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East Timor’s President supports the country's efforts to become an online licensing hub but does not want locals to be able to participate.
The island nation threw its proverbial hat in the ring to replace Curaçao as a hub for online operators as it is reforming its gambling licensing system.
President José Ramos-Horta said in an interview that gambling does not interest him “unless it targets foreigners".
"I don’t want some poor Timorese to lose everything in gambling with all the human and sometimes tragic consequences. But if foreigners want to gamble online and Timor offers an online gambling possibility, fine," he said.
The Virtual Gaming Association (VGA) was independently established last year to explore and promote East Timor becoming an online gaming hub.
Since then, the VGA has lobbied the government to provide B2C or B2B licences, suggesting the system be modelled on Malta or the Isle of Man.
The VGA in the past also promoted the prospect of developing luxury resorts and casinos, which the President is entirely uninterested in.
East Timor is one of several jurisdictions looking to fill a licensing void potentially left by updated Curaçao legislation, such as Canada’s Tobique, Kahnawake or Anjouan, an island in the Comoros.
It was President Ramos himself who advertised his country at the SiGMA Europe summit in Malta, pitching its yet-to-be-created “global platform”.
Curaçao's current licensing system sees five so-called master licences each having countless sub-licensees. Curaçao officials do not know how many sub-licences exist, although the Ministry of Finance has previously estimated that around 600 sub-licensees operate some 8,000 websites.
The deadline that the Netherlands gave Curaçao to publish new gambling regulations (June 30) has come and gone, in addition to two previous deadlines.
That has not stopped Curaçao from issuing temporary licences that will be carried over into the new licensing regime, whenever it is finally passed and instituted.
