Tobique Gaming License: Fees, Requirements and Legal Standing

A Tobique gaming license is a remote gambling license from the Tobique Gaming Commission, the regulator the Tobique First Nation set up under its Gaming Act 2023 in New Brunswick, Canada. Here we set out who issues it, the fees licensing firms quote because the Commission publishes none, the one-year term, what the Commission's codes require, crypto, restricted markets, the legal standing question and how it compares with Georgia's international permit.

Who Issues the Tobique Gaming License

The Tobique Gaming Commission is established by section 6 of the Tobique Gaming Act 2023, version 2.0 of April 2024. Its 3 to 5 members are appointed by the First Nation's Council and must be members of the First Nation (s.7 to 9).

The Act lists 11 license types, from bookmaker's and wagering operator's licenses to gaming software and aggregator licenses, all of them for remote gambling (s.23(1) and (2)). The Commission's register of license holders sorts them as B2C or B2B, and on 24 October 2026 it listed 195 licenses, 172 B2C and 23 B2B.

Applicants do not file with the Commission itself. It grants licenses on the recommendation of its management company and the Direct Licensees it appoints to act for it (s.20(1)(d), 23(1)), and the Apply button on its website leads to its appointed agent, which describes itself as the Commission's sole Direct Licensee.

Tobique License Cost: Fees as Quoted

The Commission publishes no fee schedule. The Act leaves fees to regulations (s.22(1)(e)) and makes a license invalid until the prescribed fee is paid in full (s.23(7)), yet none of the documents on its regulatory documents page sets an amount. The figures below are those quoted by licensing firms as of October 2026, not a schedule from the regulator.

The quotes do not all agree. Two firms quote the €2,500 review and €33,500 on approval, while others quote an €18,000 first-year fee plus their own service fee, and renewals from €10,000 a year.

At about €26,900 a year, Tobique costs more to hold than Anjouan's €17,828 license and less than a Georgian permit at about €34,400, which ranks it fifth of nine among the cheapest gambling licenses by yearly fee.

How to Apply for a Tobique License and How Long It Takes

1. Choose or form the licensing company, in any country, and appoint the senior manager who owns AML compliance.
2. Prepare the application file and the policies the Commission's codes require.
3. Submit it through the appointed agent with the €2,500 review fee, as quoted.
4. Pass due diligence and pre-approval, then pay the license fee.
5. Put the Commission's seal in the footer of every licensed domain, switch on geo-blocking and launch.

The appointed agent says licenses issue two to three weeks after pre-approval, up to eight in some cases; licensing firms quote four to eight weeks from a complete application. In exceptional cases the Commission may give a foreign operator a temporary license of up to six months while the file is processed, never two in a row (s.23(6)).

The license runs one year, according to the agent, and the register bears that out: all but 4 of its 195 entries expire by 24 October 2027, and 2 had already passed their expiry date when we counted.

Tobique License Requirements

The Act and the Commission's General Code of Practice, enacted on 5 April 2024, set the operating rules, and the Commission says it will cancel the license of a holder that breaks either.

• Banking: payments run through regulated providers approved by the Commission or the agent, and changes need written consent (Act s.39; Code 8.1 and 8.2).
• Player funds: held in a separate regulated bank or e-money account at 100% of balances plus a margin (Code 8.11).
• Games: fairness shown by a current certificate from an accredited testing lab (Code 25.1).
• Reporting: monthly and quarterly returns, audited annual accounts and records kept five years (Code 30; Act s.38).
• Players: minimum age 18, self-exclusion, and disputes unresolved after two months sent to an approved dispute resolution body (Act s.28 and 37; Code 29.8).
• AML: a senior manager owns compliance, suspicions reach the Commission within 24 hours or as soon as practicable, and applicants with related parties on the FATF blacklist are not eligible (AML Code 13 and 23.1; Act s.34).

No Tobique or Canadian company is needed. The Act sets no incorporation rule, and the register lists S.R.L., Limitada, Limited, LLC and B.V. companies. We found no rule on where servers must sit; licensees report their hardware, including each server's public IP address (Code 26.13). One license may cover several URLs, with the Commission deciding whether any needs its own approval (s.23(4)).

