THE HAGUE - Several factions in the Dutch House of Representatives want an in-depth investigation into how Curaçao could become a paradise for international criminal organizations that launder their profits from drug, arms and human trafficking through online casinos.  

Not only the role of the Curaçao government, which has allowed an unbridled trade in gambling licenses to develop without any supervision, should be considered, but also that of the Netherlands, which laid the foundations for the trust sector in the 1980s in Willemstad. At the time, it facilitated tax avoidance and, since the rise of the internet, the gambling mafia, said former Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak in the radio program Argos.  

Today's Argos broadcast follows a series of publications about the Curaçao gambling sector on the journalistic research platform Investico, de Groene Amsterdammer and Trouw. “It involves billions. Well-meaning politicians have no chance, malicious politicians have a chance because they are supported by gambling bosses with a dubious background," says Van Raak.