Curacao Gambling License
cost, requirements & direct CGA application
A permit granted straight from the Curaçao Gaming Authority under the LOK regime, issued in your own company’s name. Gross gaming revenue from both B2C and B2B is taxed at 0%, and once the two separate fee components are included, the annual statutory outlay is around €49,000. Sub-licenses are gone. So is the four-week processing period some providers still promote.
€49,000
Statutory cost per year, B2C
2-4
Months to license
0%
Tax on gross gaming revenue
B2C & B2B
Both licenses
Curacao License – Key Facts
| License Type | B2C and B2B |
| Issuing Authority | Curaçao Gaming Authority |
| Governing Law | LOK |
| B2C License Fee | €49,000 |
| B2B License Fee | €25,500 |
| Tax on GGR | 0% |
| License Validity | indefinite, renewed annually |
| Typical Timeline | 2–4 months |
| Local Substance | Required |
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Curacao license in ninety seconds
In December 2024, Curaçao ceased to be a low-cost licensing venue and became a regulated one. Under the LOK — Landsverordening op de Kansspelen — the old master-and-sub-license structure was removed and replaced with direct authorization by the Curaçao Gaming Authority. Existing sub-licenses ended in January 2025. The temporary arrangement that filled the gap, commonly known as the orange seal, ended for good on 15 October 2025. Today there is only one legal path: a license issued directly by the CGA in your own corporate name.
The cost structure shifted accordingly. A sub-license previously came in at about €20,000 per year without any local footprint. By contrast, a direct license now requires a non-refundable application fee of about €4,600, an annual license fee of about €24,500 payable to the National Treasury, plus a monthly CGA supervisory fee that adds roughly another €24,600 over the course of the year. For a B2C operator, that means roughly €49,000 per year in statutory costs alone. A B2B supplier pays the license fee but not the supervisory stream, leaving the total at about €24,500.
The tax treatment stayed the same. International gross gaming revenue is taxed at 0%, while 2% corporate profit tax applies to e-Zone entities that serve international clients. Locally placed bets in Curaçao are taxed at 34.5%, which is why the island itself has to be geo-blocked.
What the extra spend buys is compliance substance and market acceptance. Substance means a Curaçao NV or BV with its statutory seat on the island, a local managing director from the moment of grant, a physical office, an MLRO and a dedicated Compliance Officer, plus at least one full-time local key person by 1 April 2027, increasing to three by year five. Acceptance means two decades of familiarity among acquirers, EMIs, and platform providers that newer offshore centers still have not replicated.
Curaçao is no longer the budget choice. It is the one that banks.
WHO WE ARE
Since 2004, Szilaghi Consulting has structured licensed gaming businesses across Anjouan, Romania, Malta, and Nevis, together with the related corporate work: offshore and EU incorporation, merchant acquiring, EMI accounts, and ongoing compliance after launch.
For a Curaçao engagement, we set up the NV or BV and its statutory seat, appoint the local managing director, arrange the office, name the MLRO and Compliance Officer, prepare the LOK policy package, submit the file through the CGA portal, and manage the process through to approval. In parallel, we build the EU or UK processing company, because the Curaçao entity is almost never the one that contracts with your acquirer.
We can help you incorporate and obtain the Curacao Gambling License
Szilaghi Consulting has structured licensed gaming companies since 2004 — remote gambling licenses across Anjouan, Curaçao, Malta, Romania and Nevis, offshore and EU corporate formation, merchant acquiring and EMI architecture, and ongoing compliance for operators and B2B suppliers. On Anjouan we file the dossier, incorporate the licensee, designate the ADR provider, draft the AML/CFT and virtual asset policy pack, and build the EU or UK processing company alongside it — because an Anjouan license that cannot take a card payment is an expensive certificate.
We also say when Anjouan is the wrong jurisdiction, which happens in roughly half of first calls.
What became of sub-licenses, and what your 1668/JAZ paperwork means now
⚠ SUB-LICENSES NO LONGER EXIST
If someone offers you a Curaçao “sub-license” in 2026, they are offering a product that no longer exists. Sub-licenses issued under all four master licenses expired in January 2025. The interim orange seal arrangement that followed expired permanently on 15 October 2025.
