How Much Does a Gambling Licence Cost in 2026? Real Fees, Compared

Every fee in one table

The figures below match our jurisdiction pages, which track regulator fee schedules. “Application” is what you pay to get in; “annual” is what keeps the licence alive.

Jurisdiction	Application	Annual cost	Gaming tax	Timeline
Anjouan	EUR 17,828 (incl. due diligence)	~EUR 15,000 renewal	0%	1-2 months
Costa Rica	USD 1,000-5,000 (company setup)	USD 5,000-10,000 maintenance	0%	1-2 months
Curaçao	EUR 4,592 per licence	~EUR 47,450/yr B2C; ~EUR 24,490/yr B2B	0%	3-4 months
Romania	EUR 12,400 + EUR 100,000 authorisation tax	EUR 500,000	21% of GGR	3-6 months
Sweden	SEK 400,000 (~EUR 35,000)	SEK 50,000-700,000 supervisory fee	22% of GGR	6-9 months
Denmark	DKK 296,000 (~EUR 40,000)	DKK 50,000-7M (banded)	28% of GGR	4-6 months
Spain	EUR 38,000 + EUR 10,000 per singular licence	1% of GGR supervisory fee	20-25% of GGR	4-8 months
Malta	EUR 5,000 + EUR 25,000-50,000 due diligence	EUR 25,000-35,000 per Type + 5% compliance contribution	0.4-5% of GGR	6-12 months
Isle of Man	GBP 1,000 + GBP 15,000-30,000 due diligence	GBP 35,000-50,000	0.1-1.5% of GGY	4-6 months
Gibraltar	GBP 30,000	GBP 100,000 (B2C)	0.15%, capped at GBP 425,000/yr	6-9 months
United Kingdom	GBP 9,664-153,000+ (banded by GGY)	GBP 5,500-1,000,000+ (banded by GGY)	21% RGD; 15% betting duty	4-7 months
Brazil	BRL 30,000,000 (~USD 5.5M), five years	~BRL 54,000-1,944,000/month inspection fee	12% of GGR + 0.82%	6-12 months

Two rows carry caveats. Costa Rica isn’t a licence at all — it’s a company registration in a country with no gambling regulator, and it sits in the table only because agencies sell it as if it were one. Brazil’s BRL 30,000,000 buys a five-year authorisation covering up to 3 brands, so it’s an entry ticket to one specific market rather than a general operating base.

The fee is not the cost

Every price list you’ll find quotes the application fee. Almost none quote what surrounds it, and that’s where the real budget lives.

Three layers sit on top of the headline number. First, recurring fees: Curaçao advertises a EUR 4,592 application, then charges ~EUR 47,450 a year for B2C. Anjouan flips that shape with EUR 17,828 up front and ~EUR 15,000 renewals. Same archetype, opposite cost curves. Second, substance: Malta wants at least two key persons resident in Malta or the EU with a documented physical presence, Gibraltar requires local management and real operations, and Curaçao’s post-LOK rules demand a resident managing director plus a compliance officer. Anjouan asks for a local address and nothing more, which is exactly why its renewal is so cheap. Third, gaming tax, which barely registers at launch and dominates at scale. The UK takes 21% Remote Gaming Duty on gross yield. Gibraltar takes 0.15% of yield capped at GBP 425,000 a year — at large-operator revenue, that gap is worth more than every fee in the table combined.

So read the table twice. Once for year one, once for year three.

What year one actually stacks up to

Take four representative first-year stacks, built only from the fees above.

Anjouan: EUR 17,828 covers the application, due diligence and compliance in one payment. The ~EUR 15,000 renewal starts in year two. That’s the cheapest real first year on this page.

Curaçao (B2C): EUR 4,592 to apply, then ~EUR 47,450 for the annual government licence and CGA supervisory fee. The application is the smallest line by a factor of ten.

