Gambling in Sint Maarten: Laws and Online Gambling

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Sint Maarten is the Dutch half of the island of Saint Martin and, since 10 October 2010, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It licenses gambling under its own national ordinances (landsverordeningen), not under Dutch mainland law. Land-based casinos and lotteries are licensed by the Minister of TEATT (tourism, economic affairs, transport and telecommunications), and a first Gambling Ordinance to replace the current patchwork is out for public consultation. Online gambling exists in a narrower and less transparent form than the land-based sector. This guide sets out what official sources and local reporting say, flags where they disagree or are silent, and explains what that means for players. It is general information, not legal advice.

Key points

• Casinos are licensed by the Minister of TEATT under the Landsverordening hazardspelen ter bevordering van het toerisme (hazard games ordinance “to promote tourism”), in force from 10 October 2010. Licences are personal, non-transferable and revocable.
• Official counts of casinos differ by source and date: 15 licensed (13 operating) at the end of 2020 according to the General Audit Chamber; 14 (10 stand-alone and 4 hotel casinos) in the 2024 FIU risk assessment; 15 land-based casinos in the CFATF’s 2025 report.
• Lotteries (number lottery, lotto, sweepstake, scratch) are licensed under a separate Lottery Ordinance. Selling shares in lotteries organised outside Sint Maarten is prohibited.
• Online casinos are licensed only to Sint Maarten legal entities, under a 2010 ordinance on gambling through “service lines”. The 2024 risk assessment counts three online casinos and the CFATF counts four. The 2026 draft ordinance states: “Online gambling is not regulated by this draft law.”
• Players must be 18 or over. Under the casino ordinance, residents shown to have visited casinos more than six times in a month are refused entry for a year. Official sources do not state whether winnings are taxed or whether a player commits an offence by using an unlicensed site.
• Casino operators pay fixed annual fees of NAf 600,000 (full casinos) or NAf 120,000 (slot and bingo venues), not a share of revenue.
• The planned regulator, the Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, is not yet a legal entity. A draft Gambling Ordinance (Kansspelenverordening) is in public consultation from 26 October to 4 December 2026 and has not been adopted.

Regional overview: Gambling laws in the Caribbean puts all 29 countries and territories on one map, grouped by how they regulate gambling.

Last reviewed: 2 November 2026.

Historical development

Sint Maarten was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the constitutional reform of 10 October 2010, when it became a constituent country of the Kingdom with its own government and parliament (the States). The gambling legislation now in force dates from that moment: the casino ordinance, the offshore ordinance and the fee decree all show 10 October 2010 as their start date in the official regulations database. A local newspaper report of April 2025 (SMN News) states that before 2010 licences came from the island’s Executive Council and that, after the change, responsibility moved to the Minister of TEATT.

The casino sector has drawn repeated policy attention since then. In a government policy paper, Casino Policy: Rules of the Game (June 2011), the government set a ceiling on stand-alone casinos and conditions for hotel casinos. A copy of the same policy dated 15 October 2019 carries the same ten-casino ceiling.

In 2014 the Dutch Minister of the Interior told the Second Chamber of the Netherlands Parliament, in an answer received on 7 November 2014, that the TEATT Minister had lifted the existing moratorium on casino licences on 1 October 2014. The same answer noted that the integrity inquiry carried out by PwC had recommended an independent gaming oversight board (Tweede Kamer, Aanhangsel Handelingen 2014-2015, no. 488). The idea of an independent regulator is therefore more than a decade old. It is now tied to the Country Package (Landspakket) agreed between Sint Maarten and the Netherlands in December 2020, in which gambling reform is measure H2 (Gambling Authority FAQ). A local outlet reported in November 2023 that a first draft of a new gambling law had been completed (StMaartenNews).

