The default offshore licence for a decade, and a different product since the LOK reform. It now costs more, takes longer and asks for real staff on the island — and in exchange it is the one offshore licence most payment providers still open doors for.
| Regulator | Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), the successor to the Gaming Control Board |
|---|---|
| Law | National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK), in force since 24 December 2024 |
| Licence types | B2C for operators, B2B for platforms and suppliers |
| What one licence covers | Online casino, sports betting, poker, bingo, lottery-style games, esports and crypto wagering |
| Company | Curaçao entity with its statutory seat on the island — no foreign company can hold the licence |
| Local substance | Physical office, a resident managing director, and at least one full-time local key person, rising to three by year five |
| Technical | At least one server in Curaçao; certified RNG and platform |
| Seal | A live, clickable CGA seal on every approved domain |
| Public register | Yes — searchable, and it lists the domains each licence covers |
Anything written about Curaçao before 2025 describes a system that no longer exists. If an adviser still offers you a sub-licence, walk away.
The office, the resident managing director and the local key person stop being paperwork and start being checked. A virtual office no longer satisfies the requirement.
The old seals carried over from the master-licence era stopped being valid. A site still showing one is not licensed.
The current schedule dates from here: €4,592 to apply, €47,450 a year for B2C, €24,490 for B2B suppliers.
The four master licensees stopped issuing sub-licences. Every operator now applies to the CGA directly and answers to it directly.
Curaçao replaces a 1993 ordinance with a modern regime: direct licensing, defined AML duties, a public register and a real complaints route for players.
The Curaçao Gaming Authority licenses and supervises every online operator based on the island. It replaced the Gaming Control Board's old arrangement, under which four private companies held master licences and resold thousands of sub-licences with almost no oversight — the reason the jurisdiction spent years being described as a rubber stamp.
Under the LOK the CGA vets owners, reads your policies, can demand data, and can suspend or revoke a licence. It also publishes a register, which is what makes a Curaçao licence checkable for the first time. Offering games of chance from Curaçao without a licence is a criminal offence, and the authority pursues unlicensed sites by going after their domains and payment routes rather than their operators.
One B2C licence, all verticals, no separate product fees. Suppliers take the cheaper B2B licence instead.
The regulator's own fees are published and fixed. Everything else depends on how much of the island presence you build yourself.
| Application fee | €4,592 one-off |
|---|---|
| Annual B2C licence | €47,450 €24,490 treasury + €22,960 CGA |
| Annual B2B licence | €24,490 |
| Extra domain | €250 |
| Technical certificate | €383 |
| UBO registration | €150 per owner |
| Tax on gaming revenue | 0% 2% corporate tax on profit |
| Payment terms | Invoices due in 14 days; a licence is revoked and struck from the register after 71 days unpaid |
| Regulator | Presence | Compliance | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | €52,042 | €30,000 | €15,000 | €97,042 |
| Renewal | €47,450 | €20,000 | €10,000 | €77,450 |
The thing to plan for is that renewal is not much cheaper than the first year. Curaçao is a running cost, not an entry fee, and an operator who budgets only for the application is the one who loses the licence in month fourteen.
Six to eight months end to end, of which the CGA's own review is two to four. The rest is you.
A Curaçao company with its statutory seat there, a registered address and a resident managing director who can show gaming or compliance experience.
Passports, police certificates, CVs, proof of address and source-of-funds evidence for every ultimate beneficial owner. Incomplete UBO files are the single biggest cause of delay.
AML and counter-terrorist financing, KYC, responsible gambling and self-exclusion, data protection, complaints. Appoint a compliance officer and a resident money-laundering reporting officer.
RNG and game certification from an accredited lab, platform testing, and a server physically in Curaçao.
Submission, then due diligence and follow-up questions. How fast you answer is the only part of this stage you control.
Licence issued, domains registered against it, the live seal installed on each one, banking and payment integrations finished.
A Curaçao licence is international, not universal. The CGA names territories that must be blocked, and enforcing that is the licensee's job — not the affiliate's, and not the platform's.