Malta (one Type): EUR 5,000 application, EUR 25,000-50,000 in due diligence and consultancy, then EUR 25,000-35,000 for the annual licence, with the 5% compliance contribution ticking on every euro of GGR from day one.

Romania (Class 1): EUR 12,400 application, EUR 100,000 authorisation tax, EUR 500,000 annual fee. Before you’ve paid a cent of the 21% gaming tax, the regulator has collected more than most offshore operators spend in a decade.

The pattern holds across the table: the application fee predicts almost nothing about the first-year total. The annual fee and the tax base do.

The three cost archetypes

Twelve fee schedules collapse into three shapes, and knowing your shape matters more than knowing any single number.

Offshore-cheap: Anjouan, Curaçao, Costa Rica

You’re buying speed and a 0% gaming tax. Anjouan is the floor for a real licence: EUR 17,828 in, ~EUR 15,000 a year, live in 1-2 months. Curaçao costs more to keep (~EUR 47,450/yr B2C) but buys a direct CGA licence with meaningfully better acceptance. Costa Rica’s USD 1,000-5,000 setup isn’t a licence, and processors treat it accordingly.

EU-regional-mid: Romania, Sweden, Denmark, Spain

You’re buying one regulated national market per licence. The entry fees look moderate (Sweden’s SEK 400,000, Denmark’s DKK 296,000, Spain’s EUR 38,000), but each market takes 20-28% of GGR in tax, and Romania adds a flat EUR 500,000 annual fee that only makes sense above serious revenue. These are single-market economics: the licence pays for itself only if that market is your actual business.

Tier-1 premium: Malta, UK, Gibraltar, Isle of Man

You’re buying reputation, banking access and supplier credibility. Malta’s EUR 5,000 application looks friendly until the EUR 25,000-50,000 due-diligence bill and EUR 25,000-35,000 per-Type annual fees arrive. Gibraltar charges GBP 100,000 a year and expects genuine local operations. The Isle of Man is the quiet value play here — GBP 1,000 to apply, GBP 35,000-50,000 a year, 0.1-1.5% duty. The UK is its own case: banded fees from GBP 9,664 to 153,000+ and a 21% duty, mandatory if you want UK players at all.

When the cheapest licence costs more

The failure mode nobody prices in: payment rejection. Offshore licences trade acceptance for cost. Many major processors and acquiring banks decline Curaçao-licensed operators, and Anjouan fares worse — for most of its licensees, crypto rails are the only dependable path. If your market pays by card and your PSP won’t onboard you, the EUR 15,000 renewal you saved becomes irrelevant; you can’t collect deposits.

That’s why the honest comparison isn’t Anjouan versus Malta on fees. It’s Anjouan-plus-crypto-rails versus a licence your PSP already accepts. Confirm your banking and processing stack before you pick a jurisdiction, and treat any agency that quotes fees without asking about your payment mix as a red flag.

Who shouldn’t pick each archetype

Skip offshore-cheap if your players pay by card in regulated markets, you plan to raise institutional money, or your brand needs to survive due-diligence questionnaires. The licence works; the payment and reputation ceiling doesn’t.

Skip EU-regional-mid if you’re pre-revenue or spread across many small markets. Romania’s EUR 500,000 flat fee and Sweden’s 22% tax assume you’re committed to that market — as a toe-dip, both are expensive ways to learn.

Skip tier-1 if you’re testing product-market fit on a startup budget. Malta’s substance bar and Gibraltar’s GBP 100,000 annual fee reward operators who already know their model works. Buying reputation before you have revenue is the most common sequencing mistake we see.

How to choose from here

Start with where your players are and how they pay — those two answers eliminate most of the table. Then run the numbers at your projected revenue, since flat fees decide the ranking at launch and gaming tax decides it at scale. Our cheapest-licence shortlist for startups works through the low-budget path in detail, and the jurisdiction finder matches all twelve regimes against your product, markets and payment mix.