Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey everyone, this is Max. Today we will discuss the GCB Curacao license, the old and famous Curacao license that was a legendary license for the last 25 years. But the story has changed since 2023 when the parliament and the Ministry of Finance of Curacao decided to work on the new regulation, new online gaming law.
Since then it was called the GCB license. So now when the law was approved, now it's called the CGA license. Said CGA Curacao license.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Max Carey, the one who's carrying big business at its finest, need a license. Easy decision. It's getting done. When Max is stepping in, we got what you need, the licensed gentleman, the advice that you need, ask Max here to get you right, get you on track. The advice that you need, ask Max here to get you.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Probably like you are watching this video because, well, you are in the business for five or 10 years, maybe you had some pauses in your career and now you are back to the business and probably willing to start online casino. And you are like, okay, I do need the Curacao license because you remember the old good Curacao license the way it was before.
So just so you understand, it's a completely different, different deal right now in 2025, 6, 7 and beyond. And it's nothing like it was before. So if you are hunting the Curacao license, then probably your train has passed already a couple years ago because currently there are different other licenses that replaced the old Curacao license. So the, of course the Kanawaki was always the competitor of the curacao license since 1996.
Then the Anjouan license, which is now the most popular license on the planet, that replaced the old Curacao license.
Over 800 licensees already have the Curacao Anjuan license and the Tabique license, that is a new fresh license since 2023, 24.
And they are succeeding as well because the Curacao lost a lot of the market.
So literally the story is that I was discussing this with the GCB before they made changes and before the license changed. And I was like, guys, you will lose a lot of the market just simply because of the price change.
So you are increasing the cost, the entire license cost and the maintenance cost like four or five times.
So for startups it's normally a stretch. Startups don't want to spend this amount of money for the license.
And I got a reply response like literally face to face that we are not interested in such clients.
So you know, number stalk and everything else works in this life, of course.
So if we consider numbers, then out of 10, every licensee is that once applied for the Curacao license, eight actually cancelled and we are doing another license for them.
So I'm mentioning these numbers just so you have a good perception on what is going on in not my vote, it's not political vote, it's the businesses voting. And people are voting with their money, opening up the wallet, getting the cash and paying for the license.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Shut up and take my money.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: And as we can see, as I just told you, the vast majority of licensees, they basically say that, well, we want something else. We do not want the new Curacao license.
The reason? Well, there are a couple reasons. Well, you see, the Curacao is a territory of Netherlands, so Netherlands, of course, European Union and everything that is associated with European Union, including compliance, IML policies, KYC procedures and everything.
So the compliance thing in this case is the key factor.
From what we know and how things move right now, Curacao, even though it was the offshore zone, currently, it took a straight line towards European regulations.
So it's like you are getting an offshore license, but you are now working under the compliance, compliance and under the framework of the compliance of European Union.
And therefore, businesses ask some questions like, why would we even want to do that? Because we are starting an offshore international online casino. All right? If we want to start a regulated online casino, let's say in the United States, we would go and we would get the local licenses and then there would be the compliance and the online gaming regulations and everything that we have to follow by the book, right? So we would have a team of lawyers and we would do our job according to the regulations and to the laws of the United States. When we start the offshore online casino, the point is to get business online as soon as possible. So time to market matters.
The second thing is the cost.
So what will this cost me?
And the price, of course, is relative, but still, you know, I would like to have the best from what I can for the cheapest price on the market.
And the Curacao right now doesn't check that box. So it's not near to what it was, considering the increase in cost and everything.
And the last thing is the flexibility.
So the flexibility and actually options to work on multiple markets to do the kyc, but not to go too deep into the compliance matters.
So having flexibility on taxes and other things matter a lot as well.
So when the Curacao decided to change everything, they changed this entire perspective. Working within the framework of European regulations. And for businesses that start the offshore online casino, well, as I said, In 80% of the cases it just doesn't hit, it just doesn't work.
And that's why many of them decided that they would rather go with something else.
The first reason why they decide to go with something else, even though they started applying and they started the process, is because it's really a house.
