Curaçao Retires Casino Licensing Portal as Operators Await Replacement Details

Curaçao’s online casino licensing system faces an uncertain transition after the country’s gambling regulator confirmed that its compromised portal will be permanently shut down.

The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) announced the decision on October 7, ending both the platform and the service arrangements supporting it. The portal had played a central role in the jurisdiction’s online gambling reforms since 2024, handling licence applications and documents covering company ownership, compliance procedures and other regulatory requirements.

The authority said it was targeting October 9, 2026, to explain its interim arrangements. By Tuesday morning, October 13, UTC, its news page still contained no update beyond the closure announcement.

Earlier Filing Instructions Leave Questions Unresolved

The permanent shutdown changes the premise of guidance issued just days earlier.

In an October 2 notice, the CGA confirmed that the portal was offline and instructed operators not to send application documents by email, explaining that alternative submission channels could not process them at that time. Filing deadlines were postponed until the platform returned.

With restoration now ruled out, operators are awaiting clarification on how those deferred submissions and deadlines will be handled.

The CGA says licensing, compliance and supervisory work will continue through alternative arrangements while an interim solution is implemented. Existing licences remain valid, and licensed businesses must continue meeting their regulatory obligations.

Licence Verification Also Faces a Transition

The authority has also warned that the availability of its current digital licensing seal will be affected. It plans to introduce another mechanism allowing operators to demonstrate that their domains are licensed.

These seals provide a public verification route: visitors click a casino’s badge to reach a certificate identifying the operating company, licence number, status and associated domains.

At least one such certificate remained accessible on Tuesday morning. The page linked from crypto casino Shuffle’s seal still displayed its Curaçao licence as active.

Security Breach Preceded the Closure

The CGA first disclosed unauthorised access to the portal on September 17.

In a September 22 statement, it said a German security researcher had accessed the system through an account registered under a false identity in December 2025 and retained access until September. The regulator described the incident as a serious breach of Curaçao law and said it would report the matter to the relevant authorities.

It also declined to repeat figures about the compromised material that it could not verify.

Lilith Wittmann has published more than 40,000 portal documents under the name “Casino Secrets.” The material became the basis for an investigation led by Follow the Money alongside European media partners.

Follow the Money said the investigation identified approximately 800 owners connected to nearly 650 Curaçao-licensed companies. Reported findings included a revenue-sharing agreement between SIS, a content supplier to British bookmakers, and Santeda, the operator behind Mystake.

Wittmann has separately described a legal dispute involving the Malta Gaming Authority, whose systems she accessed in March. According to her September account, a Berlin court ruled in her favour after the Maltese regulator obtained an interim injunction against her. She said the outcome allowed her to continue using the documents while prohibiting further access to the authority’s systems.