What you need to start an online casino
- 01 A market you're allowed to serve
- 02 A gambling license
- 03 A casino platform
- 04 Games
- 05 Payment processing
- 06 A bankroll to pay winners
- 07 Players
Step 1: Pick your market (it picks your license)
There's no global gambling law. Each country writes its own. A few hand out local licenses and wall off everyone else. Others accept offshore licenses. Some ban online casinos flat out. So before logos or domains, answer one question: where do your players live? That answer picks your license. Already have an audience? Start with where it actually lives.
Step 2: Sort out the gambling license
New casinos mostly go offshore first. Two you'll hear about constantly:
- Curaçao: The application alone is €4,592. After that the bill is €47,450 every year (a €24,490 license fee plus €22,960 for supervision). Budget three to five months if your paperwork is clean.
- Anjouan: Roughly €17,000 to get in, €13,300 a year to stay in, and extra for company setup and key-person checks. Faster, though: often two to eight weeks.
Local licenses in regulated countries? Pricier, slower, stricter.
On MyCasino, the license is part of what we cover. You don't apply for your own.
Step 3: Choose how you'll build it
- Build from scratch: your own developers and integrations. Total control, the highest cost, the longest road.
- Turnkey: a complete platform you license and run under your own gambling license.
- White label: a ready-made casino under your brand, on the provider's platform and usually its license. Expect $15,000 to $150,000 up front, $5,000 to $50,000 every month after, and a 10% to 30% cut of NGR (net gaming revenue) on top.
MyCasino is a white label with no setup fee and no monthly bill.
Step 4: Add games
Players expect slots, live tables and quick games like crash, dice and plinko. Each game studio needs an agreement, directly or through an aggregator, plus the integration work.
10,000+ games come integrated, plus in-house originals shown under your brand.
Step 5: Set up payments
Payments are where plenty of new casinos stall. Card processors file gambling under high risk. Translation: slow approvals, fat fees. Crypto dodges most of that. It doesn't dodge the plumbing, though: wallets, confirmations and withdrawals fast enough to keep players happy.
Deposits and withdrawals in BTC, ETH, USDT, SOL, XRP and 9 more coins, run by us, with instant cashouts.
Step 6: Fund your bankroll
It's easy to leave off a budget because it isn't a fee. Your casino needs cash on hand to pay winners from day one, before the house edge has had time to work. A single 500x win on a $100 bet is a $50,000 payout, and if it lands in week one, it's owed in week one.
Plan for at least your biggest possible payout, and for more than one landing close together. What is a casino bankroll?
On MyCasino the bankroll is ours. Every win is paid by us, including wins of up to $50,000 on a single bet, and you park $0.
Step 7: Bring players and keep them
Every other step is about being able to take a bet. This one is about getting bets placed. Casinos that grow start with an audience: streamers, affiliates, communities, content. Keeping players matters as much as finding them, so plan races, VIP levels and bonuses from the first week.
This step is yours. It's the one thing we can't do for you, and the one that decides what you earn.
How long does it take to start an online casino?
The traditional way, the license alone takes two to eight weeks in Anjouan or three to five months in Curaçao, and platform setup, game deals and payments stack on top. With MyCasino, you send the form today, a real person replies within a day, the intake call happens the same week, and you go live days after that.
Is starting an online casino worth it?
It can be, if you have players. The house edge favors the casino over enough bets, but the costs come first: license fees, platform fees and a bankroll to fund before the first bet. Take those away and one question is left: can you bring players?
The shortcut, step by step
| Step | The usual route | With MyCasino |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Market | You research it | We check it with you at intake |
| 2. License | Apply and pay the fees | Covered by us |
| 3. Platform | Build, license or rent | Included |
| 4. Games | A deal per studio | 10,000+ included |
| 5. Payments | Find a processor | Crypto, included |
| 6. Bankroll | Your cash | Ours, up to $50,000 per bet |
| 7. Players | You | You |
Sources: Curaçao fees and timeline from the CGA fee schedule (reported by AGB, Nov 2025) and a 2026 licensing guide; Anjouan figures from a 2025 licensing consultancy guide; white label ranges from an industry pricing guide.