So currently we see that the regime changes, like the regulation changes, the law changes, the price changes, and there are many more changes that people are expecting and the market is expecting from the point of view of the Curacao license. And there is really no way to say, hey, listen, I would recommend this license right now because it opens you a broad range of countries here and there. And you can go and read BC Game Case on Google where BC Game said that they will withdraw from excessively compliant carousel license zone and they would rather choose something else.
So such articles, such news just do not come on the empty space. It's the change and also the business that is not ready to adapt to the change. And if the business works within the framework and the marketing and the numbers are working, then it's really a good decision to sit with your team, to sit with your finance guys, with marketing guys, with everyone, to understand how changes will impact your numbers and dynamics of the business in the future. So this is what happens with let's say BC Game. In this case, the news are publicly available, so you can go and read about this and some other online casinos.
So you know, as businesses apply for the Curacao license with all the scouts, in the beginning it took like a year to get the license and even a year would not guarantee that you would get the license. Currently we see that the Curacao and the cga, they are doing a much better work, but still the process, it's like they are still learning, they are still working like a startup with all the new processes, with all the new people on board and sometimes lack of qualification and in most of the cases lack of communication, which leads to lack of transparency. And even though it's a goal of CGA to bring transparency to the market, transparency doesn't start with where CGA wants it to start. CGA starts with the communication with the client, with the market, with answering messages, emails, tickets, giving proper answers to what is wrong, what is not, so that the action can be taken and you know, some fixes can be done. So let me give you an example. Right? So when you are working on the application, for example, you're Very quiet right now. The source of wealth and the source of wealth and the proof of source of wealth should be done in a specific way. So at this stage, many businesses, they do not qualify immediately.
But at the same time, when we push forward with the application, they give the reply that there are problems with the source of wealth. So go figure, what problems do you have with the source of wealth? And now since it's impossible to simply send a message and to communicate with them, now you have to play a game where you have to push all your experience with all the other licenses and the regulations and to understand. All right, listen, probably this is what is wrong, right? Because this information is not available in public domain.
So as businesses are moving forward and they are waiting for six, seven, eight months, of course they have expenditures, so they have operational expenses, marketing people, they are paying for everything. And since they cannot get the license for seven, eight, nine months, and they get more questions, more questions. They require to provide more documents, more proof, let's say, of the wealth, proof, source of funds and other documents that are required. Then of course, they decide that, okay, we are tired to fight. We see that nothing will change in our business if we just choose another license, whether the Anguan or the Tabiq license, and move away from the Curacao.
It makes sense, right? So what is the cost of the new CGA Curacao license? Well, overall there are three costs. So the application fee, which is five grand, €5,000, I will say in euros. Then there is a €25,000 that you pay for the license. €25, 25,000 that there's a government fee. So as you can see, now we speak about 50, 55,000 Euro. That's just the license fees and the application fees. Of course, the Curacao company, of course, the local director, the yearly fees for the managing director, the ongoing maintenance fees. As you generate your income, you will consider a local substance because There is a 15% corporate tax in Curacao, and if you want to optimize it, then there are options. But all options are associated with the local substance and hiring more people.
Also, it's necessary, it's mandatory to hire compliance officer, to hire other key people to satisfy CGA in this case.
So they issue the license, so you maintain the license.
So when you calculate all the costs, given the job and everything, you will realize that the costs are around 120, 130,000 the first year.
And at the same time, there is no way to calculate what it will be the next year.
What they say is not what's going on in most of the cases, because as I said, they operate as a startup. They try to adopt to the market, to adopt the product, the license to the market and the price that I just said is active since a couple days. Since couple days. So it's active just like right now before that in a previous regulation.
So the cost of the license was even more expensive and you had to pay monthly fees. So now they decided to give up on the monthly fees and simply to continue with charging people year by year. But as I said, you do not know what is going to happen in the future.
