Curaçao Closes Gaming Portal and Plans Replacement Licensing

The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) will permanently close its online gaming portal after a data breach led to the public release of more than 40,000 documents. The regulator announced its decision on October 7, 2026, and confirmed that it would also end the service arrangements supporting the platform.

The announcement leaves licensed operators preparing for a change in how they handle regulatory matters. The CGA plans to move its work to alternative systems and develop an interim solution while it implements a replacement platform. Existing licences remain valid throughout that process, and operators must continue meeting their current obligations.

Regulatory Work Moves to Alternative Systems

The CGA intends to maintain licensing activities through the transition. It will also continue compliance work and supervision under alternative arrangements, preserving its regulatory functions as it withdraws from the existing platform and associated services.

The portal had operated since September 2023 and helped support the implementation of Curaçao’s online gaming reforms from 2024. Its permanent closure ends the use of a system that played a role in the jurisdiction’s recent changes to gambling oversight.

For operators, the announcement confirms that the change in systems does not remove their licensing responsibilities. They must maintain compliance while awaiting instructions about the arrangements that will replace the portal. The CGA has committed to releasing additional information as it becomes available.

Ending the platform’s supporting service arrangements also brings its previous providers into focus. Those providers include Random Consulting, a company associated with former Malta Gaming Authority executive Mario Galea. However, the CGA’s announcement did not name individual providers or disclose details of specific contracts. It therefore offered no further explanation of how the decision would affect particular service agreements.

Operators Await a New Licence Verification Method

The shutdown will affect the availability of the current digital seal, which operators use to demonstrate their licensing status. The CGA plans to introduce another method that will allow operators to show that their domains hold valid licences.

That replacement forms part of the wider shift away from the existing portal. Operators will need further information about how to demonstrate their domain’s status once the regulator introduces the alternative verification arrangements.

The CGA identified October 9, 2026, as its target for providing more information about interim measures. Those measures aim to keep licence applications and other regulatory matters moving while the authority implements a replacement system.

The announcement set out the purpose of those temporary arrangements without providing a complete account of how the replacement platform would operate. Licensed businesses must therefore await further instructions while continuing to fulfil the requirements attached to their existing authorisations.

Authority Continues Its Response to the Leak

The breach attracted public attention in September, when hacker Lilith Wittmann released documents obtained through unauthorised access. The account of the incident places that access in the previous year and identifies the released material as documents uploaded to the portal.

“The decision follows the release of more than 40,000 documents”

The CGA continues its efforts to contain the leak and protect its information assets. Alongside that response, it aims to safeguard the integrity of its regulatory functions during the move to different systems.

Its latest announcement did not disclose additional findings from the investigation or give a date for completing its response. The regulator acknowledged that the transition could create difficulties for operators and expressed appreciation for their cooperation.

Further updates will explain the replacement arrangements as more information becomes available. In the meantime, the authority’s decision keeps existing licensing requirements in force while it prepares new systems to support its regulatory work.

Source: 

Curaçao Regulator Permanently Closes Gaming Portal, LCB.org, October 13, 2026.