Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA)

What is the Curaçao Gaming Authority? The short answer

The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) is the regulator for gambling offered in and from Curaçao. It began in April 1999 as the Gaming Control Board, a foundation that regulated the island’s land-based casinos, and took charge of online gaming in stages: a government mandate in 2020, direct licences from November 2023, and full powers as an independent authority when Curaçao’s National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known as the LOK, took effect in December 2024. It licenses online casinos and their suppliers, sets the rules they must follow, supervises them, and can fine them, suspend or revoke their licences or refer them to the public prosecutor.

For players, two things matter most. The CGA publishes the records you need to check a casino: its licence register, an enforcement register, a list of the dispute services and test laboratories it has certified, and warnings about websites that fake its licence. And it does not settle individual disputes: a complaint goes to the casino first, then to one of the seven alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services the CGA has certified, and reaches the CGA itself when it points to a breach of the rules.

The Curaçao Gaming Authority at a glance

The details below come from the CGA’s website, the LOK and the documents the CGA had published by October 2026.

From the Gaming Control Board to the Curaçao Gaming Authority

The CGA is older than its name. It was set up in April 1999 as a foundation called the Gaming Control Board, a direct result of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s second mutual evaluation report in 1998, and for two decades it mainly regulated the island’s land-based casinos under a mandate from the responsible minister.

Online casinos sat outside its licensing for most of that time. Under the 1993 National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard, many online casinos ran under a sublicence from a master licence holder, such as Curaçao eGaming, rather than holding a licence in their own name. That is why older casino footers show a master licence holder’s name and number. Our guide to Curaçao gaming licence changes explains how that system was wound down and what the new rules require of casinos.

The old name has not disappeared. In October 2026 the CGA’s own website still showed “Gaming Control Board” in its page titles and on its home page, and six of the seven Curaçao-licensed casinos we review still described their licence with the Gaming Control Board name or the 1993 ordinance. A casino that names the Gaming Control Board is referring to the same regulator; what matters is whether its licence holder and website appear in the CGA’s current records.

What the CGA does: licensing, rules, supervision and enforcement

Under Article 12.1 of the LOK, the CGA’s task is to apply the rules made under the law. In practice that means four jobs: licensing, rule-making, supervision and enforcement.

Licensing

The CGA decides who may offer games of chance from Curaçao. A company that runs a casino or sportsbook needs a B2C online gaming licence, and a company that supplies platforms or games to licence holders needs a B2B supplier licence; land-based casinos and lotteries have licences of their own. The CGA also certifies the specialists the online sector relies on: its August 2026 list names five test laboratories, among them eCOGRA, and seven dispute services, each certified for three years. A registration duty for other suppliers of critical services and goods is due to be in place by December 2026.

Rules

The CGA sets policy rules, which the LOK requires it to publish on its website. Those that matter most to players are its Player Complaints Policy, its policy on alternative dispute resolution, its Responsible Gaming Policy and its guideline on what casino terms and conditions must contain. The Responsible Gaming Policy, for example, requires online self-exclusion of at least a year across every brand under a licence.

Supervision

Its supervision department works on risk: it concentrates on the companies and activities where it sees the greatest risk of rule-breaking and harm to players. Licence holders report their complaints to it every January and June, and the CGA can ask for complaint records at any time. In mid-2026 it was chasing operators that had missed the June deadline for their 2025 figures, which it says it needs to assess licences granted for an indefinite period. Since February 2019 it has also supervised anti-money-laundering rules across the gaming sector.

Enforcement

The CGA’s compliance and enforcement policy of July 2026 sets its priorities in order: protecting minors and vulnerable people, fighting illegal gambling, preventing fraud and money laundering, and enforcing advertising and responsible gaming rules. Minor breaches normally get a warning or an instruction; serious or repeated ones lead to the heavier measures below.

The policy commits the CGA to an annual enforcement report, and its enforcement register lists the licences it has revoked, suspended or not extended: 32 in the September 2026 edition.

What a Curaçao Gaming Authority licence is

A Curaçao Gaming Authority licence is issued to a company, not to a casino brand. The B2C online gaming licence is the one behind a casino: its holder offers the games and holds your account, and one licence can cover several websites, each of which needs its own CGA certificate naming its domain. The B2B licence covers suppliers. Under the CGA’s fee notice of October 2025, a B2C licence costs €47,450 a year in licence and supervisory fees.

The register gives each licence a status. In its mid-October 2026 edition, 209 licences were Indefinite, a full licence with no end date, and 296 were still marked Assessment in progress: licences the CGA had not finished reviewing. A licence under assessment is not proof that it has lapsed, nor that it has been renewed.

The CGA’s licence register and other public records

The CGA publishes its records as PDF lists on its website and replaces each with new editions, and it warns that these overviews do not guarantee that a licence is currently valid. These are the records a player can use.

Two cautions apply. The records lag behind events: the CGA says its enforcement register may not always be accurate or up to date, and in the mid-October 2026 licence register, 289 of the 296 licences under assessment showed expiry dates that had already passed. And the records list companies, not casino brands, so you need the company and licence number from the casino’s terms to find an entry. Our page on Curaçao gaming licence holders explains how to read the register entry by entry.

How complaints reach the Curaçao Gaming Authority

The CGA is clear that it is not a dispute service. Its complaints notice says it does not handle individual complaints against casinos, cannot mediate or arbitrate, and cannot order a casino to pay you. Instead, its Player Complaints Policy sets a route that every licensed casino must offer, and the CGA comes in where a complaint points to a breach of the rules.

