Comoros seeks UK help over Anjouan gambling licence network

According to a report, the Comorian government wants help from Britain as it probes a network that grants offshore gambling licences and is tied to UK nationals. Legal proceedings against the people involved are also being prepared. According to the government, the network has no authorisation and is cooperating with international police and financial-intelligence agencies. The UK request covers financial intelligence and cooperation between law-enforcement bodies.

Roughly 1,500 businesses listed on Anjouan's public register now have their status called into question by the dispute. The island is one of three main islands making up the Union of the Comoros. After declaring independence in 1997, it rejoined the union through an arrangement that gave the islands considerable autonomy. An offshore financial-services sector grew there while it was separatist.

Licensing began in May 2023, when Anjouan Licensing Services started issuing gambling permits as Curaçao and the Philippines tightened their rules. The regime points to the 2005 Gaming Act as its legal foundation. The Comorian government, however, rejects the ongoing legitimacy of the Anjouan Offshore Gaming Authority (AOGA), which is presented as the regulator overseeing the licensing system.

The Central Bank of the Comoros issued a December 2025 warning that named AOFA and Anjouan Gaming's corporate counterpart, ACS, as entities it described as fictitious and as issuing licences without authorisation. That warning was aimed mainly at banking rather than at gambling. Later, Azouan's former attorney-general Azad Mzé told Australia's ABC that Anjouan Licensing Services was likewise an illegal entity.

Anjouan Gaming, which describes itself as the island's official gambling regulator, insists the licences are valid and points to an independent legal opinion in support. The law firm behind that opinion has not been named publicly, and the opinion itself has not been released.

Harold Sorsky said ACS had neither sold nor issued gambling licences after the family took over the company in 2023. Other providers, he said, carried out those functions.

UK authorities have also been focusing enforcement on unlicensed gambling, a context in which this dispute sits. The domestic regulatory stakes for firms tied to unauthorised markets are shown by the UK Gambling Commission's action against Evolution for supplying unlicensed operators. Casino.org said Anjouan's government did not provide comment.

Questions have likewise been raised about whether documentation supports the claimed 2005 law. Researchers Steve Menary and Marko Begović, in a September 2025 study, said the publicly available version carried no official signature or stamp and appeared on the licensing organisation's website.

At home, Comoros is readying legal action while pursuing police and financial-intelligence cooperation abroad, Britain included. The national government's stance on the regime's authority continues to counter Anjouan Gaming's assertion that its licences are valid. Legality under Comorian national law is a separate question that even authorisation from Anjouan's own authorities would not settle on its own. Asked about the request, the British Treasury told the Guardian it would not comment. Comoros has identified its planned domestic legal action, together with work to secure cross-border cooperation, as the next step.