Sint Maarten draft law would repeal offshore gambling rules

Sint Maarten has published a draft gambling law that would set up an independent regulator for casinos and lotteries and repeal the ordinance under which its government can license gambling for the international market. Online gambling is not covered: the draft reserves an empty section for possible future rules. The text is a consultation draft dated 23 October 2026. Nothing in it is in force.

The draft National Gambling Ordinance, in Dutch the Kansspelenverordening, comes from the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) of Sint Maarten, a Dutch Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The public consultation runs from 26 October to 4 December 2026. Anyone can respond, in English or Dutch, through the form on the Gambling Authority's consultation page or by email to consultatie@gamblingauthority.sx. Seven targeted stakeholder sessions are planned between 6 and 12 November.

The official documents are in Dutch, the legislative language of Sint Maarten. English versions are published too, but they are AI translations, and the Dutch text prevails where the two differ.

The offshore ordinance would go

Article 79 of the draft lists five laws to be repealed. Four are older laws on casinos and games of chance, the gaming licence levy and lotteries. The fifth, point (e), is the Landsverordening buitengaatse hazardspelen, which translates roughly as the offshore games of chance ordinance. That is the short title of the national ordinance that lets the TEATT minister license the operation of games of chance "on the international market by means of service-line services" (our translation), and only to legal entities established in Sint Maarten.

The draft does not set a date for that repeal. The explanatory memorandum (Memorie van Toelichting) says that when the date for point (e) is fixed, "account will be taken of any licensed offering that may still exist and the transitional provisions needed for it" (our translation). It gives no further detail.

Online gambling is left for later

The draft reserves a section, § 3.4 "kansspelen op internet" (games of chance on the internet), and leaves it empty. According to the memorandum, online gambling is not regulated by this proposal for the time being. The government first wants further policy work and an assessment of how rules could be enforced and implemented.

The memorandum points to the July 2025 mutual evaluation of Sint Maarten by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), which found shortcomings in the country's system against money laundering and terrorist financing, and says any online licensing system would need proper safeguards first. It also quotes a July 2025 quick scan by Regulus Partners, commissioned by Sint Maarten, which described the domestic online market as opaque and estimated it at "at least US$1.2m in annual revenue", supported by about 5% of the adult population.

Read together, the draft would repeal the old offshore ordinance on a date still to be set, and it contains no online licensing rules of its own yet. In our view, the timing of that repeal and of any later online rules is the part of this consultation to watch.

What the draft does regulate

The core of the draft is land-based gambling and a new supervisor:

• An independent Sint Maarten Gambling Authority would license, supervise and enforce, including on money laundering and terrorist financing.
• Licences would go only to legal entities established in Sint Maarten, with a bank account at a bank established there. A licence would last up to five years and could be renewed.
• Casinos would get a Casino A licence when the company also holds a hotel licence, or a Casino B licence when it does not. Lottery operators would need a licence, and each sales outlet would need separate permission.
• Licence holders would pay a supervisory fee, with amounts to be set in separate rules.
• Players could exclude themselves from casinos for at least six months through a central register, and under-18s could not take part in regulated gambling.
• Associations with a public-interest purpose could run small community games such as bingo without a licence, with prizes of no more than Cg 5,000 per event.

Like regulators such as the Isle of Man's GSC, the new authority would keep a public register of licence holders on its website.

What happens next

Existing casino and lottery licence holders would have six months after the relevant provisions take effect to apply for a new licence, and the old rules would keep applying to them until their application is decided. Winnings from licensed games would stay legally claimable.

After the consultation, the government says it will review the responses. The revised draft would then go to the Social Economic Council (SER) for advice, to the Council of Ministers and the Council of Advice, and finally to Parliament, which votes on it. If adopted, the ordinance would take effect on a date set by national decree, possibly in stages.

Elsewhere in the region, licensing is being rebuilt too. Curaçao's regulator is retiring its breached licensing portal, the Comoros government has called Anjouan licences unauthorised, and Trinidad and Tobago has approved a remote gambling order.