WILLEMSTAD – Approximately 30 trust offices in Curaçao represent companies operating in the island's international gambling sector, with some individual offices administering dozens of gambling companies, according to data analyzed by investigative journalism platform Follow the Money.
The findings provide a detailed picture of the local corporate infrastructure supporting Curaçao's enormous offshore gambling industry.
According to a chart published as part of FTM's Casino Secrets investigation, three Curaçao trust firms each represented more than 50 gambling companies.
Xecutive and eMoore each represented 65, while IGA represented 59, according to the investigation's analysis. Other major representatives included GFC Group with 49, Sadekya with 45 and Kurason with 39.
Trust offices play an important role because many international gambling operators use Curaçao companies to hold their licenses and establish a corporate presence on the island.
For decades, this structure helped Curaçao develop an ecosystem serving the international online gambling industry, including trust offices, payment companies and gambling software providers.
FTM's analysis found a striking Dutch connection.
At 94% of the gambling companies examined, at least one director was Dutch.
At the same time, many directors were not born in Curaçao. According to FTM, 40% were born in the Netherlands.
For its methodology, FTM identified 40 individuals representing gambling companies through trust offices. Thirty-one held Dutch passports. Fourteen were born in Curaçao, 12 in the Netherlands and five elsewhere, including Suriname and Turkey.
The investigation identified 30 trust offices in total and used those records to calculate how much of the gambling-company market each office represented.
These figures show that while the ultimate owners of Curaçao gambling businesses are spread across the globe, a relatively small professional-services industry on the island provides the corporate representation necessary for hundreds of international operators.
That makes Curaçao's trust sector an important part of the debate over gambling regulation and beneficial-ownership transparency.
Source: Follow the Money, Casino Secrets investigation, David Davidson, Sjors Hofstede and Lukas Kotkamp; Curaçao reporting by Dick Drayer.