Launching an online casino under Curaçao’s LOK: a 2026 operator plan

Is Curaçao the right first licence for your brand?

For a brand targeting several markets that do not run their own local licensing, Curaçao remains the default choice in 2026: one B2C licence covers casino, live casino and betting, the fee is fixed rather than tied to revenue, and the application runs in months rather than a year. It is the wrong choice if your main revenue will come from a market with its own licensing system, such as the UK, Sweden or Ontario, because no offshore permit replaces a local one.

Think of the decision as a trade between cost, speed and reach. Curaçao sits in the middle: dearer and slower than Anjouan or Tobique, cheaper and faster than Malta, and noticeably easier to present to banks and payment processors than it was before the reform. Operators who expect to scale usually pick it as a base and add market-specific licences later.

A quick fit test before you apply

The law you are applying under

Online gambling in Curaçao is governed by the Landsverordening op de kansspelen (LOK), the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, which parliament adopted on 17 December 2024 and which took effect on 24 December 2024. It created the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) as an independent regulator and ended the 1993 National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard (NOOGH), under which four private master licence holders had issued sublicences.

The practical consequence for a launch team is simple: nobody can sell you a place under someone else’s licence any more. Every operator and every supplier holds its own licence, in its own company name, granted by the CGA and recorded on the regulator’s portal. If a service provider still offers a “sublicence”, treat it as a relic of the old model.

B2C and B2B, defined

A B2C licence (the fee document calls it a “Gambling License”) is the operating licence for a company that takes bets from players. A B2B licence (a “Supplier License”) covers platform and software businesses that serve licensed operators. The LOK also lets the CGA issue certificates, valid for up to three years, to people and companies offering gaming-related goods or services to licence holders; which categories need one is set out in a separate CGA certification policy.

What the CGA charges, line by line

Curaçao is one of the few offshore regimes that publishes a complete, official fee schedule. The table reproduces the CGA document “License Fees under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance”, version 2.0 dated 15 October 2025; the CGA notes the amounts can be changed by national decree.

CGA fee schedule, version 2.0 (15 October 2025), checked September 2026

Two details in the fee document matter for cash planning. The first annual invoices must be paid within 14 days of the CGA notifying your local director that the licence is approved, and the licence and green seal are not issued until they are paid. Unpaid annual fees follow a published escalation: reminders on days 15 and 29, a notice of intended suspension on day 43, suspension on day 57 and revocation on day 71.

The real first-year budget

Government fees are only part of the bill. A Curaçao company, a local managing director, registered office services, a compliance officer and a money laundering reporting officer, legal drafting of policies, and game and platform certification all come on top. Advisory firms publishing guides in 2026 put a realistic year-one total at roughly €70,000 to €110,000; that range is their estimate, not a CGA figure, and it moves with how much you outsource.

Building the company the CGA expects

The applicant must be a company incorporated in Curaçao with a managing director on the island from the day the licence is granted. The LOK then phases in further local staff: within four years of the law taking effect each licensee must employ at least one key person on Curaçao besides the managing director, and within five years at least three.

Advisers read that schedule as 2028 for the first resident key person and 2029 for three. Many new operators rely on a local corporate service provider for the director and office at first, but the direction of travel is clear: over time the CGA wants decision-makers, not only nominees, within reach.

• Ownership: every UBO holding more than 10% and every qualified interest holder is vetted for fitness and propriety, with source of funds and source of wealth.
• Key functions: a compliance officer and a money laundering reporting officer are expected, separate from the commercial management.
• Domains: each main domain is attached to the licence and carries its own seal; new domains are added through the portal.
• Policies: AML/CFT, KYC, responsible gambling, complaints handling, terms and conditions and a technical description of the platform.

Application to approval: the working timeline

Applications are filed on the CGA portal and reviewed in two phases. Guides quoting the regulator describe roughly eight weeks per phase once a file is complete, each extendable by four weeks, so three to five months end to end is a fair planning figure.

