Several online casinos in Curaçao are owned by Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian owners, while there is no effective government supervision to prevent sanctions evasion or money laundering. This is according to research from Platform Investico, Argos and De Groene Amsterdammer to the Curaçao online gambling sector.
Many billions
Curaçao is a global player in the field of online gambling with thousands of online casinos. The online gambling halls are worth billions, but the sector is virtually unregulated. For example, there is no government supervision and the Curaçao government does not know who is behind the gambling companies. This makes the sector very sensitive to money laundering and the evasion of sanctions. The online casinos are often used by the Italian mafia, criminal Russians and the Hague underworld who launder their criminal money with online games of chance.
‘Sublicenties’
It is not the Curaçao government, but a handful of private companies that determine who is admitted to the online gambling market. Since the 1990s, they have been granting ‘sublicenses’ to companies that want to open an online casino for about five thousand dollars a year. The Curaçao government does not know who operates the casinos and how much money is rolling through the online slots. The turnover often does not flow through Curaçao, but through anonymous companies in England, Ireland or Malta.
SoftSwiss, which operates more than a hundred Curaçao gambling websites, says that five billion euros are invested on its sites every month. That amounts to an annual total of sixty billion for only a small part of the thousands of websites.
Son Piet S. and professional football players
Curaçao gambling companies appear in Russian, American, Italian, Brazilian and Dutch criminal cases, according to Platform Investico. According to the police and the judiciary, the son of the Hague drug dealer Piet S. was behind the illegal gambling site Edobet. Sparta players Tom Beugelsdijk and Aaron Meijers would shares have had in the illegal gambling business, and former internationals Dirk Kuijt and Wesley Sneijder have been heard as a witness in the criminal investigation. Edobet was licensed in Curaçao.
The US Department of State explicitly warns in a recent report that criminal drug organizations can use Curacao gambling sites to launder criminal money.
‘gossip’
The interest group for Curacao gambling companies states in a response that the ties between criminals and the Curacao gambling sector are ‘gossip’. According to the association, “master licensees” transfer their licenses “with the knowledge and consent of the government” and gambling companies are “under the strict supervision of private companies.”
Murder of Helmin Wiels
Officials who try to better regulate the gambling companies, or activists who report abuses, are thwarted, charged or intimidated. Politician Helmin Wiels (54) was liquidated on 5 May 2013 on the Playa Marie Pampoen, a few kilometers outside Willemstad.
A day before the murder, Wiels gave a two-hour speech on YouTube in which he accused the gambling sector of tax evasion. He announced that he would release a ‘bomb’ about the gambling sector after the weekend. A day later, he was shot dead with nine bullets while drinking a beer on the beach.
lottery king
The gunmen have been caught and the Curaçao former minister George Jamaloodin also received an appeal 30 years in prison for provoking liquidation. Justice suspects that Jamaloodin’s half-brother, the gambling entrepreneur Robbie dos Santos, was also involved as a client. He was a suspect, but he was not charged with the murder in court. Dos Santos was convicted of financial crimes.
No claim
Since the gambling law was passed in Curacao in 1993, the gambling industry has been almost unregulated. The law makes no provision for supervision or penalties for violations, makes no demands on the operators of online casinos, contains no rules against money laundering and no guarantees that players will be treated fairly. The only requirement is that companies that want to open online casinos apply for a license from the government.
Armed bodyguards
Legislative lawyer John van Schendel must issue those permits around 1995. He says he was pressured by ‘lottery king’ Robbie dos Santos. “Robbie came to my office with two armed bodyguards positioned on either side of my door in the hallway,” said Van Schendel. ‘I only had to listen. I thought it was terrifying, it gave me Gestapo-like feelings.’
Number unknown
It is unknown how many online casinos there are now on Curaçao. The Public Prosecution Service in Curaçao estimates that there are about a thousand Curaçao gambling sites, the Curaçao Social and Economic Council (SER) keeps it at seven to nine hundred companies. Follow the Money previously wrote that in the past five years about ten thousand illegal casinos had operated from Curaçao.
Meanwhile, the entire country is suffering from the bad reputation of the gambling sector: Curaçao is increasingly excluded from international payments because banks are afraid of money laundering scandals.
Busy from the Netherlands
It is the responsibility of the Curaçao government to amend the legislation for gambling companies and to ensure that there is supervision. That has not happened for thirty years, and the Netherlands insists, but cannot enforce anything.
Meanwhile, the Curaçao Public Prosecution Service does not intervene, new laws never pass due to ‘legal problems’ and the Public Prosecution Service still does not consider itself capable of prosecuting gambling companies.
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