CRITICAL MILESTONES OF THE CURAÇAO REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
20th December 2023
The National Ordinance for Games of Chance (LOK) has been officially submitted to Parliament and the Minister of Finance has initiated a sequence of procedures to facilitate the transition from the existing framework to the new system upon the law’s enactment.
Licences under the new framework (issued by NOOGH and the LOK)
The same rights and conditions will apply to all licences and licence holders. There is flexibility as to the corporate and licence structure entities can set up with regard to their individual operations.
• Any account can have one or more licences.
• Any UBO(s) can have one or more accounts.
• Any licence can have unlimited domains.
Prospective renewal of Current Gaming Licences (Master Licencees)
From this point forward, there will be no new extensions or further renewals of Master Licences. Master Licensors will only be able to continue to operate and permit their sublicencees to do so until current renewals expire, or until the LOK comes into force, whichever happens first.
On the passing of LOK or when there are no less than 12 weeks of the current renewal remaining, whichever happens first, the Master Licensor must promptly notify the GCB of which sub-licences remain contracted to it. After this time, should Master Licensors wish to continue operations in their own right, they will need to wait until the LOK is implemented and apply for a licence at that time.
Starting on the 1st of January
• All licence holders under the NOOGH will be allowed to use the new Digital Seal issued by the GCB on the domains of their websites.
• In addition, the GCB has the discretion to permit operators in contractual arrangements with licence holders (the sublicencees) that have licence applications in progress and that have satisfied the due diligence required by the GCB to offer the same Digital Seal.
A Digital Seal Policy will be issued shortly by the GCB and will require operators to include the “token” associated with each domain registered on the GCB portal to be inserted into the websites’ DNS.
Licence holders will be responsible for actively monitoring their sub-licences to ensure they do not employ a variant of the official Digital Seal without enforcement. The GCB will take enforcement measures against licence holders found to be in violation of this policy.
After the 31st of March 2024
The registration of sublicences on the GCB portal and the subsequent application for direct licences of sublicenced operators will no longer be possible.
The following are the scenarios based on sublicence registration and NOOGH licence applications from this date:
| Sublicence and domains registered on GCB portal | Sublicence and domains not registered on GCB portal | |
| Application in progress on the GCB portal or licence issued by the GCB under NOOGH | Operations continue uninterrupted under sublicence agreement until direct licence is issued. Direct licence if held at the time of the LOK coming into force will be grandfathered into the new framework as a provisional licence without any interruption of business operations. Applications in progress will continue under the LOK framework and sublicence operations can continue uninterrupted. | N/A |
| No application in progress on the GCB portal and/or licence issued by the GCB under NOOGH | Continue operations under current agreement with Master Licence holder until expiry ceases or LOK comes into force, whichever is first. Any subsequent application to be made will be treated as a new application and not “grandfathered” at changeover from NOOGH to LOK giving rise to a risk of temporary interruption to operations in-between licences. | Immediately cease operations under any sublicence contractual agreement from this date. Any application to be made will be a new application and not “grandfathered” at changeover from NOOGH to LOK giving rise to a risk of temporary interruption to operations in-between licences |
• Any licence application from a brand new entity or applicant (i.e. not under any existing licence or sublicence) under NOOGH will be processed under NOOGH, and if not yet completed at the point the LOK comes into force will have the same status as sublicencees.
• Current “sublicence” holders who receive a new direct licence under the NOOGH will have their business operations transferred immediately to the GCB regulatory system and be subject to the licence conditions. Any existing contractual arrangement with the master licence holder is the responsibility of the two parties to that agreement without interference by the GCB.
Definitions
GCB – Curacao’s Gaming Control Board GCB
Portal – https://portal.gamingcontrolcuracao.org
LOK – Incoming legislation: National Ordinance for Games of Chance
NOOGH – Current legislation: National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard
