Curaçao authorities have launched an investigation into Random Consulting, the firm owned by former Malta Gaming Authority chief executive Mario Galea.
The probe centres on allegations that Galea’s consultancy received annual payments of 8.3 million Caribbean guilders, equivalent to approximately €4.1 million, from the island’s gambling regulator.
Charles Cooper, Curaçao’s minister of finance, disclosed the investigation through a press release, raising serious questions about the scale and justification of the payments.
Cooper said: “The world of gaming shows that this figure – paying a person/company 8.3 million XCG per year – is very high for a company charged to provide such a service, but we should let the investigation run its course and then take next steps based on its result.”
Cooper further argued that the alleged payment represents more than 35% of the total revenue flowing into government coffers from online gambling operations on the island.
The investigation comes after former finance minister Javier Silvania, who had established Curaçao’s new regulatory system, resigned in October last year following an unrelated corruption scandal.
Member of Parliament and former prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles Suzanne Camelia-Römer also issued a separate statement expressing support for the investigation into the payments.
This is not the first time allegations of misconduct have surrounded Curaçao’s gambling framework, which has faced repeated accusations of graft despite government efforts to reform the sector through the LOK legislative reforms.
Opposition politician Dr. Luigi Faneyte previously released a dossier accusing ex-finance minister Silvania of corruption and Galea himself of fraud and embezzlement, sparking significant controversy ahead of the bill’s final passage.
At the time, Aideen Shortt, the regulator’s PR and marketing lead, and Galea himself responded by saying Faneyte was acting as a “mouthpiece” for unnamed sinister forces trying to undermine confidence in the new regulatory system.
Random Consulting Limited issued a formal statement in response to the latest allegations, saying it wished to place factual information on the public record regarding its engagement with the Curaçao Gaming Authority.
The company stated it received a total of €3,426,406 since 2022, reflected in its financial statements, with the vast majority of those payments occurring in 2024 and 2025.
RCL pushed back on Cooper’s 35% figure, noting the CGA should be receiving over €29 million per year in annual licence fees, which would substantially alter the proportional calculation presented by the minister.
The statement read: “RCL has provided the CGA with regulatory platforms, hosting, maintenance, operational support, application processing, licence monitoring, domain surveillance and additional functionality. It has also assumed responsibilities outside the original scope and deferred payments at the government’s request.”
Random Consulting also called for an investigation into how its confidential commercial information was leaked, and demanded that Cooper either substantiate his claims or issue a public correction.
