Curaçao — eGaming Licence licence.

The Landsverordening op de kansspelen (LOK), in force from late 2024, replaced the four-master-licence model with direct GCB licensing. Operators now hold a licence in their own name rather than as sublicensees. Capital, AML, player-protection, and substance requirements all rose materially. The result is a meaningfully more credible regime — still fast and broad in scope, but no longer a pure light-touch jurisdiction.

Most established iGaming PSPs — and many crypto payment processors — accept Curaçao-licensed operators routinely. The licence is the operational backbone of B2C iGaming globally. That said, banking is harder than payments; mainstream correspondent banking typically requires a parallel structure or supplemental licensing.

Under LOK, the licensee must maintain a Curaçao-registered company with a local representative, at least one Curaçao-resident director, and an AML compliance function. Operational staff, technology, and management can be based elsewhere, but the regulated entity itself must have substance on the island.

Anjouan is faster and cheaper (4—8 weeks, USD 25—50K) but carries materially less weight with payment processors and aggregators. Curaçao is the established route with broad market acceptance. Anjouan suits very early-stage launches; most operators migrate to Curaçao within 6—12 months as they scale.

A Curaçao licence is recognised in non-regulated and rest-of-world markets. It does not authorise activity in markets requiring a local licence — UK, most EU member states with local regimes (Sweden, Spain, Germany, Netherlands), most US states, and a growing list of regulated APAC markets. Geo-blocking and player-residency verification are mandatory.