, turn it into priced markets, and sell both the feed and the risk management around it.
3 companies
Processors, wallets and account-to-account providers that move deposits in and withdrawals out.
3 companies
Publishers that send players to operators and are paid by results, through revenue share, a fee per acquired customer, or a mixture of the two.
3 companies
Independent laboratories that test games, random number generators and platforms against each jurisdiction's technical standard.
4 companies
Manufacturers of gaming machines, lottery systems and casino equipment, most of which now run digital divisions as well.
This is a reference, not a news site. Nothing here is published because it happened this morning. Each entry records a position as reviewed on a date, and the date is shown on every page, because the single most common failure in writing about this industry is quoting a rule that changed two years ago.
Nothing on this site is an invitation to gamble. No games are offered, no stakes are accepted, no operator is promoted and no affiliate link is published. Where a company appears in the directory, it appears because it occupies a position in the industry worth recording.
If you are new to the sector, three pages carry most of the structure. The supply chain explains who the companies are and what each is paid for. Licensing explains what a licence authorises and why it stops at a border. Taxation explains why the base matters more than the rate, which is the single most useful fact about market economics.
If you are assessing a particular country, start with its market profile and follow the links to its regulator and to its region.