Alderney Gambling Licence Cost (AGCC, 2026)

An Alderney Category 1 (B2C) gambling licence costs £17,500 in the first year and £35,000 a year thereafter, banding up with net gaming yield to a maximum of £400,000. Every operator who asks “what does an Alderney gambling license cost” is really asking two things: what does the Alderney Gambling Control Commission charge, and what does it actually take to pass its review? The two numbers are close together here — and that is the point. Alderney’s published fees are transparent, the gaming tax is zero, and the real spend is the compliance work the AGCC’s rigour demands, not a hidden levy on your revenue.

In our practice, the operators who choose Alderney aren’t chasing the cheapest launch — they want a premium, independently-regulated credential that banks and partners respect, without paying a percentage of turnover in tax. Here is the honest all-in cost of an Alderney licence in 2026, category by category, and why it costs what it does.

What an Alderney licence actually costs in 2026

Start with the numbers the AGCC publishes, because unlike a heavily-taxed regime they are most of the story. A Category 1 (B2C) licence — the one that lets you take and manage players directly — is £17,500 for the first year and £35,000 a year thereafter. A Category 2 (B2B) licence, for the software, platform and hosting suppliers behind the operator, is £35,000 flat in the first year. Both sit on top of a £10,000 investigation deposit that funds the AGCC’s due-diligence work. And unlike Malta or the UK, there is no gaming tax and no fixed minimum share capital eating into the picture.

Two lines in that table are frequently misread. The £17,500 first-year Category 1 figure is not the steady state — it steps up to £35,000 from the second year and then bands with your net gaming yield, so a growing book pays more over time. And the £10,000 investigation deposit is not a fee you keep spending; it is a one-off that funds the AGCC’s scrutiny of your owners and systems. What the published fees don’t show is the compliance work behind them — which is where the rest of the budget goes. For a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction comparison of where Alderney sits, our best gambling licences of 2026 roundup sets it against the offshore and EU field.

The 0% gaming tax — and why it changes the maths

Alderney’s tax design is the reason the licence looks expensive on the fee line but efficient over a full year of trading. There is no gaming tax: the government takes no percentage of your gross or net gaming yield. Compare that with a tier-1 EU peer — Malta levies 5% on revenue from its home-market players — or the UK, where Remote Gaming Duty rose to 40% on UK-facing gaming revenue from April 2026. Those are completely different orders of magnitude, and over a live book they dwarf any difference in headline licence fees.

The nuance is the banding. The £35,000 annual Category 1 fee is the entry figure; it steps up in tiers as your net gaming yield grows, reaching a maximum of £400,000 for the very largest operators. Most licensees never approach that ceiling — they sit at or near the entry band and pay a flat, predictable annual fee with zero tax on top. When we model Alderney economics for a client, that fixed, capped structure is the headline advantage: your cost of regulation stops scaling long before your revenue does.

The real spend: the Internal Control System and the compliance build

This is where the rest of an Alderney budget goes, and where the AGCC’s reputation is earned. The commission is known for rigorous, thorough scrutiny — that scrutiny is precisely what gives the credential its weight with banks and partners — and passing it takes real preparation, not a form. The centrepiece of your submission is the Internal Control System (ICS), a documented framework covering your operations, security, AML and player-protection controls to the AGCC’s Schedule 11 headings. It is a core submission, and building it properly is a project in itself.

Around the ICS sits the rest of the file: fit-and-proper due diligence on every UBO, director and key person; demonstrated financial stability and a credible source of funds; certified RNG and technical documentation; customer registration, verification and AML controls; and responsible-gaming and data-protection policies. None of that appears on the fee schedule, and all of it recurs — the AGCC holds you to the ICS it assessed, with ongoing reporting and notification of material changes. Getting the AML and KYC layer right the first time is what keeps a file out of due-diligence limbo; our Alderney gambling licence requirements guide walks through exactly what the commission expects in each section.

Since the eGambling (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026, the whole application is fully digital — an updated form and no more bound paper submissions — which has streamlined timelines without softening the substance. The rigour is unchanged; only the friction is lower. Plan for a 3–6 month process to a full licence, with a temporary permit sometimes available sooner when a complete file is submitted up front. The full picture of what the AGCC assesses lives in our Alderney gambling licence flagship guide.

The honest year-one budget

Add the pieces and the picture is clear: budget an initial all-in of ≈£35,000–£100,000 for an Alderney licence in year one. The £17,500 Category 1 first-year fee (or £35,000 for Category 2) and the £10,000 investigation deposit are the predictable government lines. The rest is company setup, the Internal Control System build, policy and certification work, and the banking and payment setup that makes the operation actually run. Where you land inside that range depends on your category, your structure and how much of the compliance build you bring versus buy.

One more line matters for the true cost, and it is the one most operators underestimate: banking. A licence is not a bank account, and payment acceptance is the hard part of this industry. The Alderney credential’s rigour is what opens tier-1 banking and specialist gaming PSPs — the applicant here is an Alderney company (or a foreign company holding an Associate Certificate), and around it we build a payment stack on an EMI or neobank account plus regulated PSP relationships. Mainstream consumer processors prohibit gambling outright, so the licence’s standing is what makes serious banking possible at all. That is a real setup cost, but it is also the thing the whole exercise buys you.

When Alderney is the right spend

If offshore permits launch a casino for a fraction of the fee, why pay for Alderney? Because you are buying a specific thing: premium, independently-regulated credibility at 0% tax. The AGCC’s independence from the UK and its reputation for thorough supervision make the licence a mark of quality that banks, aggregators and serious partners recognise on sight. For a brand that wants that standing without an EU regime’s 5% tax and fixed share capital, the maths works — the fixed, capped fee and the zero levy pay off as revenue grows.

It is not the right answer for everyone. If your priority is the fastest, cheapest possible launch, a lighter offshore route gets you live sooner. If you need EU-market standing and a 10-year term, Malta may fit better — a trade-off we break down in our Alderney vs Malta gaming licence comparison. The right choice is the one that matches the markets you’ll actually serve, the banking you need, and the tax you’re willing to pay.

If a premium Channel-Islands credential at 0% gaming tax is where your brand is heading, we run the whole file — company or Associate Certificate, the Internal Control System, the AGCC application, certification and the banking around it — with our fees and the government costs shown separately, never blended. Read the full scope on our Alderney gambling licence page, then book a free consultation and we’ll model your real year-one budget against the AGCC fee bands before you commit a pound.

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional before acting.