Turnkey Casino Solution Guide

Turnkey is one of the most elastic words in iGaming procurement. Vendors attach it to anything sold as a package, from a rebranded shared platform to a bespoke build, so the label on its own tells a buyer almost nothing about what actually changes hands.

This guide reads the model from the buyer's side of the table: the ownership line, the normal contents of a package, an honest comparison against white label and custom, and the questions that separate a platform owner from a reseller.

What is a turnkey casino solution?

Where the ownership line sits

With white label you trade under the provider's master licence and inherit their permitted markets, their compliance posture and, in most contracts, their relationship with the payment providers. With turnkey you apply for your own licence, and every one of those relationships becomes yours.

That single difference drives the rest of the comparison: which markets you can open, who is able to switch your brand off, whose name sits on the player agreement, and what there is to sell if you ever exit.

It also moves the compliance load onto you. A licensee answers for anti money laundering controls, responsible gambling tooling and the safety of player funds, whether the software was bought in or not.

A test that cuts through the marketing

Ask one question of any provider using the word turnkey. Whose name appears on the gambling licence, and whose name appears on the player terms and conditions? If both answers are the provider, you are being sold white label with a different word on the invoice.

Serious suppliers answer that in the first call. OHS Gaming publishes the scope of its turnkey online casino package, and any credible competitor should be equally specific.

What is included in a turnkey casino solution?

• Platform and PAM. Player accounts, wallets, deposit and session limits, and a full game round history the regulator can audit.
• Game library. Usually delivered through one casino game aggregator integration, so slots, table games and live dealer software arrive on a single contract.
• Cashier and payments. Pre built connectors to acquirers, wallets and crypto rails, although the merchant contracts are still signed by you.
• Back office. Reporting, CRM, a bonus engine, affiliate tracking and a compliance dashboard.
• Compliance tooling. KYC checks, transaction monitoring, deposit limits, self exclusion and reality checks wired into registration and payout.
• Operations. Hosting, monitoring, platform updates and a support agreement with a stated response time.

What is not included

The licence is the big one. A vendor can help assemble the file, and specialist gambling licence support can run the application, but the applicant is your company and the fees leave your account.

• The operating company, its directors and its corporate bank account.
• Merchant accounts, and the rolling reserve an acquirer holds against them.
• The player liability reserve, funded before the first deposit lands.
• Marketing, affiliate deals and content, which usually outweigh every other launch cost.

Turnkey vs white label vs custom

Read the table as a spectrum of control rather than a ranking. Plenty of operators open on a white label iGaming platform to prove a market, then move to turnkey once the numbers justify holding a licence.

The companion white label casino software guide covers the rented licence model in depth, including the revenue share mechanics and the constraints it places on a brand.

What does a turnkey casino cost and how long does it take?

Licence fees you can verify

Curacao is the usual first licence for a turnkey launch. Under the LOK regime the Curacao Gaming Authority charges a one off application fee of EUR 4,592, plus EUR 150 for each ultimate beneficial owner, per the CGA LOK licence fee schedule, version 2.0 of 15 October 2025.

The annual bill is EUR 47,450, split into EUR 24,490 to the National Treasury and EUR 22,960 as the CGA supervisory fee, payable in full by 15 January each year.

Local substance is a dated liability rather than a waiver. The CGA has confirmed that operators need not meet the LOK Article 5.12 substance obligation before 1 April 2027, in its postponement notice of 23 January 2026.

Malta suits operators selling into regulated European markets. The Malta Gaming Authority charges a non refundable EUR 5,000 application fee and a EUR 25,000 fixed annual B2C licence fee, per its licence fees and taxation guidance note.

The same note sets a Type 1 compliance contribution running from a EUR 15,000 minimum to a EUR 375,000 cap, and minimum share capital of EUR 100,000. Malta is a materially more expensive place to hold a licence than Curacao.

What the platform side costs

Providers rarely publish platform pricing, and any figure quoted without a scope attached is noise. Expect a setup fee covering configuration, branding and integration, then a monthly minimum or a revenue share.

Ask every shortlisted vendor for the same artefact: a twelve month all in figure covering setup, monthly minimum, revenue share, game content fees, payment integration charges and support. Comparing headline percentages alone hides most of the real cost.

How long a turnkey launch takes

Two to four months from signature to soft launch is realistic, based on OHS Gaming delivery experience rather than any published benchmark. Configuring the software is seldom the constraint.

The critical path runs through the licence file and payment onboarding, both of which wait on third parties reading your documents. Start company formation and bank onboarding in the week you sign the platform contract. The full sequence sits in our guide to starting an online casino business.

How to evaluate a turnkey casino provider

Questions worth asking in writing

1. Which regulators has this exact platform been certified for, and which licensees are live on it today?
2. Can we export player, transaction and game round data on demand, in a documented format?
3. Who holds the contracts with the game suppliers and the payment providers, us or you?
4. What is the notice period, and what happens to the player database on termination?
5. Which test houses have certified the RNG and the platform, and how recently?
6. What is the escalation path, and what does the service agreement pay out when it is missed?

Evidence to ask for

Certification is checkable. Accredited houses such as eCOGRA and Gaming Laboratories International issue the reports regulators expect, and a provider who cannot produce a current one is telling you something useful.

Ask for two operator references on the same platform version, and question them about withdrawals under load rather than about the sales process. Payment failure at volume is the fault that damages a young brand fastest.

Red flags

Watch for refusal to commit to data export in the contract, revenue share with no cap and no exit, vague answers about who holds the game supplier agreements, and a demonstration environment that is really another operator's live site.

If a provider will not put the compliance split in writing, the ambiguity lands on you, because a regulator holds the licensee accountable. An independent iGaming consulting review usually pays for itself, and our compliant casino platform playbook holds the control matrix behind it.