The Public Prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Office of Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (PPO) has reached an out-of-court settlement with a number of unnamed online casino operators over inadequate know your customer (KYC) procedures.
The settlement follows a criminal investigation that found widespread failures by twelve entities, each operating one or more online casinos, which failed to carry out proper KYC checks.
Codenamed Operation Nebraska, the investigation was led by the Special Police Taskforce under the PPO’s Central Team’s authority following media reports and multiple criminal complaints filed by the Foundation for Representation of Victims of Online Gaming.
Following the investigation, the PPO found that 17 gambling sites were allowing users to bypass mandatory KYC checks as required by the jurisdiction’s regulations, allowing online players to create an account and subsequently deposit funds without their identities being verified.
All twelve legal entities have accepted the settlement offer, but do not admit to any facts or accept any guilt under criminal law.
Eleven of the companies have agreed to pay a fine of XCG 22,500 for each online casino operated, bringing the total amount of fines paid to XCG 360,000 (approx. €170,696).
One company has not paid its fine and as such the PPO has withdrawn the settlement and will proceed with prosecution in court.
“The PPO sees several reasons to settle the matter out-of-court,” said the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “Since the suspects are legal entities it is unlikely, in the event they are proven guilty, that the criminal court will impose a penalty other than a fine. Furthermore, this is the first time that the online gambling business on Curaçao is being held accountable for non-compliance with The National Ordinance on Identification of Clients when Providing Services.”
The public disclosure of the case formed part of the settlement.