Vanuatu Gaming Licence 2026: The Complete Operator Guide

Most operators shopping for an offshore gaming licence in 2026 are really weighing two things against each other: how little they can pay to run it, and how long they can leave it alone. Vanuatu wins on both. Its Interactive Gaming Licence costs €10,000 a year, carries no fixed minimum capital and, unusually, can run for up to 15 years. It has become the natural home for cost-focused and crypto-first operators who want a formal, recognised permit without an annual renewal treadmill.

This is the complete picture: what the Vanuatu licence is, what it actually costs, what the regulator asks for, how the structure works, and where it sits against the alternatives. Where a number matters we give it plainly, because the most expensive mistakes in licensing come from budgeting against the wrong figure.

What the Vanuatu gaming licence is

The Vanuatu gaming licence is granted under the Interactive Gaming Act [Cap 261]. Section 34 of the Act makes the Director of Customs and Inland Revenue the regulator. Applications are filed through VGA Limited, the sole exclusive agent for the licence, which operates in partnership with the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue as the Vanuatu Gaming Authority. The Interactive Gaming Licence is the authorisation that lets an operator offer online gambling to international players from Vanuatu.

What makes it stand out is the combination of scope, term and price. The licence fee covers all forms of interactive gaming on a domain, so one licence spans online casino, sports betting, poker and lottery-style games. There is no fixed minimum paid-up capital, although the applicant has to show capital adequacy. The applicant must be a company registered in Vanuatu, but the Act sets no requirement for on-island staff. And the Act allows a term of up to 15 years, where most offshore permits renew every year. For a founder who wants certainty and a low fixed cost, that combination is rare.

Cost: what you actually pay in Vanuatu

Vanuatu’s pricing is simple and low. Order No. 110 of 2024 sets the application fee at €5,000. The licence fee is €10,000 on grant and on each anniversary, for all forms of interactive gaming on one domain, and each additional wagering domain costs €1,500. There is no fixed minimum capital to lock up. On the tax side, turnover is taxed at 0% and gross gaming revenue at 1%.

Those are the government fees payable in respect of the licence itself. Your true year-one budget also includes setting up the Vanuatu applicant company, the compliance build (AML/KYC and responsible-gaming policies, business plan, proof of funds), RNG certification for any proprietary games, and your payment arrangements. We model the full figure for your setup, and the detail lives in our Vanuatu cost guide.

What Vanuatu requires

Vanuatu is light on substance, but it is not light on due diligence. The eligibility test is straightforward: a Vanuatu-registered applicant company with clearly defined ownership, fit-and-proper ultimate beneficial owners and directors, and demonstrable source of funds. There is no fixed minimum capital and no on-island staffing requirement, but the regulator still runs criminal background checks on directors and UBOs before it grants a long-term permit.

Expect to provide a detailed business plan and operating model, proof of funds, an AML/KYC compliance policy, responsible-gaming policies, and technical and RNG documentation for your platform and games. Beyond registering the Vanuatu company and giving it a local address, there is no office or team to build, so most of the paperwork is corporate and personal. That is a large part of why the process is measured in weeks of preparation rather than months of local setup. The full checklist is in our Vanuatu requirements guide.

How the Vanuatu structure works

The licence is held by a company registered in Vanuatu under the Companies Act No. 25 of 2012, with a physical and postal address in Vanuatu and clean ownership. Beyond that, the Act sets no on-island staffing requirement. What matters more in practice is the payment stack around it. A compliant setup routes through a dedicated payment agent incorporated in Cyprus, with settlement landing in an EMI or neobank account built for gaming flows. Mainstream consumer processors like Stripe, PayPal and Wise do not serve this kind of offshore gambling setup, so they play no part in the arrangement. Plan for that early, because assuming otherwise is one of the most common ways a launch stalls.

Crypto-first operators look at Vanuatu because the licence covers all forms of interactive gaming and the VGA accepts the application fee in BTC, ETH, BCH or USDT. The Act has no crypto-specific rules, so a crypto casino is licensed on the same terms as any other interactive gaming product. A gaming licence and a crypto-asset (VASP) licence are separate authorisations, and crypto play still carries AML obligations such as the FATF Travel Rule and blockchain monitoring, which your compliance policies have to address.

Timeline: about two months

Vanuatu is fast, if not quite the fastest offshore route. With a complete file the path runs roughly as follows. Registering the Vanuatu company and assembling the business plan, proof of funds and policies takes one to two weeks. Filing through the VGA portal with the AML/KYC policy and supporting documents takes another one to two weeks. The Department of Customs and Inland Revenue then reviews the file and runs background checks, which the VGA puts at about a month for a complete application, so the overall path lands at about two months. On approval the licence issues and you can go live across all verticals. That is materially faster than Malta or Curaçao, and the biggest lever on the timeline is the quality of the file you submit. A clean, well-evidenced application moves quickly, while a thin one invites questions.

Who the Vanuatu licence suits

Vanuatu does not suit every operator. It fits four profiles especially well. Cost-focused operators who want a low annual fee for a formal, recognised permit get it at €10,000 with no fixed capital to lock up. Crypto casinos get a licence that covers all forms of interactive gaming and a regulator fee they can pay in crypto. Long-horizon operators (brands building for years rather than running a quick test) get a term of up to 15 years and the low renewal friction that comes with it. And multi-vertical operators get casino, sportsbook, poker and lottery-style games under one authorisation instead of a stack of separate permits.

Where Vanuatu is a weaker fit is at the top of the market. If you are targeting a regulated European jurisdiction, or you need the reassurance of a tier-1 name for banking and B2B partnerships, an offshore Pacific permit will not carry the same weight. We say so in the scoping call, before you pay any fees.

Where Vanuatu fits against the alternatives

The right offshore licence depends on budget, product mix and banking needs. Vanuatu’s natural comparison is Anjouan, the other leading fast, low-cost permit. Anjouan taxes gaming at 0% and issues in roughly four to eight weeks. Vanuatu carries the lower annual fee at €10,000 against Anjouan’s €17,828 and a term of up to 15 years, offset by a 1% GGR tax and the need for a Vanuatu-registered applicant. The decision usually comes down to whether you value a lower fixed cost and a longer term (Vanuatu) or a slightly faster path and an established, widely recognised name (Anjouan).

We put the two head to head in Vanuatu vs Anjouan, and our roundup of the best gambling licences for 2026 sets Vanuatu against the broader field, including when a heavier, better-banked regime like Curaçao is worth the step up. Vanuatu is good value and a long-term option for cost-focused and crypto-first operators. It is still an offshore permit without the standing of a tier-1 European credential, and some banking and payment partners will treat it accordingly.

Getting to launch in Vanuatu

Launching is a sequencing exercise. The Vanuatu company and compliance build come first, then application and issuance, then the payment stack and go-live controls such as geo-blocking of restricted and FATF-listed markets, responsible-gaming tools and a source-of-funds gate. Vanuatu supports broad international reach, but the licence does not grant market access, so you still geo-block any regulated market you are not separately licensed in, along with sanctioned territories.

Vanuatu rewards operators who value a low fixed cost and a long horizon over a marquee name. If you want a formal, multi-vertical licence with a low annual fee and a term of up to 15 years, it is one of the strongest value picks in the market in 2026. To scope your file and get a precise year-one budget, book a free consultation and we’ll map the cleanest route for your product.

Iryna H.

Gaming Licensing at Vantegris

Iryna H. is part of the Vantegris team, which prepares and files licence applications across 40+ jurisdictions. This article was reviewed by Vladyslav S. (Compliance & Legal).

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