In general, if you are talking about receiving funds for gambling, you could do it. The ending is that whether you are legitimate or not, even if you let users withdraw, you could be called illegitimate just because of the lack of license to run a casino. Imagine how much people could see your website and see that you have no license to show? Or even verification. I think Reputation is all you need to have a great image here, or even in other forums. Once that's established, you would be able to invite users and play at your site.
For me, as a gambler from time to time, I don't check for the license of the site or even the provably fair. It's because I know the reputation of the casino website and doesn't need to be checked. I trusted it by the image and reputation of it. Don't be like me, and I am somehow easy to believe in people but still skeptical.
I think experienced players do not really judge the reputation of a site by the license, players prefer to play on familiar sites even though its not licensed as long as it have testimonies from players that have played and paid. The only reason a new site might compulsorily need license is when they need investors to partner with, because no investor would like to commit money in an unlicensed site.
Again, I understand licensing a site comes with many pros and cons and one of it includes compulsory KYC regulation, this is one of the reasons why most players no longer play on licensed site but would rather choose a trusted unlicensed casino site over a reputable but licensed and KYC demanding casino site
