Curaçao investigates consultancy payments linked to gambling reform

Curaçao authorities are examining payments made to Random Consulting Limited, a firm headed by former Malta gaming regulator Mario Galea, after Finance Minister Charles Cooper questioned whether the consultancy was receiving more than €4 million annually. The company strongly disputes that figure.

Curaçao has opened an investigation into the financial arrangements between the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) and Malta-based Random Consulting Limited, which has provided technical and regulatory support during the island’s overhaul of its online gambling regime. Finance Minister Charles Cooper raised the issue after claiming the consultancy was receiving around 8.3 million Caribbean guilders, approximately €4 million, each year.

Cooper said the scale of the alleged payments required closer examination and indicated that the matter would be investigated together with the Justice Ministry. The CGA’s supervisory board has meanwhile identified ten international firms as potential candidates to conduct an independent review. The investigation is expected to examine the contract with Random Consulting, the amounts paid, the services delivered, who authorised the agreement and the legal basis under which it was concluded.

Random Consulting has rejected Cooper’s calculation as inaccurate. The company says it received approximately €3.43 million in total between 2022 and 2025, rather than more than €4 million every year. According to its figures, it received around €15,400 in 2022, nothing in 2023, €884,250 in 2024 and €2.53 million in 2025.

Local reporting has also raised the possibility that the disputed 8.3 million-guilder figure was misinterpreted. Antilliaans Dagblad reported that the amount appears in the CGA’s 2026 budget as expenditure connected with the wider implementation of Curaçao’s new gambling legislation rather than exclusively as payments to Random Consulting. The annual figure cited by Cooper has therefore not yet been publicly substantiated by supporting contracts or invoices.

Random Consulting was brought in during 2022 to support the modernisation of Curaçao’s gambling regulatory framework. The company says its work has included development and maintenance of licensing systems, operation of the online licensing portal, application processing, licence monitoring and surveillance of domains falsely claiming a Curaçao licence. Mario Galea previously played a senior role in Malta’s gambling regulatory system before moving into consultancy.

The scrutiny comes as Curaçao continues implementing the National Ordinance on Games of Chance, known as the LOK, which replaced the island’s former master-licence structure with a system of direct regulatory supervision by the CGA. That transition has made transparency over regulatory contracts, licensing revenues and expenditure increasingly important.

For now, Cooper’s €4 million annual figure remains an allegation rather than an established finding, while Random Consulting’s competing account will also be subject to scrutiny. The independent investigation should provide a clearer picture of how much was paid, what services were delivered and whether the contracting arrangements followed the required procedures. Its conclusions could become important not only for the consultancy dispute but also for confidence in Curaçao’s wider gambling-regulation reform.