THE HAGUE - This month, the Curaçao government will adopt a plan to tackle the gambling mafia that illegally offers online games of chance in other countries based on a sublicense. The Dutch Minister of Legal Protection Sander Dekker and Undersecretary of Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops announced this in their answer to written questions from MPs Van Nispen and Leijten, both from the Socialist Party (SP).
“The cabinet takes the concerns about illegal games of chance on Curaçao seriously and is committed to limiting this form of gambling. Curaçao and the Netherlands therefore made agreements in the country package about the modernization and reform of the online gambling offer," said the minister and undersecretary. “Curaçao is currently working on a step-by-step plan to limit and better regulate the offshore gambling offer. The plan of action is expected to be adopted this month.”
The MPs ask whether the minister and undersecretary can reflect on the role that the Dutch state, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Maduro & Curiel's Bank played in the late 1990s in setting up a new tax framework for Curaçao that now gives the opportunity to all these online casinos to operate.
The minister and undersecretary indicated that the countries of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, just like the country of the Netherlands Antilles, are fiscally autonomous. This means that the Dutch state has had no direct involvement with the content of local tax legislation in general, and with the New Tax Framework (NFR) in particular. In the years before the NFR was introduced, the Netherlands Antilles did have tax consultations with the Netherlands, on the advice of the National Recovery Plan Committee, to organize the content of the NFR in such a way that the Antilles can be removed from the OECD list published at the time. In that context, the Netherlands has encouraged the Netherlands Antilles to suspend harmful tax regimes or to remove harmful elements (by introducing higher rates, better information facilities, more transparency).
Up to and including 2019, the online casinos that are currently active in Curaçao made use of the legislation regarding economic zones; a tax facility that came into effect in 2001 but formally fell outside the NFR. Permits to operate an online casino within the economic zones are issued by the Gaming Control Board, an independent foundation that operates independently in Curaçao. Before the introduction of the National Ordinance on Economic Zones in 2001, the country actively sought support from the local business community in the Netherlands Antilles. PwC, E&Y and MCB-Bank used to be part of an advisory committee set up for that purpose.
Online casinos in Curaçao currently make use of a facility in Curaçao legislation that (in short) exempts profits made outside Curaçao from profit tax. Following an assessment by the EU Code of Conduct Group, Curaçao has designed the facility in such a way that double non-levy is avoided.