WILLEMSTAD - Participants of the first seminar on "Detection & law enforcement of e-gaming" were shocked by the operations of the online gambling industry in Curaçao and the extent of its processes, according to a press release from the organizers. This observation was made based on reactions and questions from the audience. The participants were given insight into the operations of trust offices that manage a large number of gambling shell companies through sub-licenses. This includes thousands of online casinos generating an almost unpronounceable amount of billions of dollars in global revenue, of which the government of Curaçao has hardly seen any returns for thirty years.
The seminar also highlighted how some trust offices and casino companies engage in fraudulent activities and attempt to keep direct stakeholders and financial transactions under the radar to profit from the online gambling industry. This is possible due to a complete lack of oversight, as the guest speakers substantiated. The organizers expressed regret that representatives of the so-called master license holders and associated trust offices were not present during this first seminar.
"They could have shed their light on this from their own practice and responded," says Peter Comello of Comtado Carib. "We work based on truth-finding and are very interested in the views and experiences of the trust, gambling industry, and government themselves."
Therefore, Comtado Carib invites the stakeholders to participate again in the seminar. They can do so today at 2:00 pm when the second seminar takes place with the theme 'Master licenses Sub-licenses 1.0.'
In this seminar, the criminal and other legal aspects of this phenomenon will be discussed. Guest speaker is Mr. Rogier van den Heuvel, Partner at Van Eps law firm and the driving force behind the corporate litigation practice (including e-gaming) and specialist in competition law.
He talks about the legal regulation concerning the enforceability of claims arising from games and bets. Nardy Cramm, a journalist and blogger of the Knipselkrant Curacao and director of the Foundation for Advocacy for Online Gambling (SBGOK), is an e-gaming expert. She discusses, based on a number of case studies, the role of trust offices and other financial and tax service providers in sublicenses and master licenses.