The attendance of a TEATT delegation led by Minister Stuart Johnson at the Dutch Caribbean Gaming and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulation Forum in Aruba mentioned in today’s paper is interesting. For one thing, sports-betting and other forms of online gambling have been on the rise, with Curaçao by now a well-known international jurisdiction for such activities.
The existing regulation was looked at in the context of regional growth, improved transparency and greater social responsibility, applying international best practices to avoid reputation damage and possible sanctions of casino or AML/CFT regulators, as well as recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Topics included currently relevant issues such as cybercrime and crypto currencies, correspondent banking, de-risking, etc.
While the attempt to get the forum to St. Maarten in 2019 is commendable, perhaps more important would be to finally get the country’s Gaming Control Board (GCB) up and running. After all, this is another matter that has been under discussion already for many years, with successive governments promising to take care of it yet failing to do so.
That’s regrettable, especially because the country’s flourishing gambling industry has been named in several reports as a potential source of organised crime, money laundering and corruption. Properly supervising the sector can go a long way in addressing those continued concerns.
As pointed out, the GCB is – again – part of the governing programme, in this case that of the UD/SMCP coalition. The minister says he is committed to it, but only time will tell.
