Vanuatu Gaming Licence Cost in 2026: The Full Breakdown

If you have priced a Vanuatu gaming licence online, you have probably seen the €10,000 annual fee quoted as if that were the whole cost of going live. It is not — but Vanuatu is one of the rare jurisdictions where the headline number is genuinely low and the gap to the real budget is small. In our practice placing operators across the offshore market, Vanuatu keeps coming up for the same reason: a €5,000 application, €10,000 a year, no minimum capital, and a licence that lasts 15 years.

This guide breaks down the real cost of a Vanuatu gaming licence in 2026 — the government fees and what they include, the mandatory pieces that sit outside them, the 0% turnover / 1% GGR tax, and a realistic year-one range. Every line is itemised, so you can read any provider’s quote against it and see exactly what you are paying for.

The government fees: €5,000 + €10,000, and what they buy

The Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) charges two headline figures under the Interactive Gaming Act [Cap 261]: a €5,000 application fee and a €10,000 annual licence fee. The annual fee includes two authorised domains on the record; each additional domain is €5,000. There is no minimum paid-up capital — you are not asked to lock away a deposit or prove a capital floor before you can trade.

What makes those fees unusually good value is coverage. A single Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Licence spans online casino, sports betting, poker, lottery-style games and crypto gambling — you do not license each product line separately or stack per-vertical fees. Crypto operations are expressly within scope rather than merely tolerated, which is why the permit suits crypto-first casinos that still want a formal, recognised authorisation. For the full legitimacy and scope picture, see our flagship Vanuatu gaming licence guide.

The 15-year term: why Vanuatu removes renewal friction

Most offshore permits are issued for a single year and re-approved annually — you re-file, the regulator re-assesses, and each renewal is a small re-application with its own risk of delay or new conditions. Vanuatu is different. The Interactive Gaming Licence is valid for a full 15 years. You still pay the €10,000 fee each year, but you are not re-applying, and that distinction matters more than it first appears.

A 15-year horizon means you can build banking relationships, marketing spend and partnerships on a permit that is not up for reconsideration every twelve months. It removes a recurring administrative cost and a recurring point of uncertainty. For a long-horizon operator — anyone building a brand rather than a short-lived skin — that certainty is worth as much as the low fee itself.

Why the real year-one budget is ≈€25,000–€45,000

The €10,000 buys a licence for a business that does not exist yet. To reach that permit — and to operate lawfully once you hold it — you need an incorporated corporate applicant, a compliance stack the VFSC will accept, key-person due diligence, RNG certification and payment rails that survive a high-risk category. None of that is inside the government fee, and none of it is optional. Here is how the year-one total is built, line by line.

The spread is wide for a reason: a crypto-only casino licensing third-party games and running a lean EMI-only stack lands near the bottom; a multi-vertical brand with proprietary-game certification and a full Cyprus payment-agent structure lands near the top. Two lines swing the total more than any other — certification and payments. If you licence only third-party games from studios that already hold their own RNG certificates, certification is small; if you run proprietary games or an in-house RNG, independent-lab testing is unavoidable. Decide those two things early and your year-one figure stops being a range and becomes a fixed number. For the full document and eligibility checklist behind the compliance line, see the Vanuatu licence requirements.

The applicant company: no local Vanuatu presence

One of the quiet cost savings of Vanuatu is that you do not need a local office, resident director or local staff. The applicant is a suitable corporate company with clear ownership and fit-and-proper UBOs — filed remotely, with no travel and no on-island substance requirement. That keeps the incorporation line modest compared with jurisdictions that force a local entity and a resident director onto your balance sheet, and it is a large part of why Vanuatu’s total cost of ownership stays low.

Because there is no local-presence obligation, the corporate structure is straightforward: a clean holding entity, documented ownership, and the AML/KYC and responsible-gaming policies the VFSC expects. Fit-and-proper checks on owners and key persons, source-of-funds evidence and a detailed business plan complete the file. Compared to a licence that demands local directors and offices, that is a meaningful line off the budget.

Payments: the line most budgets get wrong

The licence is the easy part; the payment stack is where money and time actually go. Gambling is a high-risk category everywhere, and offshore gambling doubly so — which is why you do not use a mainstream consumer processor. Wise, Stripe and PayPal prohibit gambling; building on them is the fastest way to hold a valid licence and still be unable to accept a deposit. The right setup is an EMI or neobank account, often paired with a payment-agent company incorporated in Cyprus to hold PSP relationships and handle settlement, plus crypto rails where the model calls for them.

Budget this before you apply, not after. Operators who leave payments to the end are the ones who go live on paper but cannot process a single transaction. Plan which PSPs accept Vanuatu-licensed merchants, where the Cyprus settlement layer sits and how crypto fits — before you file.

Vanuatu vs Anjouan on cost

Put side by side with Anjouan — the permit operators most often shortlist against it — Vanuatu wins on annual fee and licence term, and gives back a little on tax. The €10,000 annual fee undercuts Anjouan’s €17,828 by nearly half, and the 15-year term removes the annual re-approval that Anjouan carries. The trade-off is the 1% GGR tax: Anjouan charges 0% on gaming revenue, so on a high-GGR operation that 1% eventually matters. On a modest or early-stage book, the lower fee and longer term more than cover it.

Both sit firmly among the cheapest formal licences available in 2026, and both are legitimate, recognised permits rather than grey-market setups. Which one fits comes down to your GGR profile, how much you value a long fixed term, and your banking needs — read the full Vanuatu vs Anjouan comparison for the detailed trade-off, and see where both rank in our roundup of the best gambling licences in 2026.

Budget it right the first time

The honest Vanuatu number is two numbers: €5,000 + €10,000 for the licence, and ≈€25,000–€45,000 for the year-one business around it. That is genuinely low for a formal, recognised permit — and the 15-year term means year two onward is just the €10,000 renewal, the corporate company and any Cyprus payment agent in good standing, and a light compliance retainer. Anyone quoting only the government fee is selling you paper; anyone hiding the setup inside “government fees” is hiding their margin.

We handle the full Vanuatu file end to end, itemised and transparent — from the corporate applicant and VFSC application to RNG certification and a working EMI/neobank payment stack. Want a real quote for your model rather than a headline figure? Book a free consultation or explore the Vanuatu gaming licence service.

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