The sole lawful Curaçao license today is one granted directly by the CGA, in your own corporate name, under LOK. Some providers still market a four-week Curaçao turnaround based on the old structure. That route no longer exists. It has not existed since January 2025.
The master license decoder
Operator documents, footer marks, and certificates still reference these numbers. The table below shows what each one corresponds to, and how it should be understood now.
| Master license | Holder | Trading as | Status under LOK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1668/JAZ | Cyberluck Curaçao N.V. | Curaçao eGaming | Master/sub model abolished; sub-licenses expired January 2025 |
| 365/JAZ | Curaçao Interactive Licensing N.V. | Gaming Curaçao | Master/sub model abolished; sub-licenses expired January 2025 |
| 8048/JAZ | Antillephone N.V. | Antillephone | Master/sub model abolished; sub-licenses expired January 2025 |
| 5536/JAZ | Attributed to e-Management N.V. / Cyber Rock Entertainment N.V. | e-Management | Master/sub model abolished; sub-licenses expired January 2025 |
A frequent confusion worth fixing: Curaçao eGaming is the trading name of Cyberluck Curaçao N.V. under 1668/JAZ, not of 5536/JAZ. Broker presentations and AI-written summaries often swap the two.
The three positions operators are in
01 · You had a sub-license and took no action. You are now unlicensed. The footer badge on your site points to a dead instrument, the acquirer will spot it at the next review, and most supplier agreements allow your platform partners to end the relationship. The fix is a direct CGA application; in the meantime, a second jurisdiction is the practical bridge — Anjouan at two to four weeks is the usual continuity option.
02 · You moved onto a provisional license and it expired. The orange seal ended on 15 October 2025. Provisional status does not automatically roll over. What converts it is a complete LOK-compliant file: a substance plan, policy documents, and key-person undertakings.
03 · You are starting from scratch. The filing goes straight to the CGA under LOK. No master licensee stands between you and the regulator, and that is the reform’s core purpose. The license belongs to you, and the responsibility does too.
What a Curacao license actually costs in year one
Search this topic and you will find the annual cost quoted at €24,530, at €50,000, at €55,000, and at €100,000 to €120,000. All four numbers are in circulation on pages dated 2026. Two of them are defensible. Here is the reconciliation nobody publishes.
Curaçao’s statutory gaming fees are set in the local guilder, not in euro. In 2025 the Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG) was replaced by the Caribbean guilder (XCG) in Curaçao and Sint Maarten, at par and on the same peg of 1.79 to the US dollar. Most competitor pages still quote fees in ANG, a currency that no longer circulates.
Because the guilder is pegged to the dollar and not to the euro, every euro figure on every Curaçao page drifts with EUR/USD. That accounts for part of the spread. It does not account for the rest.
The rest is that the annual cost arrives as two separate obligations on two different cadences, and sources quote one, the other, or both.
| LINE ITEM | STATUTORY (XCG) | ≈ EUR | CADENCE | PAID TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application fee | 9,000 | €4,600 | One-off, non-refundable | CGA |
| Annual license fee | 48,000 | €24,500 | Annual | National Treasury |
| CGA supervisory fee | 4,000 | €2,050 | Monthly | CGA |
| Due diligence, per subject | 250–500 | €130–260 | Per UBO / key person | CGA |
| Domain registration | 500 | €260 | Annual, unlimited domains | CGA |
B2C statutory total: approximately €49,000 a year — the annual license fee plus twelve monthly supervisory payments.
B2B statutory total: approximately €24,500 a year — the license fee without the supervisory stream.
