Message from the Minister of Finance

I am aware of speculation as to the state of the “master licenses,” therefore without further ado, I would like to clear this matter up. ALL master licenses will get extensions of 1 year until such as time as the LOK is enacted.

No operator is going to have to pause or stop any business as a result of anything done by the Ministry, as one of the primary elements of the transitions into the new regime is to facilitate uninterrupted continuity of all operations of sublicense holders.

LOK enactment

On the date the LOK comes into force, the master license holders under the current law will transition automatically, obtaining a license under the LOK provided that they will comply with the policies and regulations of the regulator within a certain period of time.
For sublicensees who wish to continue business under the new regime the transition period will start when the LOK is enacted.

This means that all sublicensees have 3 months in which to commence their application for a license under the LOK.

However – during the time of the application submission and processing – it is business as usual. Nothing changes as to how sublicensees have been operating to date.
The status quo remains – for up to 9 months after the LOK has been implemented.
For those operators who do not wish to move to the new licensing regime, they can continue to conduct business up until the date the relevant master license expires.

1st September 2023

The Gaming Control Board will commence issuing new licenses directly to operators on 1st September.

1. These licenses will be issued under the current legislation (not the LOK, which is not yet enacted).
2. They will be issued directly to operators themselves and will have conditions attached. Most importantly holders of these licenses will not be permitted to issue sublicenses. They are operating licenses only.
3. In addition there will be stipulations attached as to policies such as AML and responsible gaming.

Master license holders may continue to issue new sublicenses until the LOK has been enacted, however this is fully at their own discretion.

Contrary to speculation there has been no change whatsoever to the legislation or permissions of the master license holders since the public announcement of the drafting of the new legislation last November.

Neither the Ministry nor the GCB have prevented the master licenses from undertaking any activity that they have been doing in the years to date. That has never been the case, and it will continue not to be the case until the LOK is enacted. If you hear anything contrary to this, it is not true.

As to applications that are in progress or paused with the master license holders, the ministry of Finance cannot make any statements on that and should be discussed with the master license holder.

Discussions and communications took place with master license holders between December 2022 and February 2023 on their licenses and subsequent actions were entirely based on their own business decisions.

And in fact, the ONLY difference that is happening on the 1st of September is that the GCB will commence issuing licenses directly to operators.

Application Process

The application process by the GCB will is not overly complicated. There will be three forms to complete – and each will include relevant supporting documentation.

1. The first is the Online Gaming Application which involves an analysis of the proposed business operations, including marketing and distribution strategies and growth targets.
2. The second is the Personal Declaration. This is the identification of the key people behind the business. Any UBO with 10% or more of the business ownership will have to provide fully verifiable identity information, Source of Wealth, Source of Funds which will confirm that UBOs are fiscally stable to sustain the licence and of course that the sources are legitimate.
3. The third is Corporate Disclosures. A license can only be issued to a Curacao company and details of that entity will need to be provided to the GCB as part of the application process.

Of course, as is standard procedure, all the forms submitted will have associated supporting documentation for due diligence.

Once an applicant has satisfied the GCB in terms of the forms and documentation submission, then a license will be issued. Within 6 months of issuance of the license, audited policies and procedures will need to be submitted for evaluation.

These policies and procedures will need to be at international standards expected of an upstanding licensed gambling operator. Player protection, dynamic AML procedures, KYC, responsible gaming and robust technical and info security setups will all be expected as standard in the new Curacao regime.?ref=embed_post

Bron: Persbericht Ministerie van Financien

Naschrift KKC

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Overzicht: het Curacao Goksector dossier

Verdieping: De Koninkrijksbelangen blogserie