Crypto and Tax Under a Tobique License

Crypto is allowed. The Act defines money to include "digital assets" (s.5). The AML Code lists crypto among the high-risk payment methods that can call for enhanced due diligence (21.4.4). Curaçao, Anjouan and the Isle of Man also allow crypto on terms of their own, so choosing a crypto casino license comes down to those terms.

Neither the Act nor the codes set a tax on gaming revenue, and licensing firms quote 0%, with the €1,225 social contribution quoted as a fixed sum. Profit is taxed in the country where the licensed company is incorporated.

Restricted Countries Under a Tobique License

Section 23.2 of the AML Code bars play from countries on the Commission's banned list, and Appendix A, headed restricted country list, names 20 countries and 2 Canadian provinces, each with a risk rating.

• Rated low or medium risk: the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.
• Rated high risk: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, China, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Myanmar, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
• Canadian provinces: Ontario and New Brunswick, Tobique's own province.

The agent's published list is shorter, naming the UK, the US, New Brunswick and FATF-sanctioned countries, and licensing firms report 21 or 22 jurisdictions. Appendix A is the Commission's own text.

The Legal Standing of the Tobique Gaming Commission

Like the Kahnawake gaming license, regulated from the Mohawk territory near Montréal since 1999, Tobique's license rests on a First Nation's own law. The Act brings itself into force under the Tobique First Nation's inherent right to self-government, as recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 (s.1(2)). Section 4 declares that it overrides any act of the Parliament of Canada or of a province as far as it relates to the First Nation.

Canada's Criminal Code starts from the provinces. Section 207(1)(a) makes it lawful for a provincial government to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in its province, and section 207(4)(c) keeps schemes run through a computer out of what charities, fairs and other licensees may operate. The Code names no First Nation licensing power. The Commission's authority rests on asserted First Nation jurisdiction that Canadian criminal law does not expressly grant, and no court ruling we know of has tested it.

Who a Tobique License Suits

• Crypto casinos: digital assets count as money under the Act.
• Fast launches: the agent quotes weeks rather than months.
• Groups incorporated elsewhere: no local company, director or server location is set.
• Multi-domain brands: one license may cover several URLs.
• Budget launches: about €26,900 a year as quoted, with no tax on revenue in the Act.

It is the wrong license in these cases:

• Operators targeting the US, the UK, Ontario or New Brunswick
• Businesses whose banks, payment providers or suppliers want a license resting on national law
• Plans that need a published fee schedule or a multi-year term

Tobique Compared to Georgia's International Permit

Georgia's international permits, created by Law No. 1822 of 25 June 2026 and issued by the Revenue Service in Tbilisi, let a Georgian company run online casino games, slots or sports betting for players who are not Georgian citizens. Here they sit beside Tobique on standing, cost, tax, term and substance, the points on which we compare gambling licenses from eight jurisdictions, as of October 2026.

The issuer is the sharpest difference. A Georgian permit comes from a national statute and from the Revenue Service, a state tax authority that has 20 days from a complete filing to decide before the permit is deemed issued. It runs five years, so an operator applies once where a Tobique licensee goes through four renewals in the same period.

Payments start from a different place. Article 13¹ of Georgia's Payments Law, the 2021 ban on gambling payments, reaches only foreign gambling companies and payments by Georgian residents, which leaves Georgian banks and payment providers free to serve a Georgian-licensed operator. Visa's rules ask for a licensed gambling merchant and an acquirer from the merchant's own country, and a Georgian permit fits that with the license, the company and the acquirer in one country.

Georgia taxes revenue where Tobique, as quoted, does not: 5% of foreign players' gross gaming revenue plus the 1% monitoring fee, owed in loss-making months too, with no corporate tax on profit kept in the company. Each vertical is its own permit at about €34,400 a year. Crypto is a point for Tobique, since Georgia's international permits offer no lawful crypto deposit route today.

Tobique Gaming License FAQ