Curaçao regulators are continuing their evolution away from the Ministry of Finance overseeing the online gaming industry on the island. The group formed the Curaçao Gaming Control Board (GCB) in 2020 and are in the process of fully moving that group out from under the Ministry.
Accordingly, the group has set out revised licensing fees. For starters, the licenses are being divided between B2B and B2C licenses. The window on applying for these licenses opened on Nov. 15.
The B2C license covers both operator platforms that engage in B2C business on a daily basis and any company that controls player funds and data and regularly interface with customers.
Costs for the B2C license total €54,050 for the first year of opertation which breaks down to:
€4,600 application fee
€24,600 annual fee
€2,050 monthly fee
€250 fee per domain
Previously a single license covered up to 40 different online gambling domains. Existing licenses will be grandfathered in with the intent of converting them to the new forms of licenses.
The B2B license includes a €4,600 application fee and a €24,600 annual fee.
The fee schedule is part of a new piece of legislation, the National Ordinance for Games of Chance (LOK). The law is currently before Parliament will establish higher barriers to entry for the regulators, who have previously been criticized for how lax it has been in issuing licenses. The hope is these new regulations will assuage the concerns of other countries where operators with Curaçao licenses serve.
Many operators with Curaçao licenses offer their services in territories like the US where they are considered unregulated sites.
