Gibraltar has been a preferred iGaming licensing jurisdiction for major operators since the early 2000s, and some of the world's largest online gambling brands — including Bet365, William Hill, and PokerStars — have historically operated under Gibraltar licences. The Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner (GGC) operates a prescriptive licensing framework under the Gambling Act 2005 (Gibraltar), with specific requirements for banking infrastructure, player fund protection, and corporate substance that distinguish it from both MGA and UKGC licensing.
The Gibraltar Licensing Framework
The Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner issues licences under the Gambling Act 2005 (a Gibraltar statute, distinct from the UK Act of the same name). Remote gambling licences — covering casino, poker, sports betting, and other online products — are issued to companies incorporated in Gibraltar or, in some cases, to foreign companies with a Gibraltar presence. The licencing process involves assessment of the key personnel, technical infrastructure, financial adequacy, and AML programme.
Post-Brexit, Gibraltar's regulatory relationship with the UK has changed materially. Prior to Brexit, UK players could be served by Gibraltar-licensed operators under a derogation that treated Gibraltar as equivalent to the UK for gambling purposes, allowing Gibraltarian operators to hold a remote licence without a separate UKGC licence for UK players. Since 31 December 2020, operators wishing to accept UK players must hold a UKGC licence. Most major Gibraltar-licensed operators hold both licences — a Gibraltar licence for their corporate structure and international operations, and a UKGC licence specifically for UK player activities.
Player Fund Requirements Under Gibraltar Licensing
The GGC requires licensed operators to protect player funds, but the framework is less prescriptive than the UKGC's three-level structure. The GGC's standard licence conditions require operators to maintain player funds in an account separate from operating funds, at a credit institution regulated in Gibraltar or a jurisdiction with equivalent regulatory standards. The separation must be documented, and the operator must be able to demonstrate at any time that the segregated account balance is sufficient to cover all outstanding player wallet balances.
Gibraltar's own banking sector is limited — Barclays Gibraltar, HSBC Gibraltar, and a small number of specialist banks serve the jurisdiction. iGaming operators have historically found Gibraltar banking accessible, partly because the local banking sector is relatively comfortable with the iGaming sector that represents a significant portion of Gibraltar's GDP, and partly because the GGC has been a pragmatic regulator that has worked with operators and banks to facilitate compliant structures.
However, the global de-risking trend has affected Gibraltar banking access, and some operators have found that their Gibraltar entity's bank accounts have been closed as the banking institutions have tightened their iGaming appetite. The solution for most operators is to use a combination of a Gibraltar-based account for local regulatory compliance demonstrations and a specialist payment institution elsewhere in the EU or UK for the operational payment flows.
Corporate Substance Requirements
The GGC has maintained a substance-first approach to licensing: the licensed entity must have genuine substance in Gibraltar, with key personnel physically present and decisions made in Gibraltar. This requirement has become more significant since Brexit removed the EU's freedom of establishment framework, and since Gibraltar introduced its own Economic Substance requirements (effective 2019, modelled on the OECD's BEPS framework) applying to geographically mobile activities including holding companies and finance companies.
For the banking infrastructure, the substance requirement means that the licensed operating entity in Gibraltar must have an operational bank account that reflects its genuine financial activity — not a dormant account maintained solely for regulatory compliance purposes. The GGC expects to see evidence that the Gibraltar entity processes real revenue, holds real player fund liabilities, and manages its treasury operations from Gibraltar.
Dual-Licence Banking Architecture
The typical banking architecture for a major operator with both a Gibraltar licence (for international operations) and a UKGC licence (for UK players) involves separate banking arrangements for each regulatory perimeter. The UKGC-regulated entity's player fund segregation account must comply with UKGC Licence Condition 4.2.1, and the withdrawals from this entity must follow UKGC LCCP requirements including the third-party payment prohibition and OCT compliance for card withdrawals.
The Gibraltar entity's banking serves the non-UK player base. These accounts may be maintained with a specialist payment institution providing multi-currency capability for European, Asian, and other international markets. Inter-entity transfers — repatriating profits from international operations to the UK holding company, or capitalising the Gibraltar entity from the group's central treasury — require documented intercompany loan or dividend structures that satisfy both Gibraltar's Economic Substance requirements and UK controlled foreign company rules under Part 9A TIOPA 2010.
Gibraltar's Tax Advantages and Their Banking Implications
Gibraltar's corporate income tax rate is 10% on profits accruing in or derived from Gibraltar. Online gaming operators with genuine Gibraltar substance benefit from this rate on their Gibraltar-source gaming revenues. However, the tax advantage only applies to profits properly attributed to Gibraltar — profits generated from UK players must be attributed to the UKGC-licensed UK entity and taxed in the UK, including UK Remote Gaming Duty (21% of gross gaming revenue from UK customers).
The banking infrastructure must support clean profit attribution between jurisdictions — each entity's accounts must reflect only the revenues and costs genuinely attributable to that entity, and intercompany arrangements for shared services (technology, marketing, compliance) must be documented at arm's length in accordance with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The GGC increasingly expects operators to demonstrate genuine economic substance, not merely corporate structuring, as the basis for the Gibraltar tax position.
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