A page quoting €24,530 has counted the annual fee and missed the monthly one. A page quoting €100,000–€120,000 has bundled agency fees, substance costs and payroll into what it calls the license cost. A page quoting a flat €50,000 government fee has merged the two streams into one line and lost the cadence, which matters because the supervisory fee is a monthly cash obligation from grant, not an annual invoice you can plan around.
| LINE ITEM | YEAR 1 | YEAR 2 ONWARD | PAID TO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application fee | €4,600 (non-refundable) | – | CGA |
| Annual license fee | €24,500 | €24,500 | National Treasury |
| CGA supervisory fee | €24,600 (billed monthly) | €24,600 | CGA |
| Due diligence, per subject | €130–260 per subject | On change of control | CGA |
| Domains | €260 | €260 | CGA |
| Curaçao NV or BV, statutory seat, registered agent | Fixed fee | Fixed fee | Szilaghi Consulting / Local Agent |
| Local managing director | Fixed fee | Fixed fee | Local provider |
| MLRO and Compliance Officer | Fixed fee | Fixed fee | Szilaghi Consulting / Appointee |
| Physical office in Curaçao | Per lease | Per lease | Landlord |
| LOK policy suite | Fixed fee | Annual review Fixed fee | Szilaghi Consulting |
| Technical audit, accredited laboratory | Per laboratory quote | On material change | Test house |
| EU or UK processing company | Fixed fee | Fixed fee | Szilaghi Consulting |
| Application management and CGA liaison | Fixed fee | Renewal management Fixed fee | Szilaghi Consulting |
| From 1 April 2027 — local key person | – | Salary and employment cost, ×1 rising to ×3 by year five | Employee |
WHAT THE PUBLISHED TOTALS LEAVE OUT
The supervisory fee is monthly. Operators who budget a single annual payment get the timing wrong on roughly €2,050 a month, every month, from grant.
The license fee is not the expensive part after year one. A full-time local key person physically in Curaçao from 1 April 2027, rising to three by year five, is recurring payroll in a jurisdiction with a small specialist labor market. Recruitment lead times are lengthening as the whole licensee population approaches the same deadline. An operator who budgets Curaçao at €49,000 a year and meets the 2027 headcount obligation in 2027 has mispriced the decision by a wide margin.
The application fee is not refundable. Neither are due diligence charges already incurred. That is the entire argument for not filing until the ownership file and the substance plan are complete.
The CGA, the LOK, and the naming confusion
The Landsverordening op de Kansspelen (LOK) came into force in December 2024, replacing the framework that had governed Curaçao gaming since the 1990s. It abolished master and sub-licensing, moved issuance directly to the regulator, and attached local substance and AML obligations the previous regime did not carry.
On the name: the regulator’s own website uses Curaçao Gaming Authority and Curaçao Gaming Control Board interchangeably, and both CGA and GCB appear across professional sources. They are the same body. A provider using only “GCB” and never “CGA” is usually working from pre-2024 material, which is worth noticing for other reasons.
BUSINESS SERVING PLAYERS
B2C Operator License — €49,000 a year
Authorizes offering gaming directly to players. Carries the full obligation set: player protection, complaint handling and periodic complaint reporting to the CGA, domain registration and verification for every active domain, incident reporting without delay through the CGA portal, and the AML/CFT program under an appointed MLRO. Both fee streams apply.
CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY & SERVICE SUPPLIERS
B2B Supplier License — €24,500 a year
For platform providers, game studios, aggregators and technical suppliers serving licensed operators. Assessed principally on technical certification, executed supply agreements and the commercial rationale behind them. The lower cost reflects a narrower obligation set, not a lighter due diligence standard: the beneficial ownership file is the same.
| B2C Operator | B2B Supplier | |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | ~€4,600 | ~€4,600 |
| Annual license fee | ~€24,500 | ~€24,500 |
| Monthly supervisory fee | ~€2,050 | Not applicable |
| Annual statutory total | ~€49,000 | ~€24,500 |
| Assessed on | Player-facing operation, AML program, substance | Technical certification, supply agreements, commercial rationale |
| Player protection duties | Full | Not applicable |
| Complaint reporting | Periodic to CGA | Not applicable |
| Domain registration | Every active domain | As applicable |
Suppliers already licensed in Romania under ONJN Class 2 or in Malta will find much of the technical file transfers directly.
