At ADM we have sites that focus on many different markets and languages, and these all follow different regulations and compliances. As you might be familiar with, many countries have their own gaming licenses, and these are the once that determine what is allowed when it comes to gambling on bingo, casinos, lotteries and sports betting, within the country. The most common ones we deal with are Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA), Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Curacao and Danish Gambling Authority (DGA).
Regulations and compliance all land under what we call gaming law (a set of rules in the igaming industry), and in our case as an affiliate, we need to follow these set of rules when it comes to how we market online casinos and the offers they have.
So, when we promote an offer on one of our Swedish sites, for example, Onlinepoker, we must make sure to add all the relevant terms and conditions for the casino and the offer in question, as per the rules that were set by SGA – the Swedish Gambling Authority. And we must also make sure we follow all the compliance rules set out by the SGA. If we don’t follow these rules our sites can, as a worst-case scenario, get shut down.

More about the licenses
As mentioned before, the different types of licenses that exist today rule over different geographical areas. The Swedish gaming license only covers Sweden, the UKGC operate for the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and MGA, which is based on the island of Malta, covers large parts of Europe. Let’s dive deeper into these separately.
Curacao
Curacao is a small island located in the Caribbean Sea and belongs to the Netherlands. They have been active as a licensing jurisdiction since 1996 and are thus one of the businesses that first licensed online casinos. A license from Curacao covers all types of gambling, ie slots, lotto and betting, etc., but also white labels and gaming providers, and is often referred to as an e-Gaming license or Master license. There is also a so-called Sublicense, a type of sub-license that players with a Master license can issue to other players.
The Curacao license is considered a good one, but it has one clear disadvantage. Players situated in Europe that choose to gamble at an online casino with a Curacao license, have to pay tax on any winnings they do.
Malta Gaming Authority – MGA
MGA is one of the largest gaming authorities in the gaming industry and has been active since 2001. It is also one of the very first gaming authorities to introduce laws and restrictions regarding casinos and games. The MGA license is the most popular license of all and covers many gaming markets. This is also why many operators prefer the Maltese license, as it is broad and reaches out to players in many EU/ESS countries.
The Malta Gaming Authority is not only responsible for licensing online casinos but also Malta’s land-based casinos.
The Swedish Gambling Authority
It is not legal for operators who do not have a valid Swedish license to accept Swedish players. For operators to be able to legally target the Swedish gaming market, a Swedish license is required. It is the Swedish Gambling Authority that grants or rejects a license application and the casino that applies for the license will be reviewed to see that they are following all the regulations and rules.
A casino that has a Swedish license from the Swedish Gambling Authority needs to follow restrictions regarding responsible gaming and offer gaming limits and help tools to its players. At Swedish-licensed casinos, you can, for example, choose deposit limits, loss limits and limits regarding your playing time.
The Danish Gambling Authority
The Danish Gambling Authority was formed in 2000 and their purpose is to administrate the gambling legislation in Denmark. This includes lotteries, betting, online casinos, gaming machines, public poker tournaments, and land-based casinos. The DGA reports to the Danish Ministry of Taxation, and their key duties include issuing licences to provide gambling, supervision of gambling operators, and monitoring the gambling industry.
The Danish Gambling Authority also lobbies for a responsible, well-regulated and fair gambling market. One of their main focuses are on the protection of players as well as the protection of children and vulnerable persons. They strive to provide information and guidance on the framework for legal gambling.
UK Gambling Commission – UKGC
UKGC stands for UK Gambling Commission and is one of the largest gambling authorities in the industry. UKGC is the gaming authority in force in England and is considered one of the strictest licenses to obtain since a casino needs to meet many strict requirements to get a license issued by the British Gaming Commission. Casinos also need to apply for the license from the UKGC and pay a relatively large amount in fees for the license. The agency’s revenue comes from fees paid by operators.
Today, there are just over 1 000 online casinos that hold the UKGC license. The license covers arcade games, betting, bingo, slots and lotteries.

Changes can happen at any time
Affiliate companies that promote offers from operators are just as responsible for staying within the law and complying with the regulations that are set. And just to be clear, when we talk about operators, we mean online casinos or betting sites. Betsson is an operator, for example. Operators are constantly being checked by regulators of the different licenses to make sure they are following the rules, and changes to the licenses can happen at any time.
One example is for the Swedish Gambling Authority – during summer of 2020 when covid-19 had taken its effect on the country, it was decided that online casinos under the Swedish license could only give out a bonus of 100 kr (10 euro). This change of bonuses meant that affiliate sites that had offers directing to a Swedish audience had to go over the site and change all offers to the new bonus amount, among other regulations that followed.
In other words, the regulators keep us on our toes but that’s is also what makes the industry so exciting!