In the 1990s the Curacao government issued six or seven Master Licenses. None have been issued since and online gambling operators wanting a Curacao license had to apply for a sub-license through one of four Master License holders: Cyberluck Curacao N.V. (Curacao-eGaming) Gaming Curacao (GC) Curacao Interactive Licensing N.V. (CIL) and Antillephone NV.
There are as many as seven Master License Holders although only four have ever issued sub-licenses. This was a controversial move from day one and these Master License holders along with the Curacao government have operated in near complete secrecy with little known about who’s behind the Master Licenses and how many sites they have sub-licensed.
This led Curacao to become a notoriously shady regulator and while one or two of the Master License holders have shown some willingness to regulate their sub-licensees the other two haven’t allowing casinos to run pirated games scam players and sometimes run money-laundering operations.
However significant regulatory changes were touted in 2023 with the Dutch Parliament finally applying pressure on the Caribbean island. Under the new rules master license holders can no longer issue new sub-licenses; they are only permitted to renew existing ones. The Curacao Gaming Authority (CGA) was also formed although it’s currently unclear how things are actually progressing.