Curaçao gaming regulator to get new regulatory board following mass resignation
Prime minister Gilmar Pisas has taken control of the Curaçao Gaming Authority’s Supervisory Board after every member resigned.
Curaçao.- The prime minister of Curaçao, Gilmar Pisas, is reported to have assumed direct oversight of the Dutch Caribbean territory’s gambling regulator. Local media report that the prime minister stepped in to maintain the regulator’s functions after the Curaçao Gaming Authority’s (CGA) entire Supervisory Board resigned.
The new regulator was created to replace the Curaçao Gaming Control Board (GCB) towards the end of last year. Under the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK), it was intended to implement more rigorous regulation following criticism of Curaçao’s system of master licences from other jurisdictions, including the Netherlands.
Shelwyn Salesia, Robert Reijnaert and Ildefons Simo were assigned as commissioners on the body, but the regulator has confirmed that they all resigned in mid-September. The CGA said in a statement that the government has begun the process of appointing new Supervisory Board members.
The CGA said their departure “has no impact on the performance of the CGA’s supervisory duties, including the continued implementation of the National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK).”
It made no comment on the reason for the resignations, and there is still little detail about the regulator on the government websites. There has been speculation that it may be related to controversy around finance minister Javier Silvania, whose ministry has oversight of the regulator. Opposition leader Quincy Girigorie of the PAR party has called for a criminal investigation into Silvania after Alfonso Trona, head of the tax office, accused the minister of corruption.
For the moment, communications with the regulator are said to be passing through Pisas’s office.
Earlier this year, the Gaming Control Board opened a consultation on an alternative dispute resolution policy intended to reduce cases of legal action brought by disgruntled gamblers.
