Checking a Curaçao licence during the portal change
A Curaçao licence check starts on the casino’s own site. Click its CGA seal. The page that opens “must display the exact domain name being accessed”, by CGA rule, so check the address bar.
An overseas licence is not permission to offer gambling in Great Britain. It does not guarantee a payout.
A licence check answers one narrower question. Which company held the licence for that domain, and on what date.
Register rows, casino pages and terms on this page were checked on , unless another date is shown.
CGA check state. Seal links still opened certificate pages that printed “Active”, while the certificate search gave an error page.
The CGA notice addresses the portal and the seal:
- Portal
- “its current online gaming portal will not be returned to service”.
- Seal and licences
- A CGA notice of 7 October 2026 says the availability of the current digital seal “will be affected”, with an alternative mechanism to follow “shortly”. It gives no date for that mechanism. The change “does not affect the validity of existing licenses”, it says, and further information is targeted for no later than 9 October 2026.
What changed with the CGA’s digital seal?
The portal will not return. Licensing and supervision carry on “through alternative arrangements”.
The portal’s last 3 weeks, in CGA notices:
- 17 September 2026: the CGA reported unauthorised access to its online gaming portal, since contained.
- 22 September 2026: the access used an account registered in December 2025 under a false identity.
- 2 October 2026: “the CGA portal is offline”, with existing licences unaffected.
- Latest: the CGA’s notice on its portal and seal (quoted above).
Between checks
Each read is dated. A certificate page that opens is the CGA’s record for that domain on the day of the read.
How do you check a licence without the CGA portal?
Through the seal. Licence verification starts there because each CGA certificate address holds a coded token in place of the domain. The address cannot be typed in.
Each step below worked when checked. None needs the old portal or its search.
Find the casino’s CGA seal and click it.
Confirm the page that opens sits on cert.cga.cw, the address the CGA policy names.
Read the domain on the certificate page and compare it with the address bar.
Confirm the page says “Certificate of Operation”, the seal for player-facing sites.
Note the company, licence number, grant date and status.
Open the online gaming registry from the CGA licence register page.
Search the PDF for that licence number. OGL/ number lookups work there, so note the row’s status and its edition date.
A broken seal link ends steps 1 to 5. Then 3 records remain, each with its own date:
- Registry row: the one for the footer’s licence number, with the edition date.
- Saved certificate page: one stored before the seal notice, opened again on the day of the check.
- Footer string: copied word for word.
What a check records
Each Curaçao check on Licence File keeps 4 fields apart, and each field carries the date it was read:
- Licence claim: what the casino’s footer or terms print, word for word.
- Domain match: whether the certificate page names the domain in the address bar.
- Register status: the registry row’s status word, with the edition it comes from.
- Mechanism state: what the CGA’s seal links and certificate search did on the read date.
No field stands in for another. None adds up to a “verified” badge.
Sample certificate page
The vipzino.com certificate:
- Document: Certificate of Operation.
- Domain: vipzino.com.
- Operator: Greenwich N.V., company number 160325.
- Licence held: OGL/2024/1646/1023.
- Granted: 31 October 2024.
- Status: Active.
Where is the Curaçao register, and what does it list?
On the CGA’s licence register page. It links 4 overviews, and the online gaming licence registry is the one that covers online casinos.
Each record proves something different:
- Certificate page, reached through the seal: the CGA’s record for one domain, with its company, licence number and status.
- Online gaming registry: licensee, licence number, dates and status, with no domain column.
- Enforcement register: 32 licences revoked or not extended, last updated 14 September 2026.
The licence register page carries a warning. Its overviews, it says, “do not guarantee the current validity of the licenses”, and “no rights can be derived from these overviews”.
The current edition of the registry shows:
- Heading: “Licenses Granted under the New Online Gaming Policy (Effective November 15, 2023)”.
- Last updated: , and unchanged when checked.
- Columns: row, licence number, licensee, company type and number, issue and expiry dates, status.
- Rows: 666, of which 571 B2C and 95 B2B, in that edition.
- Licence numbers: 626 begin OGL/, 40 begin CGA/.
So a registry row confirms a company. It never names a casino domain.
Status words
Each status word covers these rows:
- Assessment in progress: 283 rows.
- Indefinite: 209 rows.
- Expired: 58 rows.
- Revoked: 50 rows.
- Empty status field: 66 rows.
Every one of the 50 revoked rows gives the same reason, “at the request of the operator”. None cites a sanction. Sanctions sit in the enforcement register.
How do you match a licence number to a domain?
Start from the certificate page, the only record that ties a domain to a company and a licence number. Even then, the certificate and the registry can disagree on dates and status words, as the 3 cases in the table show.
