A mating key gateway is adapted to retrieve a mating key, which is used to encrypt a program key that is used to scramble digital content prior to transmission to a digital device. According to one embodiment of the invention, the mating key gateway comprises a processor, a communication interface and a non-volatile storage unit. The non-volatile storage unit is configured to store a mating key lookup table to identify a targeted server to retrieve the mating key therefrom based on the information received from a headend.