Curacao gambling licence explained

Who issues Curacao gambling licences

The CGA is a foundation, incorporated on 19 April 1999 to be the regulator for the gaming industry in and from Curaçao.

Under the LOK it is an independent administrative authority. It is responsible for the licensing, supervision and enforcement of the online gaming sector.

Its enforcement powers include an instruction, an order under administrative coercion, an order subject to a penalty and an administrative fine. It can also suspend, revoke or amend a licence, and it can refer criminal offences to the Public Prosecution Office.

From master licences to the CGA

Before the LOK, online gaming licences were governed by the Landsverordening buitengaatse hazardspelen (LBH), the National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard. In 2019 responsibility for licensing and supervision under the LBH passed to the Minister of Finance. From March 2020 the CGA did the licensing of the online gaming sector on the Minister's behalf.

In November 2023 the CGA began phased reforms to prepare for the LOK. Its licence list is headed "Licenses Granted under the New Online Gaming Policy (Effective November 15, 2023)".

The LOK came into effect on 24 December 2024. The CGA calls itself a more independent organisation for online gaming under the new law. The LBH still matters through transitional provisions based on Article 15.1 of the LOK.

The CGA's online gaming page does not use the words master licence or sublicence. It describes the change as a move from the LBH to the LOK.

What a Curacao licence number looks like

The CGA's online gaming licence list prints licence numbers in two forms. One starts with OGL, for example OGL/2024/219/0188. The other starts with CGA, for example CGA/2025/2742/1367. Both forms appear among licences issued in October 2026.

The enforcement register uses the OGL form, for example OGL/2024/1790/1174.

Each row of the licence list also gives the licensee's company registration number. That is a separate figure and not the licence number.

How to check a licence on the CGA register

1. Take the licensee's company name and licence number from the casino's own terms. The register lists licensees by company, so a casino name alone will not find it.
2. Open the CGA licence register page. It holds lists for land-based casinos and, under online gaming, the online gaming licences, the certificates and the enforcement register.
3. Open the online gaming licence list and look for the company name or the number.
4. Read the whole row: licence number, licensee, company type (B2B or B2C), company registration number, issue date, expiry date and status. Each page of the list prints its update date, 9 October 2026.
5. Open the enforcement register and look for the same number. It was updated on 14 September 2026 and has 32 entries: 31 are Revoked and 1 is Not extended by the CGA.
6. Open the CGA public warnings page. It lists warning notices by name, dated from 30 January 2026 to 17 July 2026.
7. Write down the date you checked.

On 7 October 2026 the CGA said its online gaming portal will not be returned to service, and that this does not affect the validity of existing licences. It also said the current digital seal will be affected and that it will introduce another way for operators to show that a domain is licensed by the CGA. Check the list rather than relying on a seal on a casino's page.

What the register does not prove

The CGA's licence register page says of its lists:

The enforcement register carries its own warning. It "focuses solely on actions that affect the status of a license" and "does not include all enforcement measures taken by the CGA". It adds that it "may not always be fully accurate or up to date, and no rights can be derived from its contents."

A match in either list shows what the CGA printed when we checked. The safety picture is in Are Curacao casinos safe for UK players?.

On the licence list, many entries carry the status "Assessment in progress" and some carry no status text at all. Those entries still show issue and expiry dates, and some show an expiry date earlier than the list's update date. We quote the words and do not interpret them.

A Curacao licence and a UK licence

A Curacao licence is issued by the CGA under Curaçao law. It is not a Gambling Commission licence. The casinos we have checked are listed in All Curacao casinos we review for UK players.

A Curacao licence is never a way around a UK self-exclusion. If you have excluded yourself, that stands whatever licence a casino holds. Support is on our responsible gambling page.

If you think we are wrong

When a casino changes a term, or a fact on this page is wrong, our team reads the casino's own page or the register again and corrects this page. Corrections can be sent to info@curacaocasinosuk.co.uk. How we check a licence is set out in How to check a Curacao casino licence.