What we read
The first source for any license fact is the regulator that issues the license. For online casino that means a state gaming commission, control board, lottery or division of a department, and the list of holders it publishes. We read the list itself, in whatever format the regulator uses, and copy the holder name, the permit or certificate number where the list shows one, and the websites the list ties to that holder.
For the law, we read the statute, the session law or the governor's signing page, and for enforcement we read the attorney general's own release or the court's page. Federal law is read in the United States Code and in the Supreme Court's own opinion pages.
Industry trackers and trade press are not primary. We use them for counts that no regulator publishes, such as how many states offer online sports betting, and each time we do, the page says that the figure is a tracker's count. We do not name those sites and we do not link to them.
The day a page was read
Two places show a read date. The footer of every page gives one site-wide date, labeled as the date of our newest reads. The license box on an operator page and the facts box on a regulator page each give the day we read that holder's listing or that regulator's list. Other pages carry no date of their own. A regulator's own list date is shown as the regulator's, in a separate line. A list can be dated September 22, 2026 and still have been read by us on November 11, 2026, and the two dates answer different questions: one says how current the regulator's list is, the other says when we looked.
Read dates are not renewed in bulk. A date changes only when the source has been opened again. The register makes no promise of a fixed re-check schedule, and a license box or regulator box that has not been touched since its read date keeps showing that date.
What "On the regulator's list" means
The status shown in a license box is "On the regulator's list." It states one thing: the holder, under the name shown, appears on the regulator's published list on the day we read it.
It does not mean we have inspected the operator, tested a game, or judged how the operator treats its customers. It is not an endorsement and it is not a rating. It also does not say anything about days before or after the read. If a list changes tomorrow, the box still describes the day we read it.
Where a regulator's site answers every visitor with a block or error page, we cannot read the list. Pages for those states say so, in plain words, and use no license box for the holders we could not read.
Blocked sites
We read robots.txt for every host before any page of it, and we follow what it says, including entries aimed at AI agents. We send one request per second at most to a host, we do not log in, and we do not change how our client identifies itself. A host that answers our normal client with a block is treated as blocked, and we do not work around it.
During our research on November 11, 2026, several regulator hosts, among them Michigan, West Virginia and Maine, answered our client with a 403. For those states we say the regulator's site did not answer our client, we use trade press only for the count of operators, and the page labels that count as secondary. We never present a trade-press holder list as a register.
Why sweepstakes pages say no license exists
Sweepstakes casinos are not licensed by any state gambling regulator, so there is no list to be on. Each brand page therefore states "No state gambling license exists for sweepstakes casinos," and shows what we can document: the operating company as listed, the operator's restricted states, the enforcement record from primary sources, and the day we read each. A sweepstakes brand never receives the status shown for a licensed holder.
How operator domains are proven
A website is attached to an operator only when a regulator list shows that site next to the holder, or when the operator's own pages name it. We do not guess a domain from a brand name and we do not accept a domain from an affiliate or comparison page. Where a domain is not proven, the page has no link and says so.
Our rules
- Operators are listed alphabetically or by state, never put in an order of merit.
- No offers of any kind, and no instruction to play.
- Operator links are plain, carry a nofollow attribute and show the bare domain as the link text.
- No affiliate links and no tracking links, anywhere on the site.
- No links to review or comparison sites, and no naming of them.
The player and comparison-site summaries
A sweepstakes brand page can carry two short summaries. The first condenses what players write in public app store listings and in open review pages. The second condenses what comparison sites say, without naming them. Both are written in our words, labeled with the kind of source they draw on, and kept apart from the license box so that nobody mistakes opinion for a regulator's fact. We do not endorse what either group says.
Corrections
If a page is wrong, write to info@usgamblinglicenses.com with the page address and a link to the source that shows the correct fact. We check the source, change the page where it supports the change, and update the read date in the license or regulator box and the site-wide date in the footer. The contact page lists what helps us act quickly, and the about page says who publishes the register.
A brand that wants its page reviewed can write to the same address with the page address and the reason. We read each request against the sources, and a factual error is corrected.