Do I need a licence - casinos?
There are three types of licence that casino business owners may
need to apply for:
You business may need all three kinds.
Certain casino employees may need a personal
functional licence.
The Gambling Commission issues operating licences and personal
licences; premises licences are issued by local licensing
authorities.
Do I need an operating licence?
In most circumstances, you do need an operating
licence to run a casino or offer casino games, for example running
a website that offers poker, roulette and blackjack. Find out
which type of
operating licence you need, and how to apply.
There are some circumstances in which you do
not need a casino operating licence:
Do I need a personal licence?
You will need one or more personal
management licence (PML) and personal
functional licences (PFL) to run a casino.
Anyone who is responsible for any of these areas of your
organisation will need to apply for a PML:
- Overall strategy and delivery of gambling operations.
- Financial planning, control and budgeting.
- Marketing and commercial development.
- Regulatory compliance.
- Gambling related IT provision and security.
- Management of the licensed activity for a particular area in
Great Britain where you have five or more sets of premises for
which you hold a premises licence.
- Management of a single set of casino licensed premises.
Individuals who perform more than one of these management
functions at the same time only need to hold one PML. Apply for a personal management
licence.
Casino employees will have to apply for personal
functional licences if they are involved in gaming or
handling cash in relation to gambling.
Examples of employees who should have personal functional
licences are:
- dealers/croupiers
- cashiers
- inspectors
- pit bosses/gaming supervisors
- security staff/surveillance related to gambling
activities.
Apply for a personal functional
licence.
Do I need a premises licence?
If you want to run one of the new small or large casinos, or an
existing casino, you must have a relevant premises licence issued
by the local licensing authority.
If you run a Gaming Act 1968 (1968 Act) casino, you should
already have a premises licence from your local licensing
authority.
You can only apply for a 2005 Act casino premises licence in
specific local licensing authority areas - see applying for a
premises licence for more details.
Page last reviewed: April
2011