Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA)
The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) is the independent regulator that issues and supervises gambling licences in and from Curaçao, including online casino licences under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known as the LOK. It is the body formerly called the Gaming Control Board, a foundation set up on 19 April 1999. Since the LOK entered into force on 24 December 2024, the CGA grants every online licence directly, and it also supervises the island’s gaming sector for anti-money-laundering compliance.
How the CGA licence replaced the sublicence
For most of the online era, Curaçao ran a master-licence model under the old National Ordinance on Offshore Games of Hazard, where a handful of private master licensees sublicensed thousands of operators.
The LOK ended that arrangement, and existing licences under the old law were converted into provisional licences under the new one. An operator must now be a company established under Curaçao law, with at least one director resident on the island, and the CGA assesses each applicant in two phases.
A casino footer that still names a master licence describes a regime that no longer exists.
CGA licence against the old master sublicence
The two models are still confused in footers and older reviews, so the rows below set the current CGA licence against the sublicence it replaced.
Direct CGA licence (LOK) | Master sublicence (NOOGH) |
|---|---|
| Issued by the CGA itself | Issued by a private master licensee |
| Two-phase vetting of each applicant | Limited checks by the master holder |
| Local company and resident director required | No comparable substance rule |
| AML/CFT supervision by the CGA | AML/CFT supervision by the CGA since 2019 |
| No Irish licence conferred | No Irish licence conferred |
What a Curaçao licence means for Irish players
A CGA licence permits an operator to offer gaming in or from Curaçao, and it gives no authority under Irish law, where the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 places licensing with the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.
What I check first is whether the licence number in the footer appears on the CGA’s own register, because a logo alone proves nothing. If you have a dispute with such an operator, the GRAI cannot act on a licence it did not issue, so any complaint runs through the operator and then the CGA.
