Online Casino Restricted Countries: Where Each License Lets You Operate

Restricted countries are the markets a licensed online casino must not take players from. Some regulators publish a list, others make the operator follow the law of every country it serves, and Georgia excludes its own citizens by statute. This guide sets out the rule under each major license as of October 2026, why countries restrict online gambling, and how operators keep restricted players out.

What a Restricted Country Means for a Licensed Operator

A restricted country is a market where the operator may not register players, take deposits or market its brand. The restriction comes from one of two places: the licensing regulator, which may name countries in its license conditions, or the law of the player's country, which every regulator expects the operator to respect.

A license from one regulator does not open any other market. An online gambling license lets a company take bets where its own regulator and the player's country both allow it, and nowhere else.

Restricted Countries by License

The table sets out who names restricted countries and what each license expects for the rest of the world.

Anjouan

Anjouan's October 2026 license conditions say licensees must not knowingly target residents of excluded territories, "including (non-exhaustively)" Australia, Austria, Comoros, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Sanctioned jurisdictions, FATF call-for-action jurisdictions and any territory the authority designates are excluded too, and geo-IP blocking is expected. The FATF call-for-action list named the DPRK, Iran and Myanmar as of June 2026, according to Swiss regulator FINMA's notice.

Tobique

The list published for Tobique applicants names the UK, the US, New Brunswick and FATF-sanctioned countries. Licensing firms report a fuller restricted list of 21 or 22 jurisdictions that adds China, Israel, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, and in one version Ontario. Confirm the current list in writing before you build your blocking rules.

Curaçao

Curaçao publishes no list. Its license conditions make the licensee strictly adhere to "the applicable laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which they offer remote games of chance" (Art. 3(1)), and keep that duty with the licensee when it outsources (Art. 3(2)). Terms and conditions must be in English and in the target market's language where that differs (Art. 11(2)), so every market served is a deliberate choice on paper.

Malta, the Isle of Man and Kahnawake

None of the three publishes a country list on the pages we read. The Isle of Man's guidance tells licensees not to rely on the commission's statements to decide whether gambling is legal elsewhere. Kahnawake's regulations require operations that conform to the applicable laws and regulations of comparable jurisdictions (s.6), and the commission notes that not every licensed site is accessible in every country. Malta serves its own residents and taxes the revenue from players in Malta at 5%.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica issues no gambling license. Licensing firms describe the condition attached to operating from there as not serving Costa Rican residents and blocking Costa Rican IP addresses.

Why Countries Restrict Online Gambling

Restricted lists look arbitrary until you sort them by reason. Most countries on them fall under one of these:

• The country licenses online gambling itself. In Great Britain, offering gambling to consumers is reserved by law for holders of a Gambling Commission license, so an offshore license gives no access.
• The country blocks payments to foreign operators. Georgia's payments law bars payment providers from letting residents pay foreign gambling companies with cards they issued, identified by the card scheme's gambling code (Art. 13¹).
• Card schemes require it. Visa's rules require an online gambling merchant to hold a valid license, to code its transactions as betting, and to warn cardholders that internet gambling may be illegal where they are.
• Sanctions and money-laundering risk. Anjouan and Tobique both exclude sanctioned countries and those on the FATF's call-for-action list.
• The regulator protects its home market. Anjouan excludes the Comoros, Tobique excludes New Brunswick, Georgia excludes its own citizens from international permits, and Costa Rica's operators do not serve its residents.
• Governments ask regulators directly. In June 2025 Japan asked eight licensing jurisdictions, Georgia among them, to stop their licensees serving players in Japan, as reported in the trade press.

How Operators Block Restricted Countries

Blocking works in layers, because each one can be beaten on its own. Geo-IP checks stop most traffic at registration, identity checks catch the rest at verification, and payment checks catch players who pass both. Georgia's AML law requires customer due diligence on every online player at registration with no threshold, which is where AML checks for Georgian operators stop a restricted player before the first deposit.

Marketing has to follow the same map. Georgia's advertising law bans gambling ads in any medium except the licensed operator's own site, sports sponsorship, gambling venues and international airports and border checkpoints, so Georgia's gambling advertising rules shape what an affiliate in Tbilisi can publish as well as what an operator can buy.

Who Can Play Under a Georgian International Permit

The rule is citizenship, not location. Georgia's gambling law defines international organisation as online games in which Georgian citizens may not take part (Art. 3(a³)), and bars international permit holders from admitting any Georgian citizen (Art. 32(2¹)). Foreigners under 18 are barred too, and the website must say both in Georgian and English.

Beyond that, Georgian law does not say which foreign countries an operator may serve. The Minister of Finance has the power to ban specific gambling-related services to people operating outside Georgia (Art. 5(4)), but we have found no order using it. Serving Georgian players needs a domestic permit instead, tied to a land venue or priced far higher without one, with a minimum age of 25 for Georgian citizens and 20% tax on casino and slots revenue, which is why the Georgian online casino license for foreign players and the domestic route are separate products.

What Happens If You Accept Players From a Restricted Country

Taking players from a restricted market breaches the license conditions at home and exposes the operator under the law of the player's country. In Curaçao the target market's law is part of the license through Art. 3(1). In Georgia, admitting a Georgian citizen breaches the international permit's conditions, and the licensing law escalates such breaches from a fine, to a tripled fine if not cured, to a fine tripled again and then revocation (Art. 34); the fine for an international permit holder is about €6,900.

Online Casino Restricted Countries FAQ