Core ongoing obligations
- Maintain a Curaçao NV or BV with its statutory seat on the island
- Retain a local managing director from the point of grant, being a natural person resident in Curaçao or a Curaçao-law corporate director
- Maintain a physical office in Curaçao
- Appoint an MLRO and a dedicated Compliance Officer, and run a FATF-aligned AML/CFT program
- Employ at least one full-time local key person physically in Curaçao by 1 April 2027 — the managing director does not count toward this — scaling to three by year five
- Register and verify every active domain with the CGA before use
- Report incidents without delay through the CGA portal
- Report player complaints periodically (B2C)
- Maintain third-party RNG and platform audits by accredited laboratories, and secure data backups
- Enforce geo-blocking technically against the prohibited markets list
- Notify change of control and keep beneficial ownership records current
THE 1 APRIL 2027 DEADLINE
This is the LOK provision operators underestimate. From 1 April 2027, every licensee must have at least one full-time key person physically present in Curaçao, and the local managing director does not satisfy it. Headcount scales to three local key persons by the fifth year of operation.
Two consequences. It is a payroll line rather than a service fee, in a jurisdiction with a small specialist labor market. And the CGA assesses your substance plan at application, so a plan that does not credibly reach April 2027 is a weakness in the file today, eighteen months before the obligation bites.
Territories you must geo-block
Enforcement must be technical, at IP level and at payment level. A clause in your terms and conditions is not compliance, and an acquirer usually finds the gap before the regulator does.
- United States
- Netherlands
- Curaçao itself
- France
- Australia
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- All FATF high-risk blacklisted jurisdictions
Blocking Curaçao is both a license condition and a tax matter: wagers placed locally are taxed at 34.5%, against 0% on international gross gaming revenue. The geo-block is what keeps you on the right side of that line.
The list is not static. Configure geo-blocking so a territory can be added in a single operation, and review the position at each annual cycle rather than at each incident.
Entity formation to license, weeks 1 to 10
Two to four months is the realistic range. The CGA runs two review phases, each targeted at eight weeks and each extendable by four, which sets the outer bound near five months. The ten weeks below are the path to a decided application on a clean file, assuming the substance is ready before you file rather than after.
Weeks 1-2
Entity, substance and the parallel tracks
Curaçao NV or BV incorporated with its statutory seat registered. Local managing director identified and engaged. Office secured. MLRO and Compliance Officer appointed. Substance plan drafted through to April 2027 and year five — the CGA assesses this, it does not assume it. Ownership chain mapped to ultimate natural persons and personal documents ordered. EU or UK processing company formation and acquirer applications opened, because underwriting is the longest track in the project and it does not need the license to start.
Weeks 2-4
Policy suite and technical file
LOK policy suite drafted: AML/CFT program and KYC procedures under the MLRO, player protection and responsible gaming, complaint handling built to the CGA reporting cycle, virtual asset policy where crypto is accepted, and player terms. Technical dossier assembled — platform architecture, third-party RNG and platform audits by accredited laboratories, secure data backup arrangements, security controls. Every intended domain listed for CGA registration.
Week 4
CGA portal filing
Complete dossier filed through the CGA portal. Application fee of roughly €4,600 paid, non-refundable regardless of outcome, which is the argument for not filing until the file is complete. Due diligence charges per subject begin.
Weeks 4-8
First review phase
Due diligence on directors, shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners. Source-of-funds review. Assessment of the substance plan and the AML program. Technical review. We run the CGA liaison and answer requests for information on a same-day cycle, which is what keeps a file inside the eight-week target rather than into the four-week extension.
Weeks 8-10
Second phase, provisional status and grant
Second review phase. Where an applicant is substantially but not fully compliant at this point, the CGA may issue a provisional license valid six months, extendable once by six months, against a remediation plan. On full compliance the license issues, every domain is registered and verified, and the entry appears in the CGA register in your own corporate name.