From the risk of the new CGA license. The biggest risks are the compliance, how you have to handle the KYC of your players, risks associated with that, with the registration. So click to the registration, registration to the first time deposit what you will have to ask for your players, what they will push you to ask. The second risk is of course markets. So currently they do not give specific answer to what markets you should ban Curacao itself. And you know, the big people from the Curacao back in 2023, they said, Listen, you cannot work in the United States, uk, Netherlands, period. The rest we do not care. So as you can see, it's not that easy. And it was never that easy. It's just the lack of experience, I guess, that made them say so. And currently, as they learn the market, they realize, oh, it's more complicated than that. So we should probably do something about this.
And since the market is very fragmented and there are strict regulations and actually markets that will chase you down and will try to fine you and your business, it's very difficult to say.
Also including the fact that the Curacao is more a European license right now. So European regulation, they follow the framework.
It's very difficult to say what will happen in a year. And chances are that they will restrict most of the markets. So as you can see, a lot of uncertainty. It's really not easy to answer such questions.
But there are businesses that are still applying for the Curacao license, moving on with that. And they allow the CGA and the Curacao to test the market and develop the product with their own money. So that's how it moves. And as we progress, we will of course see how things are going. But currently, what we can say about the CGA Curacao license, that it's of course a license with a higher quality than it was before. And by the quality, I mean that it's license that fits the highest standards.
Does it fit your business though.
Well, 80% of businesses said that they do not think so.
So if you are looking for the license that is, you know, that is more of a regulated license, that is a higher standard license, but with uncertain future, really with a lot of uncertainty, then the Curacao is a good choice.
You would have to go through, you know, painful period of getting the license because as I said, the application and the compliance and the KYC and the how you do that is completely different from two or three years ago.
I believe there's a vacancy, by the way, for someone of you who is like, okay, we will buy the Curacao license, we will buy the company, we will solve all the problems immediately.
Because this is how you can get this done in a month, in a week, right? So it's not that easy.
So as you will buy the company, you will also change the ownership of the company. So your UBO will change, right? Ultimate beneficial owner. So new UBO is also the subject to the compliance and to the KYC and to the approval of the gcb. And every change that is done should be done through the managing director.
And every done should be, every change should be approved by the gcb. So the approval itself will take some time, probably approximately four weeks. Then the changes that you will have to go through in the compliance and the KYC process also will probably take a couple of months.
As I said, the new rules are very fresh.
So there is no kind of a case study for that yet. But it's definitely not just, you know, the switch and run away.
Adding domains should be added through the cga. Adding domains should be approved by the cga. If you add your new domain with the old ubo, will that UBO take all the responsibility for your new domain in your business? Also the question, normally they don't because they are selling you the company. So first finish that process, then add your domain, then run your business.
Because if something happens, you are the one that is responsible for that, not them anymore. You see the point?
So the directors themselves, the managing director should be on the Curacao. So it's the certified and audited corporate service providers. And now you have to hire the managing director that is the local Curacao citizen, right? So if you have several managing directors, at least one of them should be the local one. The corporate service provider and managing directors are responsible for your business and they have to make sure that your business is fit in front of the carousel law and regulations at all times. What it means to you, it means that you have no ways to not to disclose your banking information, your financial information information from payment system providers. Managing directors have to sign all the agreements. All the paperwork has to go through them. So if you think that you will act discreetly, no, this is not how it works. Because they are the ones that are responsible in front of the Curacao law, right? And if something happens, they will go to the court. So therefore, just thinking that you can just hide some information or not to inform your director that you are signing some agreement is a bad idea. They will withdraw from your company, company will be inactive and will lose the license and will be basically delisted. So the There you go. This is everything about the GCB carousel, all the news right now. I hope I gave you a very good perspective whether to choose the GCB carousel license or not.
The true answer comes from knowing your business. The true answer comes from conversation. And what are you looking for? What are your plans? What is your vision for the business?
Marketing, the cash flow and everything.
So to better adjust your choice for the license, we would have to have the conversation, you know, between four eyes, you and me. So if you have anything to ask, if you have any question, then send me an email. I'll be happy to help and assist you with that one. Have a good day. It was Max. Goodbye.