1. The casino. Complain in writing, free of charge, within six months of the bet being settled or the incident. The casino must offer support by email or live chat and an official complaint form in English and in the language of its website, confirm receipt within one week and decide within four weeks, a period it can extend once by four more with written notice. Complaints about self-exclusion or vulnerable players must be handled faster, with best efforts to resolve them within five business days.
2. A CGA-certified dispute service. If the casino’s written decision does not settle it, you can take the dispute to an independent ADR service free of charge; the casino pays. Every licensed casino must have an agreement with at least one certified service and give its contact details in its terms. Once an ADR case is completed, neither side can start again with another service.
3. The CGA. You can report a casino to complaints@cga.cw if you think it has broken the rules, and a casino may not stop you from contacting the CGA. The CGA uses complaints to direct its supervision and may act against a casino if a complaint, or a pattern of them, suggests a breach, but it does not disclose what it has done. It plans to replace the inbox with a claim form on its website.
4. A court. Unless you have agreed specific ADR terms, a casino may not restrict your right to take legal action.

None of the seven Curaçao-licensed casinos we review named any of these services in the terms we captured in October 2026, and Betmac’s terms still send disputes to Curaçao eGaming. Ask a casino in writing which service it uses before you need one; our guide to whether Curaçao casinos are safe covers the complaint terms of each casino.

Complaints about the CGA itself

The LOK lets anyone complain about how the CGA has treated them, on a model complaint form the CGA provides, in English, Dutch or Papiamentu, and requires the CGA to confirm receipt within two weeks. A formal objection to a CGA decision must be lodged within six weeks; the CGA aims to decide within five months, and the case can then go to the Court of First Instance of Curaçao.

Fake CGA licences and the regulator’s warnings

A CGA logo on a website proves nothing on its own. From January to July 2026 the CGA published seven warning notices. Two concern unlicensed bingo and numbers-lottery sales on the island; the five about online casino websites show three ways a licence gets faked: a borrowed logo and seal, a fake certificate, and a borrowed licence number.

The lesson is the one our licence check rests on: a real company name or licence number is not enough, because both can be borrowed. The certificate must be on cert.cga.cw, the CGA’s own domain, and name the exact website you are on; in January 2026 the CGA described the genuine seal as a green box with “CGA” in white that opens the certificate there. Our Curaçao gaming licence check shows how to test the seal, the certificate and the register in turn.

The October 2026 portal shutdown

The seal itself is changing. In September 2026 the CGA disclosed that an account registered under a false identity had been used to access its online licensing portal from December 2025 until September. It said a security researcher’s claim to have taken data about operators and internal documents was consistent with its own investigation. In October it said the portal would not return to service, that existing licences remained valid, and that the availability of its digital seal would be affected, with an alternative way to show that a domain is licensed to follow. It promised further details within days; none had appeared on its website when we checked later in October, and the certificate pages of all seven Curaçao-licensed casinos we review still opened and said Active.

The CGA’s records for the 12 casinos we review

Seven of the 12 casinos we review hold a licence from the CGA, through three companies; the other five do not, so the CGA’s records do not cover them. None of the seven appeared in the September 2026 enforcement register or in the CGA’s 2026 warnings, and all their certificates said Active when we reopened them in October 2026.

Six of the seven casinos ran on licences still under assessment in mid-October 2026; only Freshbet’s holder had an indefinite licence. The five Santeda casinos share one licence; our profile of Santeda International B.V. covers that company, and our Betmac review explains its dispute clause.

Does the CGA protect UK players?

No. The CGA regulates Curaçao licence holders under Curaçao law; it does not authorise them to serve customers in Great Britain, where a casino needs a licence from the Gambling Commission, which you can check on the Gambling Commission website. None of the 12 casinos we review holds a UK licence, and five of the seven Curaçao-licensed ones restricted our UK visits in October 2026. Our page on Curaçao gaming licence restricted countries sets out which countries each casino excludes in its terms, and our page on Curaçao casinos accepting UK players covers what each one showed a UK visitor. UK protections, such as the Gambling Commission’s rules and its approved dispute services, do not apply to a CGA licence. Our guide to the Curaçao gambling licence in the UK compares the two rulebooks.

Our assessment of the CGA

The Curaçao Gaming Authority is a real regulator with real powers. Since December 2024 it has had a statutory basis, a published enforcement policy and a range of sanctions up to revocation, and its records show it uses them: 32 licences revoked or not extended by September 2026, seven public warnings in the first seven months of 2026, and seven certified dispute services that casinos must pay for.

Its limits are just as clear. It does not resolve disputes, so your leverage comes from the casino’s complaint process and a dispute service that none of the seven casinos we review names in its terms. Its register lagged behind its own reform, with 296 licences still under assessment in mid-October 2026, including those behind six of those seven casinos. Its supervisory board resigned in 2025, and the breach and closure of its portal in 2026 left the seal system in transition. For UK players it adds nothing the UK requires.

Used well, the CGA is a source of records rather than a safety net. Before trusting a Curaçao casino with your money, check that its company and exact domain appear in the register and on a cert.cga.cw certificate, that neither appears in the enforcement register or the CGA’s warnings, and which certified dispute service the casino uses.

How we checked this page

We read the CGA’s website and the documents on it in October 2026: the LOK (P.B. 2024, no. 157; translations from the Dutch are ours), its compliance and enforcement policy (July 2026), Player Complaints Policy (version 1.1, June 2025), complaints notice (October 2026), guide to objections and appeals (April 2025), licence register (mid-October 2026 edition), enforcement register (September 2026), certificate-holder list (August 2026), land-based casino register (July 2026), its 2026 warning notices, its announcements of October 2025 and of September and October 2026, and its stakeholder bulletin for May to July 2026. We reopened the CGA certificates of the seven Curaçao-licensed casinos we review and compared them with the terms captured for our reviews. We did not contact the CGA, and we have not tested its complaint route with a real case.