Two launch years, three statutory dates
A new online casino in Croatia and the dates that can be checked
Anyone looking for a new online casino in Croatia runs into two different kinds of news: of the 10 operators in our table only 2 publish a launch year, while the rules that apply to everyone carry the date 1 May 2025.
| Casino | Licence | Company | Threshold for checks | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vave | Curaçao Gaming Authority | Latcas B.V. | at discretion | Open |
| Vave pays for the single link that leaves this site, and that is the whole of our commercial relationship with it. Its sportsbook and its casino sit on one account, so the same money covers both without a second stake — uncommon among operators that advertise themselves as crypto casinos. We read the licence number ourselves on 2 September 2026 in the Curaçao Gaming Authority register: OGL/2024/1676/0905, held by Latcas B.V., issued 19 May 2025, status active. | ||||
| Rocketpot | Curacao | Danneskjold Ventures B.V. | US$2,500 | Read |
| Bitcasino.io | Curaçao Gaming Authority | Moon Technologies B.V. | 2,500 EUR | Read |
| Wild Fortune | Anjouan Gaming Board | Metlait SRL | at discretion | Read |
| DuckDice | Anjouan Gaming Board | Zentari Limitada | at discretion | Read |
| Empire.io | Anjouan Gaming Board | Pixel Entertainment Limited | 2,000 USDT | Read |
| Metaspins | Curaçao Gaming Authority | 3-102-959384 SRL | at discretion | Read |
| Rainbet | Anjouan Gaming Board | RBGAMING N.V. | at discretion | Read |
| Shuffle | Curaçao Gaming Authority | Natural Nine B.V. | at discretion | Read |
| Wild.io | Curaçao Gaming Authority | Stack Gaming Ltd. | at discretion | Read |
Two things the word new means here
The first is the age of a brand: when the site was launched and how long it has run under the same name. The second is the rules: what changed in Croatia and from when.
Those two kinds of news are routinely mixed in texts about the market. The first can rarely be verified, the second always, because it sits in the official gazette.
Launch year: a fact two houses publish
At the ten operators we read, we found a launch year twice.
Rocketpot states 2018, Wild.io states 2022. At the other eight we did not read such a fact, so nothing is claimed here about their age. A blank field speaks to the reach of our check, not to a brand being yesterday’s.
An uncomfortable conclusion follows for every list of new houses: the age of a brand is mostly unpublished, so lists of “new casinos” usually rest on the date somebody added them to their own site. That is the date of an editorial decision, not a date of launch.
A licence number is not a launch date
The licence numbers in our table look as though they carry a year. Anjouan marks have the form ALSI-202509073-FI2, Curaçao marks the form OGL/2024/210/0198.
We have not read the regulations of Anjouan or Curaçao, so we do not know what each group of digits in those marks stands for and we do not infer a year from them. What is visible from a register is that a number exists, which company it belongs to and what status it carries; at four Curaçao licences in our table the status reads Active. The reach of such a check is described on the page about foreign licences.
A new number in a register would say nothing about a brand’s age in any case: a licence is changed and renewed independently of when a site opened. What is visible beside the number is the company name, and nine such names sit on the page about the company behind the brand.
What those numbers look like up close
They are worth a closer look, because the wrong conclusion about how old a brand is arises precisely from their shape.
The four Anjouan marks share a structure: the letters ALSI, then nine digits, then the mark FI with a single figure. The nine digits are the same length in all four, and the closing figure differs and appears in three different forms.
The four Curaçao marks begin with OGL, followed by four groups separated by slashes. The second group reads 2023 in one mark and 2024 in three.
The temptation is obvious and we do not give in to it. We have not read either issuer’s regulations, so we do not know whether that group denotes a year of issue, a year of the form or something else. We record it as part of the mark, not as a date.
The ninth number, the one marked 1668/JAZ, matches neither pattern. It is the older Curaçao format, and its structure does not even permit that kind of guesswork.
What is genuinely new in Croatia
Here the dates exist and all of them are public.
The amendment to the Gaming Act was published in Narodne novine under number 72/2025, on 23 April 2025. Its article 21 reads: “Ovaj Zakon stupa na snagu osmoga dana od dana objave u »Narodnim novinama«.” — this Act enters into force on the eighth day after publication in the official gazette. The eighth day falls on 1 May 2025, and that date stands in the header of the consolidated text.
Transitional article 19 set the deadlines: 1 January 2026 for the identification of players at betting counters and for the provisions on advertising and responsible organising, and 30 June 2026 for the establishment of the self-exclusion register.
The same amendment introduced a count reaching a natural person outside the role of organiser: a fine of 3,980 to 6,630 euros for advertising, including posts on the internet, set out on the page about the fine for advertising.
A new rule, but not a new route to a licence
Two kinds of novelty inside the Act itself are worth separating here, because they too get mixed up.
The 2025 amendment added deadlines, duties and one offence count. What it did not touch is the way the right to organise is acquired at all: article 3 still ties it to commercial companies with their seat in the Republic of Croatia, and article 9 still keeps the exclusive right to lottery games with one company.
For a foreign brand that means the new rules change the conditions of doing business on a market it cannot enter anyway. The division of rights is set out on the page about Hrvatska Lutrija.
The register has been running since August 2025
The statutory deadline was 30 June 2026, and the Institute’s own page says the register of excluded players began operating on 1 August 2025.
Those are two separate facts and they do not contradict one another. The first says by when the duty had to be discharged, the second when it was discharged. The entry procedure and the six periods on offer are described on the page about the register of excluded players.
What to check on a brand you are seeing for the first time
A new name arrives without a history behind it, so the checking falls to the reader.
First look at the list of web addresses under a blocking order, published by Ministarstvo financija, Porezna uprava. The file carries a version date, and the order is executed within 15 days of issue; where it sits is described on the page about the list of blocked addresses.
Second, open the terms and look for two clauses: the one on asking for documents and the one on the payout ceiling. At a new brand they are the only written trace of what will happen to your money, and the figures from our table sit on the pages about identity checks and payout limits.
Third, a new foreign brand cannot obtain a Croatian approval in any circumstances, because under article 35, paragraph 2 it goes only to a company that already holds the right to a casino on premises. A comparison of the ten houses by their published clauses sits on the page about how the choice is made.