WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao has fundamentally changed the way its gambling industry is regulated, replacing a fragmented licensing system with the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK) and establishing the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) as the independent regulator responsible for licensing, supervision, regulation and enforcement across the sector.
The CGA says the reform became necessary as gambling developed into a major industry that includes not only casinos and locally popular games, but also a large international online gambling sector operating from Curaçao.
Games of chance have long been part of everyday life on the island. They range from legal and illegal number lotteries to bingo, Bon Ku’Ne and casino gambling. Curaçao residents also participate in online gambling through international platforms.
However, the CGA says many people may not realize that individual forms of gambling are subject to specific permits, laws and rules governing how they may be organized and offered.
Alongside licensed gambling, Curaçao also has an unregulated and illegal market. According to the authority, this can include unauthorized number lotteries, commercially organized bingo and Bon Ku’Ne games, gaming machines outside casinos, foreign lotteries, unlicensed lottery operators and businesses selling tickets on behalf of illegal operators.
The CGA is now legally authorized to oversee the sector and determine whether gambling operators comply with Curaçao law.
From Gaming Control Board to CGA
The regulatory system has changed considerably since the establishment of the Gaming Control Board Foundation in 1999.
Initially, the Gaming Control Board was primarily responsible for regulating Curaçao's local casino market under a government mandate. Its responsibilities were later expanded to include permits for lotteries, bingo and Bon Ku’Ne under their respective legislation.
The rapid expansion of online gambling created a much more complicated regulatory challenge.
Under the former system, Curaçao's remote gambling market operated through five master license holders. Online operators generally operated under sublicenses issued through those master license holders rather than being licensed directly by the regulator.
According to the CGA, this meant the regulator did not have a complete view of the activities of individual remote gambling operators.
The master license holders themselves were not necessarily providing gambling services. Instead, the online gambling activities were conducted by operators using sublicenses. The CGA says that, under this structure, revenues and responsibilities connected with remote gambling were concentrated around the five master license companies, while government received relatively little from the system.
Pressure for reform
The old regulatory structure increasingly attracted negative international attention and created reputational concerns for Curaçao.
At the same time, the government considered remote gambling economically important enough to preserve and further develop rather than abandon. This resulted in efforts to reform the 1993 National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard.
Administrative records cited by the CGA indicate that as early as 2013 the government had decided that Curaçao needed overarching legislation covering the entire gambling sector. Initial work toward new gambling legislation began in 2015.
One of the main problems was that Curaçao's gambling laws had become outdated, fragmented and inconsistent.
The government also wanted Curaçao to establish itself as a credible international gambling jurisdiction with a regulator capable of supervising a large online industry under clear legislation aligned with international standards.
The reform process was further accelerated by agreements contained in the Landspakket reached with the Netherlands. Another concern came from Curaçao's National Risk Assessment, which identified online gambling as a high-risk sector in relation to money laundering and terrorist financing.
LOK changes the system
The major change came on December 24, 2024, when the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, commonly known by its Dutch abbreviation LOK, entered into force.
The legislation replaced Curaçao's previous remote gambling framework with a modern regulatory system intended to strengthen transparency, responsible gambling, consumer protection and the island's international reputation.
The law places particular emphasis on remote gambling while strengthening regulatory and consumer-control mechanisms.
With the introduction of the LOK, the Curaçao Gaming Authority was formally established as an independent public body operating under a new framework for governance, licensing, supervision, regulation, enforcement and accountability.
The longer-term intention is also to incorporate other gambling legislation currently administered by the CGA into the LOK framework as part of the modernization of Curaçao's gambling laws.