Week 10 onward
Soft launch and go-live
Soft launch against the registered domains with the license credentials displayed, the complaint route published and geo-blocking verified in production rather than in a policy document. EMI and acquirer onboarding, opened in Week 1, closes against the issued license. The monthly supervisory fee begins.
The license is one layer of five
A license certificate does not process a deposit. Operators who buy licensing as a standalone product find this out at acquirer underwriting, weeks after they expected to launch, with the supervisory fee already running. The Curaçao entity is rarely the entity that signs with the acquirer. Here is the structure we build, opened in Week 1 rather than after grant.
The Curaçao Licensed Operating Company
An NV or BV established under Curaçao law with its statutory seat on the island. This entity holds the gaming licence and remains responsible for the regulated player-facing activity.
EU / UK Processing Company
Where the banking and acquiring model requires it, an EU or UK company can provide the commercial contracting layer between the licensed operator and payment providers.
Contracts with acquiring banks, PSPs, EMIs and other payment providers are structured around the approved model.
Provides a commercial entity through which appropriate supplier and payment relationships can be managed.
Player funds, settlement flows, intercompany charges and revenue allocation should be traceable end to end.
The processing-company jurisdiction should be selected around target markets, projected volume, banking access, tax treatment and the shortlist of acquirers or EMIs — not simply incorporation convenience.
EMI & SEPA
European payment and settlement infrastructure built around the processing entity and the licensed gaming activity behind it.
- Euro IBAN and operating account
- SEPA incoming and outgoing payments
- Acquirer settlement account
- Documented source and destination of funds
Card Acquiring
Card and alternative-payment acceptance aligned with target markets, projected volumes and the approved corporate structure.
- CGA licence and register evidence
- Corporate structure chart
- AML / CFT documentation
- Flow-of-funds diagram
- Responsible-gaming controls
- Chargeback history where available
Crypto Acquiring
Virtual-asset payment routes should be structured around applicable CGA policy and appropriately regulated service providers.
- Regulated VASP relationship
- Wallet and transaction controls
- Blockchain analytics
- Source-of-funds monitoring
- Documented virtual-asset policy
Build the compliance pack once
This is an illustrative operating model, not a universal structure. The correct arrangement depends on the licensed activities, target markets, ownership, tax position, payment-provider requirements and applicable financial-services rules. The role of any processing entity, EMI, acquirer or VASP should be established before provider onboarding begins.
PRACTICAL NOTE FROM OUR FILES
Acquirer underwriting runs longer than CGA review. Operators who open processing applications in Week 1 go live the month the license issues. Operators who wait for the license before approaching acquirers add six to ten weeks to launch, against a supervisory fee that started billing at grant.
The document set is identical either way. Only the sequencing differs, and the sequencing is the whole cost. Of the five competing pages we reviewed, one mentions a payment agent company in passing and the rest have no payments section at all.
Dossier and due diligence checklist
Documents in English or Dutch, or with certified translation, certified and current. The CGA may request further material at any stage; an incomplete file is the most reliable way to convert a two-month application into a five-month one.
