The Caribbean island country of Curacao, long-viewed throughout the online-gambling world as a regulator of convenience and minimal oversight, is swirling in controversy amid accusations of fraud, money laundering, and financial improprieties involved with the operations of Curacao's Gaming Control Board (GCB).
Following the introduction of a second formal complaint by a leading investigator into the GCB's operations, Curacao's parliament this week hastily passed a new online-gambling law, the Landsverordening op de Kansspelen (LOK), or the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, by a 13-6 margin.
The newly passed LOK will transition Curacao's GCB into a new entity, the Curacao Gaming Authority (CGA), while increasing fees for regulatory licenses and dumping the GCB's existing two-tiered approach to licensing. Currently, Curacao's online stamps of approval are administered by four long-standing major licensees; the GCB, in essence, receives a share of the licensing proceeds but actually conducts little or no direct oversight.
The GCB, through its major licensees, offers a regulatory seal of approval to roughly 200 online gambling companies, including numerous grey-market sites that offer online poker. Another 1,000 sites have reportedly applied to receive the GCB's comparatively inexpensive licensing.
First Faneyte claim targeted operator BC.game
In November, forensic financial investigator Dr. Luigi Faneyte, filed an initial complaint against the online sports-betting company BC.game, which was licensed in Curacao. BC.game continues to have a sponsoring relationship with Premier League football club Leicester City. Earlier in November, BC.game's current and former corporate owners were forcibly declared bankrupt in a Curacao court after failing to pay out over $2 million in withdrawals made by its customers.
BC.game's current named ownership entity, Small House, has responded by assuring the Leicester City team and two other partners that it remains financially stable and that the court-ordered bankruptcy will be appealed. However, BC.game dropped its Curacao license, one day before Curacao's GCB was to issue its own ruling on whether or not to withdraw or suspend that license.
BC.game, whose previous named owner, Blockdance, was fined for providing illegal services in Australia and the Netherlands, has also launched an online marketing campaign touting its services. (The site is unlicensed in Canada's British Columbia province, which is somewhat implied by its name, and there is no public information as to whether the newly named corporate owner, Small House, actually represents a real change in beneficial ownership.)
Second Faneyte complaint centered on Curacao GCB
Explosive as Faneyte's BC.game filing was, it paled in comparison to his more recent complaint, which centers on Curacao's Gaming Control Board and its operations, including its reach into other countries. The filing runs several hundred pages in length and alleges crime and corruption by officials and entities far and wide.
Among those specifically named in the report are Curacao's Finance Minister Javier Silvania, GCB managing director Cedric Pietersz, and 'Maltese investors' Mario Galea, Aideen Shortt, and Mario Fiorini. Among others named are Malta-based Random Consulting Ltd., Jeannitza Felix, Phaedra Hanst, IGA Trust B.V., GCB head Cedric Pietersz, and, of course, Curacao's Gaming Control Board itself.
The allegations reportedly cover widespread topics, including the use of an official but mysterious bank account for licensing transactions that turned out to be an Electronic Money Institute (EMI) based in the Czech Republic. According to the Curacao Chronicle, "operators were reportedly encouraged to make cryptocurrency payments through unofficial crypto links sent separately from formal invoices."
Faneyte's more recent filing also included the transcript of a secret recording of two gaming company execs discussing moving their company's home to a new jurisdiction to escape legal liability.
In response to Faneyte's allegations, Finance Minister Silvania referred to Faneyte as a 'bomba', local slang for being a traitor to his own people. Silvania also offered a more traditional denial, stating, "‘Faneyte’s accusations have no basis. It is the right of every citizen to report criminal offenses to the Public Prosecution Service. The Public Prosecution Service must be given time to investigate this. But this institute did not even get that space before Faneyte came out with a second report.
“Moreover, he goes to the international press with it, where he pretends it is the truth. But Mr. Faneyte, the international press cannot help you with your reports. You only harm the island. You only base yourself on suspicions. That’s what I call gossip.”
Faneyte has also sent his complaints to officials in other countries, including the US's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the state of New Jersey's Division of Gaming. The filings were also forwarded to officials in Malta and the Czech Republic.
Shadowy history for Curacao regulatory framework
Curacao has been a player in the regulatory market since the mid-'90s, with its Gaming Control Board founded in 1999 as the possibilities of both domestic and international licensing became real and offered a revenue source. Unfortunately, the GCB's open-hands framework has kept the Netherlands-administered island nation from achieving the legitimacy of most other global regulators.
Consumer problems with Curacao-regulated sites have been an issue for decades. The court-ordered bankruptcy involving BC.game was filed by the Netherlands-based Stichting Belangbehartiging Gedupeerden Online Kansspelen (SBGOK), or in English, the Foundation for Representation of Victims of Online Gaming, a consumer rights entity founded in 2019.
Dutch officials have sought to apply pressure to Curacao in other ways as well, including withholding COVID relief financing until Curacao agreed to revamp its online regulatory framework. The just-approved LOK law was introduced in 2022, though it was slow-walked until Faneyte's allegations made global headlines.
The Netherlands maintains one of the world's strictest online gambling regimes, making the ongoing Curacao situation even more ironic. In April 2024, the Netherlands' gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), released a notice about eight online gambling companies that were fined for operating illegally between 2013 and 2022, remain in business, and have ignored the fines. Six of the eight companies were licensed in Curacao at the time the fines were levied.
