Curaçao’s Minister of Finance Javier Silvania has insisted that the proposed new gambling bill has not been rejected by parliament.
Reports claimed last week that the The National Ordinance for Games of Chance, known as the LOK, had not made it past parliament in its efforts to overhaul Curaçao’s laws, a change which has been brewing since 2020.
However, a statement from Silvania on LinkedIn confirmed that the milestones for the bill “remain unaltered” alongside the current process of licence issuance by the Gambling Control Board.
He said: “The GCB is acting on delegated authority from the Minister in this regard and is fully committed to this process in advance of and until the enactment of the LOK, whenever that may transpire, and the GCB has my full support during this period of transition. To suggest otherwise would be reckless and misleading.”
Silvania said that while he expected this “magnitude” of debate and for the discussion to be “lively and in-depth,” he said the Ministry of Finance has been “all too aware of a significant amount of misinformation, confusion and accuracy, and I strongly urge against the further propagation of unverified rumours or speculation.”
Nevertheless, the LOK has faced criticism from some in the industry such as the Bar Association, which urged members of parliament to amend the text of the bill.