FILE / 01 KYC & UBO documentation
Each director, shareholder, UBO, MLRO, Compliance Officer and key person
- Government-issued identification, certified
- Proof of residential address, current
- Police clearance or certificate of good conduct
- Signed curriculum vitae with sector experience
- Banker’s reference letter
- Professional reference letter
- Source of funds and source of wealth declaration with supporting evidence
- Signed personal declaration
FILE / 02 Corporate and substance
- Certificate of incorporation for the Curaçao NV or BV, with the statutory seat evidenced
- Articles of association
- Register of shareholders and directors
- Full ownership chain to the ultimate beneficial owner
- Disclosure of every nominee, trust or foundation in the structure
- Local managing director engagement, with residency or Curaçao-law corporate status evidenced
- Physical office lease or service agreement
- Substance plan through 1 April 2027 and to year five, with the recruitment approach for local key persons
- Group structure chart including the EU/UK processing company and the intercompany agreements
FILE / 03 AML/CFT and player protection
- FATF-aligned AML/CFT program with the MLRO named and their appointment evidenced
- KYC and customer due diligence procedures, with enhanced due diligence triggers and thresholds
- Sanctions and PEP screening procedure
- Virtual asset policy where crypto is accepted: regulated VASP routing, blockchain analytics, wallet ownership disclosure, on-chain monitoring, source-of-funds thresholds
- Player protection and responsible gaming policy
- Complaint handling procedure built to the CGA periodic reporting cycle
- Incident reporting procedure referencing the CGA portal
- Player terms and conditions
FILE / 04 Technical & operational
- Platform and hosting architecture, security controls, data handling
- Third-party RNG and platform audit reports from accredited laboratories
- Secure data backup arrangements
- Game content schedule and supplier list, with each supplier’s license reference
- Every active and intended domain, for CGA registration and verification
- Business plan with financial projections, reconciled to the source-of-funds evidence
FOR B2B SUPPLIERS
Your file is built on technical certification and executed supply agreements, plus the commercial rationale behind each operator contract. The beneficial ownership and source-of-funds standard is identical to B2C — the fee is lower, the due diligence is not. A supplier with current certifications and signed agreements in hand runs the fastest file in this jurisdiction.
How to confirm a Curaçao license is real
The CGA publishes four separate registers, and most operators do not know the fourth exists.
01 · Online gaming licenses. The register of licensed online operators. Confirm the license is issued in the operator’s own corporate name, and that the name matches the entity holding the bank accounts and player funds. If it shows a different company, you are looking at an arrangement that no longer has a legal basis.
02 · Certificates. Compliance documentation holders, distinct from license holders. A certificate is not a license and should not be presented as one.
03 · Land-based casinos. Not relevant to online operations, and occasionally cited by resellers hoping you will not check which register you are in.
04 · The enforcement register. Compliance action records. This is the one nobody checks and the one that matters when you are assessing a counterparty — a platform provider, an aggregator, a white-label partner. Run your supplier list against it before you sign, not after your acquirer does.
On domains: registration and verification of every active domain is a license condition. An unregistered domain is not covered by the license, whatever the footer badge says.
A document citing 1668/JAZ, 365/JAZ, 8048/JAZ or 5536/JAZ as the basis of a sub-license describes an instrument that ceased to exist in January 2025. Take a dated screenshot of your own register entry and keep it in your banking file. You will be asked for it.
⚠ A CERTIFICATE CITING A MASTER LICENSE IS NOT A LICENSE
Curaçao vs Anjouan vs Nevis vs Kahnawake vs Malta vs Isle of Man
| METRIC | CURACAO | ANJOUAN | NEVIS | KAHNAWAKE | MALTA (MGA) | Isle of Man |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REGULATOR | CGA | AOFA / ALSI | NOGA | KGC | MGA | GSC |
| FRAMEWORK | LOK, effective 24 December 2024 | Act 007 of 2005 | Nevis Online Gaming Ordinance 2025 | Kahnawake Gaming Law | Gaming Act 2018 | OGRA 2001 |
| APPROVAL TIME | 2–4 months | 2–4 weeks | 8–12 weeks | 6 months | 4–6 months | 10-12 weeks |
| APPLICATION FEE | ~€4,600 | Included | Included | USD 40,000 year 1 | €5,000 | £5,250 |
| ANNUAL STATUTORY COST | ~€49,000 B2C ~€24,500 B2B | €17,828 | €28,000 | USD 20,000 from year 2 | €25,000 + compliance contribution €15,000–€600,000 | £36,750 |
| TAX | 0% international GGR; 2% e-Zone profit tax | 0% | 0% on foreign GGR | 0% | 5-15% on Malta-sourced GGR | 0.1–1.5% duty on GGY |
| LOCAL SUBSTANCE | Statutory seat · local MD · office · MLRO · Compliance Officer · 1 local key person by 1 Apr 2027, 3 by year 5 | None | Nevis IBC or NBCO · Reporting Officer | Gaming equipment hosted by the sole IGL holder, Mohawk Internet Technologies | Maltese company · key function holders · system audit | Two local resident directors · real office |
| BANKING / PSP | Broad and entrenched | Crypto-native and tier-2 acquirers | EU/UK EMIs and acquiring | North America-adjacent processing needs | Strongest — full EU acceptance | Tier-one, comparable to Malta |
| BEST FOR | Operators whose payment stack or platform contracts require Curaçao | Startups, crypto-first brands, fast launches, Curaçao migrants | Banking credibility without EU cost | North America-adjacent processing needs | EU-facing brands with capital and a runway | Established operators prioritizing tier-one banking |
Where Curacao sits: Curaçao has moved. It used to compete with Anjouan on price and win on familiarity. Under LOK it competes with Nevis and the Isle of Man on credibility, at roughly €49,000 a year plus substance — and it still wins on payment processing, because twenty years of acquirer familiarity is not something a newer jurisdiction acquires by writing better rules.