1. Weeks 1 to 4, preparation: incorporate the Curaçao company, appoint the local director, collect UBO documents and draft your policies.
2. Filing: submit on the portal and pay the €4,592 application fee plus the per-person fees; review does not start until the invoice is paid.
3. Phase one: the CGA vets the beneficial owners and qualified interest holders.
4. Phase two: corporate structure, AML/CFT framework, technical documentation, game and RNG certification and operational readiness are assessed.
5. Approval and payment: first annual invoices are issued; pay within 14 days to receive the licence and the green seal.
6. Go-live: display the seal on each approved domain and switch on real-money play.

The most common cause of delay is an incomplete file, especially missing ownership documents or policies copied from another jurisdiction without being adapted to the LOK. Your integrations can be built in parallel with phase one so that the platform is ready when phase two begins.

AML obligations and the FIU Curaçao

Licensees are reporting entities under Curaçao’s anti-money laundering law. Unusual transactions are reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit Curaçao (FIU Curaçao) under the National Ordinance on the Reporting of Unusual Transactions, through the goAML system.

In practice that means customer due diligence at onboarding and when thresholds are crossed, sanctions and PEP screening, ongoing transaction monitoring, record keeping and staff training, all described in a written AML/CFT policy that the CGA reviews in phase two. Players also gained a formal complaints route: the CGA’s player complaints policy, in force since 31 July 2025, obliges licensees to handle complaints within set deadlines and to offer independent dispute resolution.

Tax: what the licence does and does not cover

Curaçao does not levy a separate gaming tax on gross gaming revenue; the recurring government charge is the fixed annual licence fee. The operating company is, however, a Curaçao taxpayer, and the general profit tax rates published since 1 January 2023 are 15% on taxable profit up to XCG 500,000 and 22% above it.

How much profit is actually taxed on the island depends on structure, transfer pricing and the territorial rules, which is why operators take tax advice alongside the licence application. This guide is general information, not legal advice; use local counsel for your own structure.

What a Curaçao licence means for your game content

The CGA expects the games and random number generators you offer to be certified by an independent testing laboratory, and RNG and game certification is part of the phase-two review. Laboratories such as GLI, BMM, iTech Labs and eCOGRA are the names most often used; the CGA itself runs a certificate process for test houses and other gaming-related suppliers.

Two questions belong on every supplier call. First: does this supplier hold a CGA B2B licence or certificate, or is it in the process of getting one? Second: can it provide the certificates for every game title you plan to list? Ask them neutrally of every provider, including any aggregator; the answers go straight into your phase-two file.

Beyond certification, studios apply their own market restrictions. Evolution, Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw Gaming, Play’n GO, NetEnt and Spribe each publish lists of countries where their content may not be shown, and a Curaçao licence does not override those lists. That is where the integration layer matters. A casino game aggregator API that returns metadata per game (category, studio, supported currencies, market) lets you build a lobby filtered by country, and a country parameter at launch applies the studio’s own restrictions automatically.

With SoftAggregator, slots, crash games, live dealer tables through the live casino API and a sportsbook API all run through one integration and one seamless wallet, drawn from a catalogue of 40,000+ games from 200+ providers. Demo play uses a separate getGameDemo launch so a free demo never touches the real-money wallet, and each player can hold a currency of their own or the whole site can be locked to one currency. Catalogue and currencies change continuously; the live list is in the API, and the integration docs are public.

After the licence: the first-year calendar

Getting the licence starts a compliance calendar rather than ending a project. The fixed dates are few but unforgiving, and the rest is ongoing supervision.

Recurring obligations for a B2C licensee

Operator questions about the Curaçao licence

Where these figures come from

Fees come straight from the regulator’s published schedule; dates and substance rules come from the LOK as summarised by law firms and compliance advisers who quote the CGA. Where a number is an adviser’s estimate rather than an official one, the page says so.

• Curaçao Gaming Authority, “License Fees under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK)”, version 2.0, 15 October 2025
• Landsverordening op de kansspelen (LOK), adopted 17 December 2024, in force 24 December 2024
• Curaçao Gaming Authority, player complaints policy, in force 31 July 2025
• National Ordinance on the Reporting of Unusual Transactions and FIU Curaçao goAML guidance, as summarised by AML advisers in 2025–2026
• Curaçao profit tax rates from 1 January 2023 (15% up to XCG 500,000, 22% above), as reported by Curaçao tax advisers
• Two-phase review timeline and year-one budget ranges: operator guides published by licensing advisers, checked September 2026

Last reviewed: 24 September 2026.