Curaçao's €47,450 Casino License Doesn't Work in Curaçao

Curaçao charges an online casino €47,450 (about $54,400) a year for a license, according to the regulator's own price list.

The license is not valid on the island itself, according to files the security researcher Lilith Wittmann published on Sept. 22, 2026. She spent nine months inside the licensing portal of the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), which confirmed unauthorized access on Sept. 17.

Wittmann puts the CGA's 550 active licenses at about €26 million (about $30 million) a year in fees, in a country with a $3.6 billion economy. No gambling tax comes on top.

What the License Buys

The license lets an operator take players from countries the authority lists, and Germany is on that list. Germany does not recognize the license: under German law, a site aimed at German players with only a Curaçao license is illegal gambling.

The CGA's fee schedule splits that fee between the national treasury and the authority. Supplier licenses, for companies that sell platforms and software to casinos, pay less, all of it to the authority.

Curaçao taxes company profits only on income earned on the island, Wittmann writes. A licensee pays the license fee and a local trust office to handle its paperwork, then keeps the rest. German-licensed operators pay 5.3% of every stake on slots and sports bets, plus corporate tax.

Her table of payments to the authority totals €19.6 million (about $22.5 million) from April 2024 to August 2026. Nearly €9 million (about $10.3 million) in license fees came in May 2026 alone, and none were recorded from January 2025 through March 2026.

The treasury's share is billed on a separate invoice and may not be in her table.

Who Signs the Licenses

The portal holds accounts for 26 people who appear to work for the CGA. Two contractors hold 25 more: seven at Random Consulting in Malta and 18 at HSJ Consult in Cyprus.

Random Consulting checks the documents and the owners. HSJ writes the suitability report that recommends whether to grant a license, and CGA management issues it.

Under the responsibility of the minister of finance, it was decided not to implement all requirements at once, but to give companies the opportunity to comply with them step by step.

The CGA gave that answer to Follow the Money, which had asked about licenses granted while questions about ownership were still open.

The Register Lists Licensees, Not Owners

The CGA's public register dated Sept. 21, 2026 lists 665 licenses: 555 not marked revoked or expired, 50 revoked and 60 expired. None is labeled active, and 276 of the 281 marked "assessment in progress" are past the expiry date shown.

At full rates, the 466 operator and 89 supplier licenses would pay about €24.3 million (about $27.8 million) a year, less than half to the treasury.

A two-minute license check shows a player which company holds a license, but not who owns it. The portal showed Wittmann both. Announcing the series on X, she wrote in German that she could see who owns illegal online casinos, who finances them and what the authority knew.

On June 8, 2026, a Curaçao court dismissed a Saudi-based player's claim for $7.8 million against a casino with a valid license, finding no breach of its duty of care. FairGambling covered the ruling in August.

Eleven of the 77 gambling sites in FairGambling's on-chain tracker hold a Curaçao license that the register lists as neither revoked nor expired.

Treat gambling as entertainment you pay for. 18+, and if it stops feeling like entertainment, help exists at BeGambleAware and GamCare.