The honest framing for an operator choosing today. If the payment stack or a platform contract requires Curaçao, hold Curaçao and build the substance properly. If you are proving a product, Anjouan at €17,828 and two to four weeks does the job for a fraction of the commitment, and the migration path stays open. If EU market access is the requirement, no offshore license reaches it and Malta or Romania is the conversation.
The comparison not to make casually is Curaçao against its own past. A €20,000 sub-license with no local presence and a €49,000 direct license with a 2027 payroll obligation are different products. Operators still budgeting from the old number are the ones who get caught.
Alex Szilaghi · Founder, Szilaghi Consulting
Over two decades in gambling licensing and corporate structuring across offshore and EU jurisdictions, including the Curaçao LOK transition, Romanian ONJN Class 1 and Class 2 licensing, Malta, Nevis and Anjouan. Szilaghi Consulting acts for operators and B2B suppliers as licensing counsel, corporate service provider, payment-architecture adviser and ongoing compliance function.
Maintained against the LOK framework and the Curaçao Gaming Authority’s published requirements. Last reviewed September 2026. Statutory fees are set in Caribbean guilder and euro equivalents move with the USD peg; confirm current figures before committing. General information, not legal advice.
Curacao gambling license: frequently asked questions
The statutory cost for a B2C operator is approximately €49,000 a year: an annual license fee of about €24,500 to the National Treasury plus a CGA supervisory fee of about €2,050 billed monthly. A B2B supplier pays about €24,500, without the supervisory stream. Year one adds a non-refundable application fee of roughly €4,600 and per-subject due diligence of €130–260. Published figures ranging from €24,530 to €120,000 are counting one stream, both streams, or both streams plus agency and substance costs.
Two reasons. Statutory fees are set in Caribbean guilder (XCG), which replaced the Netherlands Antillean guilder in 2025 and is pegged to the US dollar at 1.79, so every euro figure drifts with EUR/USD and many pages still quote the old currency. And the annual cost arrives as two separate obligations — an annual license fee and a monthly supervisory fee. Quote one and you get about €24,500. Quote both and you get about €49,000.
No. Sub-licenses under the four master licenses expired in January 2025, and the provisional orange seal arrangement expired permanently on 15 October 2025. The only lawful route is a direct license issued by the CGA in your own corporate name. Any offer of a Curaçao sub-license, or of a four-week Curaçao turnaround, describes something that no longer exists.
The master and sub-license model was abolished by LOK in December 2024. 1668/JAZ is Cyberluck Curaçao N.V., trading as Curaçao eGaming; 365/JAZ is Gaming Curaçao; 8048/JAZ is Antillephone N.V.; 5536/JAZ is attributed variously to e-Management N.V. and Cyber Rock Entertainment N.V. Sub-licenses under all four expired in January 2025. Note that Curaçao eGaming is the 1668/JAZ brand and is frequently mis-paired with 5536/JAZ in broker material.
The same body. The regulator’s own website uses Curaçao Gaming Authority and Curaçao Gaming Control Board interchangeably, and both abbreviations circulate. A provider using only “GCB” and never “CGA,” with no reference to LOK, is generally working from pre-2024 material.