Some of these are treaty obligations from the Dutch Kingdom relationship, some are markets that require their own local licence, and one — Curaçao — bars its own residents from gambling with operators based there. The full list runs to 23 territories and changes; check it against the CGA before you buy traffic, and geo-block on IP and payment method rather than on a dropdown of the player's choosing.
This is what the licence is really bought for. Curaçao will not get you a tier-1 bank account, and anyone promising one is selling something. What it does is put you in the group that gaming-specialist acquirers, EMIs and payment orchestrators will underwrite without a long argument — which Anjouan, Tuvalu and Tobique often will not.
Expect rolling reserves of five to ten per cent held for six months, card rates a point or two above a Malta-licensed competitor, and a compliance questionnaire at every provider. Since the LOK the conversation has got easier: a licence you can show in a public register, with your domains listed against it, answers most of what an acquirer's onboarding team asks.
Mid-table, and the best of the offshore group. Malta and the Isle of Man sit two steps to the right; Anjouan and Tuvalu one to two steps left.
Since the LOK there is a real public register, so a Curaçao licence is now something you can check rather than something you have to believe.
Find the licence number in the site's footer, next to the seal.
Open the CGA register yourself at cga.cw — not through a link on the operator's own page.
Match the company name, not only the number. A licence held by one company does not cover a brand operated by another.
Check that the exact domain you are on is listed against that licence, and that the status is active.
Three licences operators weigh against it, and what you trade in each direction.
| Curaçao | Anjouan | Nevis | Malta | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | ≈€97,000 | €17,000–22,000 | ≈€31,000 | ≈€100,000 |
| Time | 6–8 months | 4–6 weeks | 8–12 weeks | 7–12 months |
| Tax on gaming revenue | 0% | 0% | 0% | 10–15% on Maltese players |
| Local presence | Office, resident director, staff | None | Registered agent | Office and key function holders |
| Payment acceptance | Workable | Specialist providers only | Workable | Broadest |
| Public register | Yes | Disputed | Yes | Yes |
Read it as a ladder rather than a menu. Anjouan buys speed at the cost of recognition, Nevis sits in between at a third of the price, and Malta buys European access for a year of your time. Curaçao is what you choose when you want the offshore economics with a licence people will accept.
The licence renews annually against the same fee, audited financial statements and proof that the local presence still exists. There is no discount for good behaviour and no cheaper second year.
Licences are suspended or revoked for unpaid fees, for serving a blocked territory, for AML failures, for a change of ownership the CGA was not told about, and for letting the local substance lapse into a mailbox. Non-payment has a hard edge: 71 days and the licence is gone from the register, which your payment providers will notice before you do.
The regulator charges €4,592 to apply and €47,450 a year for a B2C licence. With a Curaçao company, an office, a resident director, a compliance officer and technical certification, a realistic first year is around €97,000, and renewal is about €77,000.
Six to eight months from the first document to a live site. The CGA's own review is two to four months of that; the rest is incorporation, the owner file, policies and certification.
Yes. Only an entity established under Curaçao law with its statutory seat on the island can hold the licence, and since 1 January 2026 it needs a real office, a resident managing director and at least one full-time local employee.
No. Master licences were abolished on 1 January 2025 and the transition seals expired on 15 October 2025. Anyone still offering you a sub-licence is selling something that does not exist.
Open the CGA register directly, match the company name as well as the licence number, and confirm the exact domain is listed against it. The seal on a licensed site is a live element that links back to the authority; a static image is not proof.
The United States, the Netherlands, France, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Dutch Caribbean islands, Curaçao itself and FATF-blacklisted states, among a list of 23 territories that changes. Geo-blocking is the licensee's responsibility.
Nothing on gaming revenue. Curaçao charges 2% corporate income tax on net profit, which is why the licence is still attractive at its new price.
A gaming-specialist acquirer or EMI will, usually with a rolling reserve. A tier-1 high-street bank will not, whatever an intermediary tells you.
A fifth of the price and a month to approval, with the recognition problem that comes with it.
€17,000–22,000 · 4–6 weeksA 2025 regime with a public register, at roughly a third of the Curaçao bill.
≈€31,000 · 8–12 weeksEuropean access and the broadest payment acceptance, for a year of your time.
≈€100,000 · 7–12 months