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Licence · Guernsey (Bailiwick of Guernsey)

Guernsey gambling regulation (States of Guernsey Committee for Home Affairs)

Guernsey is often mixed up with Alderney, but the two regulate gambling separately. On Guernsey itself, the States' Committee for Home Affairs licenses land-based and charitable gambling such as bookmakers, Crown and Anchor tables, raffles and cinema racing under the Gambling (Guernsey) Law, 1971 and related Ordinances, and its published guidance describes no online gambling licence. Online gambling licences in the Bailiwick of Guernsey come from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. Any operator serving Great Britain needs a Gambling Commission licence.

By , EditorUpdated 3 October 2026Checked against the regulator's sourcesHow we check
For players in Great BritainGuernsey itself does not license online gambling, so no Guernsey-island licence exists that could be used for British customers. Since 1 November 2014, section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, read with section 36(3) and (3A) as substituted by the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, means that anyone providing remote gambling facilities used in Great Britain needs a Gambling Commission operating licence, even if all their equipment is offshore (where the provider knows or should know the facilities are used, or likely to be used, in Great Britain). The same 2014 Act repealed section 331 (the 'foreign gambling' advertising rule that had let operators from listed jurisdictions advertise in Great Britain), and advertising unlawful gambling is an offence under section 330. An operator licensed elsewhere in the Bailiwick (Alderney) needs a Gambling Commission licence to serve Great Britain. How to check a site.

Licence types

  • Bookmaker and betting office permissions under the Gambling (Betting) Ordinance, 1973 (land-based)
  • Crown and Anchor operator licences and table permits
  • Private lottery (raffle) permits
  • Cinema racing event permits
  • Amusements with prizes at shows and fairs (by advice from the Committee)
  • No online or remote gambling licence is described on the States of Guernsey gambling page

What players get

  • Complaints about a betting office or bookmaker in Guernsey go to the Office of the Committee for Home Affairs.
  • Under the Gambling (Guernsey) Law, 1971, lotteries must be promoted by people present in the Bailiwick, and no business may negotiate or enter gambling transactions with a 'stranger', which limits remote selling (charity raffle tickets may be sold on a website but must be handed over in person).

How to check a licence

Guernsey has no public online gambling licence register. Lists such as approved Crown and Anchor operators are available from the Office of the Committee for Home Affairs on request. Online gambling licences in the Bailiwick are issued in Alderney by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, which publishes its own register (https://www.gamblingcontrol.org/licensees). For British customers, check the Gambling Commission's public register (https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register/).

Context

Guernsey's own gambling law is the Gambling (Guernsey) Law, 1971, plus Ordinances for specific activities; it covers land-based and charitable gambling.

The Channel Islands Christmas Lottery and scratch-cards fall under the States Trading Supervisory Board, not the Committee for Home Affairs.

Within the Bailiwick, online gambling regulation sits with Alderney's AGCC, which works with Guernsey bodies such as the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and the Financial Intelligence Unit; gambling equipment housed in the Bailiwick must be in premises holding an AGCC hosting certificate.

Not yet verified
  • No 2024-2026 Guernsey gambling reform could be confirmed. A wider modernisation of Guernsey's gambling law, possibly with a changed regulator, may have been debated by the States, but no primary source was reached (web search budget exhausted; gov.gg search returned 404).
  • The Gambling (Guernsey) Law, 1971 and the Gambling (Betting) Ordinance, 1973 were not read; facts about them come from the gov.gg page (consolidated texts are linked there at guernseylegalresources.gg).
  • Whether the Gambling (Guernsey) Law, 1971 extends to Sark or Alderney was not checked.
  • Suggest a short page, or folding this into the Alderney page, unless a Guernsey online regime is confirmed.
We could not confirm these from a primary source, so we have not stated them as fact.

Sources

  1. gov.gg/gambling
  2. gamblingcontrol.org/licensees
  3. gamblingcontrol.org/_files/ugd/b329cb_99ce57f4bb3742a99b4f5694088ef403.pdf
  4. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/section/36
  5. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/17/section/1/enacted
  6. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/section/330
  7. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/19/section/331
  8. gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-register/