A Curaçao NV or BV with its statutory seat on the island; a local managing director from grant, being a natural person resident in Curaçao or a Curaçao-law corporate director; a physical office; an MLRO and a dedicated Compliance Officer; and at least one full-time key person physically in Curaçao by 1 April 2027, which the managing director does not satisfy. Headcount scales to three local key persons by year five.
Two to four months from a complete filing. The CGA runs two review phases, each targeted at eight weeks and each extendable by four, setting the outer bound near five months. Where an applicant is substantially but not fully compliant at the end of phase two, a provisional license valid six months, extendable once by six months, may be issued against a remediation plan. Anyone advertising four weeks is describing the abolished sub-license route.
Four separate figures, routinely conflated. 0% on gross gaming revenue from international operations. 2% corporate profit tax for e-Zone entities serving international clients. 34.5% on wagers placed locally in Curaçao, which is one reason you must geo-block the island. And the OECD 15% global minimum tax, which reaches only groups above €750m consolidated annual revenue.
The United States, Netherlands, Curaçao itself, France, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and all FATF high-risk blacklisted jurisdictions. Enforcement must be technical, at IP and payment level. Blocking Curaçao is both a license condition and the mechanism that keeps local play, taxed at 34.5%, out of your book.
Yes, and it is the main reason to choose Curaçao over cheaper jurisdictions. But the licensed Curaçao entity is rarely the entity that contracts with the acquirer. The standard architecture pairs the Curaçao operating company with an EU or UK processing company acting as merchant of record and holding the acquiring and EMI relationships, with an intercompany services agreement and documented flow of funds between them. Acquirer underwriting assesses the structure, not the certificate.
B2C authorizes offering gaming directly to players: both fee streams apply, for roughly €49,000 a year, with full player protection, periodic complaint reporting, domain registration and incident reporting. B2B authorizes supplying licensed operators: the license fee only, roughly €24,500 a year, assessed principally on technical certification, executed supply agreements and the commercial rationale behind them. Both carry the same application fee and the same beneficial ownership standard.
Yes, expressly, under a standard B2C license. Transactions must route through regulated Virtual Asset Service Providers, with blockchain analytics screening, wallet ownership disclosure, on-chain monitoring and source-of-funds verification at defined thresholds. A documented virtual asset policy belongs in the application dossier, and it is the same document your crypto gateway will ask for.
It depends what the license has to do. Anjouan is €17,828 a year, two to four weeks, no local substance. Curaçao is about €49,000 a year, two to four months, with a local managing director, office, MLRO, Compliance Officer and phased key persons from April 2027. What Curaçao buys is payment processing and partner acceptance built over two decades. If your payment stack needs Curaçao, hold Curaçao. If you are proving a product, do not pay for acceptance you cannot yet use.
Check the CGA register for a license issued in the operator’s own corporate name, and confirm the domain is registered and verified. The CGA maintains four registers — online gaming licenses, certificates, land-based casinos, and an enforcement register that records compliance actions. Run counterparties against the enforcement register before signing. A certificate citing a master license number as the basis of a sub-license describes an instrument abolished in January 2025.
Get the full cost picture before the CGA does its due diligence
Curaçao under LOK is a license with a multi-year substance commitment attached, and the €49,000 is the part that is easy to budget. What decides whether the application succeeds, and whether the license is usable once it issues, happens before anything is filed: the ownership chain mapped to natural persons, source of funds reconciled to the business plan, nominee and trust layers disclosed rather than discovered, a substance plan that credibly reaches 1 April 2027, the MLRO and Compliance Officer appointed rather than promised, and the EU or UK processing company opened in Week 1 so acquirer underwriting is not the thing standing between you and revenue.
We build the structure, file through the CGA portal, hold the liaison to grant, then run the annual cycle, the substance obligations and the complaint reporting.
Twenty minutes tells you whether Curaçao fits your product, your markets and your payment stack, or whether Anjouan, Nevis or Romania is the honest answer.
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For another jurisdiction, review our Anjouan licensing service or Romanian ONJN licensing overview.
