Licensing in Anjouan,
without the folklore.
A reference for founders evaluating Anjouan for gaming, forex, crypto, and offshore licensing. Real costs, real timelines, and how to tell a real licence from a fake one.
Four licenses. One jurisdiction.
Anjouan's regulatory framework covers most of the activities a modern online operator needs. Pick the guide that matches your vertical.
Gaming
Single licence covers casino, sportsbook, poker, esports and prediction markets. Crypto-native.
- €17,828 regulator fee
- 2–4 week approval
- B2B licence available
Forex
Brokerage, CFDs, and binary products. Lower bar than the EU; more demanding than pure offshore.
- €15k–22k range
- Capital minimums apply
Crypto
Exchanges, custody, token issuance. Anjouan accepts activity most regulators still won't touch.
- No token whitelist
- Stablecoin-friendly
Offshore
IBC formation and passive structures. The chassis under most gaming and forex licenses.
- 0% tax framework
- No local presence required
Why Anjouan, now.
After Curaçao's 2023 reform, operators who used to treat licensing as a checkbox suddenly owed six figures in new compliance costs. Anjouan absorbed that spillover.
A single Anjouan licence covers casino, sportsbook, poker, and esports — no separate product classes. Approval is measured in weeks, not months. Entry-level year-one budget starts around €27,578 (licence fee plus ALSI-administered IBC formation and consultant fees) where Malta is closer to €170,000.
The regulatory framework is crypto-permissive. Token whitelists are not enforced. Operators can denominate in stablecoins or native assets without a separate digital-asset authorisation layered on top of the gaming licence.
It is not the right jurisdiction for every product. It is the right jurisdiction for a lot more of them than it was three years ago.
Real licences exist.
So do the fake ones.
The regulator is the Anjouan Gaming Authority (AGA). Applications are processed by ALSI. AOFA — the old name that still appears on many documents — was disavowed by the Comorian government and flagged by FATF in 2024. Our verification guide walks through the fifteen-minute protocol for confirming a licence is real before you wire a cent.
The ABC News investigation surfaced operators presenting Anjouan licences that didn't exist. The problem isn't that Anjouan is illegitimate — the problem is that legitimate AGA-issued licences sit next to a large inventory of forged or stale PDFs.
Planning an Anjouan licensing application?
Free initial consultation. We respond within one business day.