Certificate and registry side by side
| Domain | Certificate page | Registry row |
|---|---|---|
| jokabet.com | Investan N.V., granted 20 November 2024, Active | Issued 24 December 2025, no expiry date, Indefinite |
| vipzino.com | Greenwich N.V., granted 31 October 2024, Active | Issued 24 December 2025, no expiry date, Indefinite |
| kinghills.com | IntellogixSoft B.V., granted 16 January 2025, Active | Issued 16 July 2025, expires 16 January 2026, Assessment in progress |
Sources: 3 CGA certificate pages and the registry edition above. For Greenwich N.V., the 2 dates sit 419 days apart, and no CGA page read for this guide explains the gap. Licence File ranks neither date.
When the domains differ
Such a certificate belongs to another operator. In the CGA’s words, the site being accessed “should be considered unauthorized or fraudulent”, so the check stops there.
The CGA’s own rules describe 3 kinds of mismatch:
- Domain: the certificate names a different domain from the site being accessed.
- Seal type: a License Certificate seal on a player-facing site. That seal is “not domain-specific”.
- Destination: a seal that does not lead to cert.cga.cw.
A seal image alone proves nothing. Only the page it opens counts, which is where the guide to what a licence seal can prove begins.
Where do older Curaçao validator links lead?
To the same certificate pages. Older validation links reached them in 2 ways:
- cert.gcb.cw links: each redirected to cert.cga.cw, landing on the certificate.
- “Certificate Seal” pages: a stop on the way, with one link on to the certificate page.
GCB is short for Gaming Control Board. It was the CGA’s name before the LOK.
Older licence numbers in footers
Older casino footers can cite a number such as 1668/JAZ. No registry row does. Every row of the current registry edition prints a licence number that begins with OGL/ or CGA/.
VeloBet’s footers, in archive copies, show the change:
- 26 January 2024: licence 1668/JAZ from Curaçao eGaming, with Santeda International B.V., registration number 151296, as owner and operator.
- 21 February 2024: final archived footer with 1668/JAZ.
- 23 June 2024: “pending application by the GCB”, for Santeda.
- 8 April 2025: the Curaçao Gaming Control Board named as licensor, under OGL/2024/1798/1048.
- 25 February 2026: the Curacao Gaming Authority (CGA) named instead, same number.
- Current registry edition: OGL/2024/1798/1048 listed for Santeda International B.V. at “Assessment in progress”, company 151296.
VeloBet’s licence number changed. Its company number did not. An old footer number is still only a footer claim, dated by its archive copy and never read as a current licence.
What should you do if the check fails?
Write down the failed step and its date. Save the certificate page’s address as well. Report a seal that leads to another domain to complaints@cga.cw, the CGA’s address for possible breaches of the LOK.
Each possible result has fixed wording here:
- Footer claim only: the footer names a company and a number, with its check date. Nothing more.
- Registry row: the name, number, edition and status. A row does not prove which domains a company runs.
- Assessment in progress: those exact words, with edition and check date. Never “Active”, never “revoked”.
- Certificate “Active”, registry different: both records quoted next to each other, with their own dates.
- No row in a register: which register, which field and which date. Never “has no licence”.
- Search page down: the limit and its date. Never a finding against the operator.
The CGA says it “cannot order gaming operators to compensate players”, and it shares no status updates on investigations or actions. A breach report is not a payout claim.
A payout dispute follows the LOK’s order:
Complain to the licence holder through the casino’s support or complaints contact. It costs nothing, and the LOK allows 6 months from the incident.
Expect written receipt within a week, then a reasoned written decision within 4 weeks, which it may extend once.
Refer an unresolved dispute to the licence holder’s dispute resolution provider. The licence holder bears the cost.
Keep every reply, dated. The Curaçao licence hub lists the 7 dispute resolution providers the CGA names.
Where can you get safer gambling help?
Checking a casino’s licence says nothing about how gambling is going for you. If it’s going badly, GamCare can help. Ring 0808 8020 133 for its National Gambling Helpline, and there’s no charge. The safer gambling page lists more support.
You can sign up to GAMSTOP too. Blockers such as Gamban or BetBlocker work on the phone or laptop you’d play on. No Licence File page is meant for anyone under 18.
Curaçao licence check FAQ
Is a GCB licence check the same as a CGA check?
For current licences, yes. Under the LOK it is one regulator, now named the Curaçao Gaming Authority.
Is a Curaçao licence lookup by casino name possible?
Not in the registry, which lists companies, never brands. Start from the casino’s seal, then search the registry for the licence number its certificate shows.
Does “Assessment in progress” mean a licence has lapsed?
It is a registry status word. Licence File draws no finding from it. The kinghills.com certificate showed “Active”, with its registry row at “Assessment in progress”.
Does a valid Curaçao licence make a casino legit?
Only in part. A licence check shows who holds the licence, and Licence File’s reviews add the operator’s dated terms and complaint steps.