WILLEMSTAD – As Curaçao continues implementing its new gambling regulatory framework, an investigation into licensing records in Anjouan has highlighted an important challenge facing jurisdictions that supervise international online casinos: issuing licences is only part of the responsibility. Regulators must also provide reliable information about whether those licences remain valid.
The issue has become particularly relevant for Curaçao following the introduction of the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK) and the Curaçao Gaming Authority's ongoing transition to a new regulatory platform.
Both developments create an opportunity to examine how licensing information is published, updated, and verified.
An October 2026 audit of Anjouan's gambling licence register identified 124 entries whose published expiry dates had passed even though they continued to display a valid status.
The research, conducted by casino review website NewCasino.ai, examined 1,295 licence records and found that every entry carried the same status designation.
The findings do not establish that the affected operators were gambling illegally. They do, however, illustrate a weakness that can arise when public records do not clearly distinguish between an operator's published licence status and the dates associated with its authorization.
For Curaçao, the central lesson concerns the importance of making regulatory information not only available but also understandable and verifiable.
Public Registers Must Provide Meaningful Information
A public gambling licence register serves several purposes.
It allows players to check whether a casino claims authorization from a recognized regulator. It helps financial institutions and commercial partners assess the regulatory position of gambling businesses. It also provides journalists, researchers, and other interested parties with information about the licensing system.
However, the usefulness of a register depends on the quality of the information it contains.
In Anjouan, the researchers found a discrepancy between the licensing authority's published status definitions and the information displayed in the register.
The authority defines categories including active, suspended, revoked, and expired, but the examined records all displayed the designation valid.
This creates uncertainty about what the status field actually communicates.
A licence whose published expiry date has passed may have been renewed without the updated information appearing in the database. Alternatively, the record may simply be outdated.
Without additional information, a member of the public cannot reliably distinguish between those possibilities.
For a licensing register to function effectively, its terminology, dates, and underlying regulatory decisions need to be consistent.
Curaçao Faces Its Own Verification Challenges
Curaçao's circumstances are different from those of Anjouan, but the importance of accurate licensing information is equally relevant.
The Curaçao Gaming Authority publishes overviews of licensed gambling entities through its official website.
However, the authority includes a disclaimer explaining that these overviews do not guarantee the current validity of individual licences because licensing status may change over time.
That warning makes clear that appearing in the register should not automatically be interpreted as definitive proof of current authorization.
The issue has become more significant following the CGA's announcement that its former online gaming portal would not be restored after incidents involving unauthorized access.
The authority announced the transition to a replacement platform on October 7, 2026, and launched an interim online gaming portal on October 19.
The CGA has emphasized that the transition does not affect the validity of existing licences or its continuing regulatory responsibilities.
Nevertheless, the changes provide an opportunity to consider how the public can obtain authoritative and current licensing information.
A useful system should allow interested parties to establish not only whether a company appears in the regulator's records but also whether its authorization is currently effective and which activities it covers.
Exact Casino Domains Matter
One important finding from the Anjouan investigation concerns the relationship between licences and internet domains.
The 1,295 licences examined collectively listed 3,654 domains.
Some individual licences covered dozens of websites.
This distinction is important because an online gambling business may operate several casino brands or websites under one corporate structure.
A consumer who verifies only the company's name may not establish whether the specific website being used is covered by the relevant authorization.
For effective public verification, the relationship between a licensed legal entity and its approved operating domains should therefore be clear.
The same principle is relevant to Curaçao's online gambling industry.
A transparent system should make it possible to determine whether a particular domain is associated with an authorized operator, rather than requiring users to rely exclusively on a licence number or regulatory seal displayed on a casino website.
Such seals and licence references may provide useful information, but their reliability depends on whether they can be checked against current regulatory records.
Transparency About Suspensions and Revocations
Another important consideration is the availability of information about regulatory enforcement.
A licence may be granted, renewed, suspended, revoked, or allowed to expire.
Each of these decisions can affect whether an operator is authorized to continue providing gambling services.
A public register becomes more useful when it clearly distinguishes between those situations.
The Anjouan audit reported that the authority's suspended and revoked licence lists contained no entries during the researchers' examination.
That observation does not establish whether enforcement actions had occurred. It demonstrates the limitations of drawing conclusions from lists without sufficient information about their completeness and update procedures.
Curaçao's regulatory framework provides an opportunity to establish clear public reporting practices concerning licensing decisions and enforcement measures.
Such information could help consumers and commercial partners understand whether an operator remains authorized and whether restrictions have been imposed.
Historical records may also be valuable when disputes arise about the status of a gambling business at a particular date.
Independent Oversight and Public Confidence
The credibility of a gambling regulatory system depends on more than the number of licences issued.
It also depends on the regulator's ability to supervise operators, enforce legal requirements, and communicate its decisions transparently.
Curaçao's gambling industry operates in an international environment in which regulatory information may be examined by foreign authorities, banks, payment service providers, investors, and consumers.
Inconsistent or outdated information can create uncertainty for those parties.
Conversely, clear licensing records and accessible verification procedures can support confidence in the regulatory system.
This is particularly important as Curaçao seeks to strengthen supervision under the LOK.
The new regulatory framework provides an opportunity to improve the way information is recorded, maintained, and communicated.
The transition to a replacement CGA platform could also allow the authority to consider additional features that make public verification more straightforward.
These might include clearly defined licence-status categories, publication of effective and expiry dates, domain-specific verification, and dated records of regulatory decisions.
These are potential improvements for consideration, not confirmed features of the replacement platform.
The Importance of Independent Examination
The Anjouan investigation also demonstrates the value of independent scrutiny of publicly available regulatory information.
The researchers preserved the October 17 dataset and published their methodology, allowing others to examine the reported discrepancies.
They also disclosed their commercial relationship with the gambling industry.
That disclosure is important because NewCasino.ai operates a casino review business with affiliate relationships involving gambling operators.
Its findings should therefore be assessed on the strength of the underlying evidence rather than accepted solely on the basis of the publisher's claims.
The same principle applies to any investigation involving Curaçao's gambling industry.
Independent analysis can identify inconsistencies and raise legitimate questions, but conclusions about the legal status of individual operators require reliable regulatory confirmation.
A past expiry date in a public database is not, by itself, proof of illegal gambling activity.
An Opportunity for Curaçao to Strengthen Its System
The experience documented in Anjouan provides a useful comparison as Curaçao continues developing its gambling regulatory framework.
It highlights the difference between publishing a list of licence holders and maintaining a system that allows the public to verify licensing status with confidence.
For Curaçao, the immediate questions concern how quickly regulatory decisions are reflected in public records, whether individual casino domains can be reliably verified, and how the public can distinguish active licences from those that have expired, been suspended, or been revoked.
The CGA's ongoing technological transition offers an opportunity to address these questions as its replacement platform develops.
Ultimately, the credibility of Curaçao's gambling regulatory system will depend not only on the requirements established under the LOK but also on how effectively those requirements are implemented and communicated.
The Anjouan audit does not demonstrate that Curaçao suffers from the same registry discrepancies.
It does, however, provide a timely reminder that transparent licensing information is an essential part of effective gambling supervision.
For an international gambling jurisdiction, the ability to verify a licence accurately may be just as important as the process through which that licence was originally issued.