Blocked Casinos: Which Regulators Blocked or Banned Whom

Blocked gambling websites are casino sites that a national regulator has ordered internet providers, search engines or payment firms to cut off, or that it has fined or banned for serving its market without a licence. Australia’s ACMA listed 1,810 blocked domains on 15 October 2026. The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Great Britain act through fines, bans, delisting and payment blocking. This page sets out who blocked what, with dates.

A block is a statement about one market. It tells you a regulator found the operator serving its residents without permission; it does not rate the casino for players elsewhere. For a player, though, a block in your own country is decisive: the site is not licensed to serve you, and your national protections do not apply there.

How many casino sites has ACMA blocked in Australia?

ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, says it had blocked 1,822 illegal gambling websites since November 2019 as of 24 September 2026. Its public domain list, which we downloaded on 15 October 2026, contained 1,810 domain entries. Under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, offering online casino games to people in Australia is an offence for the operator, not the player.

The list is dominated by mirrors: numbered copies of the same brand. In our count, domains containing “thepokies” made up 58 entries, “rocketplay” 26, “jackpotjill” 23 and “playcroco” 21. Well-known international names appear too, including BitStarz (12 domains) and 7Bit Casino (7). Our casinos to avoid page carries the top 20 counts.

What has the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit done recently?

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gambling regulator, publishes every sanction on its site. Between June and September 2026 it imposed orders subject to penalty payments on several offshore operators targeting Dutch players and collected forfeited penalties from others. Each decision names the company, and most name the websites.

An order subject to penalty payment (last onder dwangsom) means the company must stop or pay a set amount for each period it continues; “forfeited” means the KSA found it carried on and the penalties fell due. Dutch players can check any operator against the KSA’s register of licence holders before playing.

Which operators has Sweden’s Spelinspektionen banned?

Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, can ban a company from offering games to Swedes without a Swedish licence and names the domains in its decisions. Recent bans include Softon Ltd on 9 July 2026 (26Si1361, covering its ten brands), Claymore Malta on 8 January 2026, and Rabocse SRL on 18 August 2025 (25Si1093, seven domains).

Swedish bans also reach promoters: on 17 December 2025 Spelinspektionen ordered a Swedish media website, under a SEK 130,000 fine, to stop showing banners for foxygold.com and skyhills.com (decision 25Si2175). A ban covers Sweden only; Swedish players are not committing an offence by playing abroad, but the operator side is targeted.

How does Great Britain disrupt unlicensed casinos?

In Great Britain, offering gambling without a Gambling Commission licence is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005. The Commission says that since April 2024 it has issued 3,140 cease-and-desist and disruption notices, referred 447,778 URLs to Google and Bing, and seen 287,961 of them removed (report published 21 October 2025).

Its quarterly figures show the work growing: websites referred to search engines rose from 124 in July to September 2024 to 321 in April to June 2025, and removals from search results from 123 to 214. The Commission measured an average 32% fall in engagement across about 160 disrupted websites, with registrar blocks and website suspensions cutting traffic by about 91%.

Does Germany block unlicensed casinos?

Yes. Germany’s Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) keeps an official whitelist of permitted operators and websites; anything not on it counts as unauthorised in Germany. The GGL reported that in 2025 it made 1,843 illegal websites unreachable from Germany through prohibition orders and network blocks, and cut 178 websites off from payment services.

Why do block lists keep growing?

Blocking is cheap to get round and slow to apply, so the lists keep growing. A blocked operator can register a new domain in minutes, while each regulator has to find it, test it and issue a fresh order. That is why the counts in Australia and Great Britain rise every quarter even when the number of operators behind them is much smaller.

For players, the practical lesson is that a missing name proves nothing. A brand that is not on a list may simply not have been found yet. Use block lists as one check among several, alongside the licence register, the operator’s company details and the warning signs in our rogue casino checklist. When a brand from these lists closes or reappears, we record it in the monthly status log.

What does a block mean for you as a player?

If the casino is blocked or banned where you live, it has no licence to serve you there. National self-exclusion schemes, deposit limits, complaint routes and funds protection do not apply, and your bank may refuse the payments. Using a VPN to get round a block usually breaks the casino’s own terms, which gives it a ground to void winnings.

• Check the regulator’s list for your country before you register, not after a problem.
• Do not use mirror links shared on social media to reach a blocked brand.
• If you already hold a balance, withdraw it and stop depositing; see withdrawal delays if the payout stalls.
• Self-exclude through your national scheme and add blocking software if you want to stay away; our self-exclusion guide lists the tools.

For sites not covered by any block, the question becomes whether the licence they claim is real. Our pages on unlicensed casinos and verifying a licence seal show how to test that yourself.

Frequently asked questions