WILLEMSTAD – A newly published international dataset examining the geographic restrictions imposed by online casinos has raised fresh questions about transparency in the global gambling industry, including operators licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA).
The research, published by the online gambling information platform SmarterCasinos, examines the terms and conditions of 15 online casinos to determine which countries and territories operators explicitly exclude from their services.
The findings reveal significant differences in how gambling companies disclose geographic restrictions, with some publishing relatively short lists of prohibited jurisdictions while others exclude almost the entire world.
One of the most striking findings is that Curaçao itself appears on the restricted-country lists of 11 of the 14 casinos for which researchers obtained such information.
The United States appears on all 14 lists, while Iran, North Korea, Syria and Cuba are also among the most frequently excluded countries.
According to the researchers, none of the 15 casinos publishes a definitive list of countries where it explicitly accepts players.
Curaçao Among Most Frequently Restricted Jurisdictions
The research is particularly relevant to Curaçao because the island has developed into an important international licensing jurisdiction for online gambling companies.
Although numerous operators conduct their international gambling activities under licenses issued in Curaçao, the study shows that Curaçao is frequently included among the jurisdictions where casinos say their services are unavailable.
Among the operators whose terms explicitly identify Curaçao as a restricted jurisdiction are BitStarz, Gamdom, Guts, LeoVegas, mBit Casino, Mirax Casino, Rizk, Roobet, Shuffle and Wild.io.
The inclusion of Curaçao in these lists illustrates the distinction between the country where an online casino is licensed and the jurisdictions where it is permitted to offer gambling services.
A Curaçao gambling license does not automatically authorize an operator to accept players in every country.
Individual jurisdictions maintain their own gambling legislation, licensing requirements and restrictions.
Consequently, an operator licensed in Curaçao may still be prohibited from accepting players in countries where it does not hold the necessary authorization.
Major Differences Between Casino Restrictions
The dataset, compiled by researcher Torben Noé and updated on October 10, 2026, examined the published terms of 15 online casinos.
Of those, 14 provided identifiable lists of restricted jurisdictions. Researchers could not verify the relevant information for the remaining operator.
The differences between the published lists were substantial.
LeoVegas identified just 11 restricted jurisdictions, while Mirax Casino listed 229.
Other operators published lists containing dozens or hundreds of countries and territories.
Across the 14 available lists, researchers identified 1,267 casino-country restriction entries, with a median of 51 entries per casino.
However, the researchers emphasize that a shorter list does not necessarily mean an operator is legally permitted to accept players from more countries.
Some operators include additional clauses excluding jurisdictions where gambling is unlawful, even when those countries are not specifically named.
Six of the 14 lists contained such open-ended restrictions.
The research therefore distinguishes between countries explicitly identified as prohibited and countries where gambling services are legally available.
No Casino Published a Complete List of Accepted Countries
One of the central findings concerns the information available to potential customers.
According to SmarterCasinos, none of the 15 casinos examined published a definitive list identifying all jurisdictions from which players are accepted.
Instead, operators generally identify prohibited countries and leave other questions concerning legal eligibility to additional terms, applicable laws or individual verification procedures.
Four operators explicitly state that players may participate only where online gambling is legally permitted, placing responsibility for determining eligibility on the player.
This creates a transparency issue because the absence of a country from a restricted list does not necessarily establish that residents of that country may legally use the gambling platform.
For consumers, the distinction can be important.
A player may be able to access a gambling website without necessarily being legally eligible to register, deposit money or participate in gambling activities.
The research does not establish whether the operators examined actually accept prohibited players, whether their geographic restrictions are effectively enforced or whether they violate gambling legislation in particular countries.
Instead, it documents what operators publicly state in their own terms and conditions.
Questions for Curaçao's Gambling Regulator
The findings come as Curaçao continues implementing reforms to its online gambling industry.
The National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known as the LOK, entered into force on December 24, 2024, establishing a revised regulatory framework intended to strengthen licensing, supervision and compliance.
Under the framework, the Curaçao Gaming Authority is responsible for licensing and supervising online gambling operators.
The CGA's published provisional licensing conditions require operators to comply with applicable laws and regulations in jurisdictions where they offer online gambling services.
This requirement is significant because obtaining a Curaçao license does not exempt an operator from gambling legislation elsewhere.
The regulator's conditions also require operators to provide information to players concerning their activities, applicable terms and responsible gambling protections.
The SmarterCasinos findings therefore raise questions about how operators communicate their geographic restrictions and how effectively those restrictions are implemented.
Among the questions arising from the research is whether licensed operators maintain adequate systems to prevent players from prohibited jurisdictions from registering or gambling.
Another concerns how operators determine whether they may legally accept customers from countries not specifically mentioned in their published restrictions.
The dataset itself does not answer these questions, and it does not establish regulatory violations by the casinos examined.
Research Based on Operators' Own Documents
SmarterCasinos says its research is based on publicly available documents published by the gambling operators themselves.
The dataset records restricted countries, the source documents, relevant contractual clauses and the dates on which the information was checked.
The information is available in downloadable CSV and JSON formats and has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, allowing journalists and researchers to reuse the findings with attribution.
The researchers emphasize that the study is documentary rather than an investigation into actual gambling transactions.
It does not attempt to determine whether customers from prohibited jurisdictions can successfully register, deposit money or withdraw winnings.
Nor does it establish whether an operator possesses the necessary licenses in countries not included on its restricted list.
These limitations are important because published terms and actual operating practices are not necessarily identical.
Wider Implications for Curaçao
The research adds another dimension to the international discussion about Curaçao's online gambling industry.
Much of that discussion has focused on whether companies licensed on the island offer gambling services to customers in countries where they lack local authorization.
The new dataset approaches the issue from a different perspective by examining the geographic restrictions that operators themselves publicly acknowledge.
It demonstrates that gambling companies use substantially different approaches to disclosing restricted jurisdictions and that customers are not necessarily provided with a clear list of countries where participation is permitted.
For Curaçao, the findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between issuing a gambling license and ensuring that license holders comply with the laws of the international markets they serve.
The research also raises broader questions about the transparency of online gambling terms and the information available to consumers before they register.
As Curaçao continues reforming its gambling sector, the ability of regulators to assess international compliance and the effectiveness of operators' geographic restrictions will remain relevant to the credibility of the licensing system.
The complete research dataset, including the individual casino restrictions and supporting documentation, is publicly available through SmarterCasinos' restricted-countries research page.