The Curaçao gaming licence in 2026

Since 24 December 2024 online gaming in Curaçao is licensed under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK). The Curaçao Gaming Authority issues licences directly; the old model of master licences and sublicences is gone.

The CGA describes the LOK as the key step of a phased reform begun in November 2023, replacing the previous ordinance on offshore games of hazard. Licences are applied for through the CGA's online gaming portal, and every licensed entity appears in its public register.

The practical consequence for anyone who remembers the old Curaçao: a sublicence from a master licence holder is no longer the route. The operator's own company holds its own licence and answers to the CGA directly.

€4,592 to apply, once and non-refundable, then €47,450 a year for a B2C licence — €24,490 to the national treasury and €22,960 in CGA supervision fees. There is no tax on gross gaming revenue.

These are the figures of the CGA's LOK fee schedule (version 2.0, 15 October 2025) as quoted by licensing advisers — one and another agree on them. The CGA does not publish the schedule as a web page, so confirm current fees through its portal before applying.

The annual fee is fixed regardless of turnover, which makes Curaçao cheaper than Malta for a large casino and more expensive than Anjouan for a small one. Company formation, local directors, compliance staff and advisers come on top and are usually the larger part of the first year's cost.

Typically three to five months from a complete file: a few weeks to incorporate and prepare, then two review phases of roughly eight weeks each, extendable to twelve.

The first phase looks at integrity, ownership and financial standing; the second at technical and operational readiness. Both depend on the completeness of what is submitted — advisers (source) consistently name incomplete files as the main cause of delay.

Plan the platform around this, not the other way round. On WW Games the platform side of a launch takes about a week; the licence is usually the longest item in the plan and should be started first.

A Curaçao-incorporated company with its seat on the island, a local managing director, a dedicated compliance officer and money-laundering reporting officer, disclosed beneficial owners with a lawful source of funds, and AML, KYC and responsible-gaming controls.

The CGA publishes its AML/CFT regulations and a compliance and enforcement policy for online gaming. Expect to show the whole ownership chain, the people in key roles and how the operation will verify players and monitor transactions.

Most of these obligations fall on the operator's own operation rather than the platform: player verification, transaction monitoring and responsible-gaming tools have to exist and be used. What the WW Games platform provides on that side is on anti-fraud and security.

Article 5.12 of the LOK requires licensed operators to build real presence in Curaçao — resident staff and an office. The Minister of Justice has postponed it: operators will not have to meet it before 1 April 2027.

The CGA announced the postponement on 23 January 2026, after industry concerns, and said the Ministry would work on the workforce and work-permit conditions needed to make the requirement practical. Operators may start building local substance earlier if they choose.

Budget for it now even so. A requirement that has been postponed once is still coming, and the cost of resident staff and premises will change what a Curaçao licence costs from 2027.

In markets that do not require a licence of their own. It does not authorise serving players in countries with a local licensing regime, and operators are expected to block the markets they are not permitted to serve.

Every market decides for itself whether a foreign licence is enough. Where local law requires a domestic licence — as in much of Europe, the UK and a growing part of Latin America, from Mexico to Peru — a Curaçao licence does not change that, and neither does anything a platform vendor can offer. Check each target market before you build the plan around it — twenty are covered on markets.

The licence is yours; WW Games supplies the platform. Licensing is the operator's responsibility and depends on the markets served. WW Games does not hold or sublicense a gambling licence, and can put you in touch with licensing providers.

Because the licence, the company and the payment contracts are in your name, they stay yours if you ever change platform. What the platform costs alongside the licence is on pricing; the other jurisdictions are compared on licensing.