Legal framework

Casino and hazard games ordinance

The central text is the Landsverordening hazardspelen ter bevordering van het toerisme, in force since 10 October 2010. Article 1 allows the Minister of TEATT to license games of chance, on conditions and guarantees that the Minister sets, at premises specifically designated and equipped for the purpose. It also provides that:

• admission is by a ticket issued by or for the Minister, available on its face to non-residents and residents accompanying them, although the General Audit Chamber (2021) and the 2026 memorandum say most casino players are in practice residents;
• licences are personal and not transferable (Article 2), and may be declared forfeited at any time if conditions are not met (Article 4);
• small games of chance such as bingo may be licensed only for associations serving the general interest, with prizes capped at NAf 5,000 per gathering (Article 1a);
• dog racing, cockfighting and jai-alai may be licensed on designated sites, although official sources do not state whether any such licence has been issued; and
• the Civil Code rule barring legal action over gambling debts does not apply to prizes won in licensed games (Article 5a).

Levy ordinance and its decrees

A separate ordinance on the gambling licence levy (Landsverordening speelvergunningsrecht hazardspelen, consolidated text) creates a charge payable to the treasury. As written, Article 3 imposes it on the gross receipts arising from the licence, at a tariff to be set by decree. In practice the decree sets fixed amounts, described under Taxation below. They appear in two implementing decrees (Landsbesluiten): one implementing Article 3 of the levy ordinance, and a second, in effect from 8 August 2016 with retroactive effect to 1 January 2010, that covers monthly assessment, late payment and casino controllers.

Lottery ordinance

The Lottery Ordinance (Loterijverordening) governs number lotteries, lotto, sweepstakes and scratch lotteries and is described in more detail below. The Gambling Authority’s legal framework page also lists a lottery decree of 6 October 2023 and a decree of 19 August 2025 regulating its entry into force.

Offshore (service-line) ordinance

The Landsverordening buitengaatse hazardspelen (ordinance on offshore games of chance), also in force since 10 October 2010, covers games of chance offered on the international market through service lines. It is the legal basis for online licensing and is discussed in the online gambling section below.

Draft Gambling Ordinance 2026

The draft Kansspelenverordening (National Gambling Ordinance), consultation version of 23 October 2026, would replace the current gambling ordinances. According to the public summary, casino licences would come in two categories, “Casino A” (with a hotel licence and 200 or more rooms) and “Casino B” (without, and not within 50 metres of a school or in vulnerable neighbourhoods). The draft text provides that the number of casino licences is to be set by national decree, and licences would run for up to five years. It has not been adopted and is not in force; its stage is covered under Recent and upcoming developments.

Regulator and licensing model

Under the current ordinances the licensing authority is the Minister of TEATT. Casino controllers supervise casinos. Under the 2016 decree controllers may not be employed by a casino, but casinos pay their wage and social costs. The Minister sets the controllers’ task description and informs the States (Article 1(5)).

The 2011 “Rules of the Game”

The 2011 casino policy sets out how casino licences are allocated:

• a ceiling of 10 stand-alone casinos, with a maximum of five in the Philipsburg area and five on the Simpson Bay strip;
• hotel casinos are limited to hotels with at least 200 rooms, and an expanding hotel can obtain a licence once financing is in place, construction has started and at least 65% of the 200 rooms are complete, after which it has two years to finish or risk revocation;
• casinos may not be located within 50 metres of sensitive buildings such as schools and churches;
• casino licences are non-transferable, and applicants face criminal and financial background checks and source-of-capital checks.

In April 2025 the Minister told Parliament, according to SMN News, that licence holders are given a two-year window to meet the additional requirements and that “rooms” include hotel rooms, owner-occupied apartments and time-share units. These details come from a news report and not from an official text.

The planned Gambling Authority

The Sint Maarten Gambling Authority (earlier called the Gaming Authority or Gaming Control Board) is the planned regulator. Its FAQ states: “It does not exist yet as a legal entity: it is in the process of being established.” It has no legal powers until the ordinance enters into force. The project’s governance structure, a steering committee of the Ministers of TEATT, VSA and Finance, was approved by the Council of Ministers in June 2026. The FIU has said it wishes to hand its casino AML/CFT supervision to the new authority once established.

Licence and venue counts

Official figures differ, and none of them gives the operating companies or expiry dates of individual licences.

The CFATF report adds that 22 casinos were registered with the Chamber of Commerce, 14 were licensed by TEATT and nine were registered with the FIU. The register on the Gambling Authority site lists venue names only; its status and validity columns are blank and no operating companies are given. Local reporting in April 2025 (The Daily Herald) quoted the Minister as saying there were 15 casinos, four in hotels and 11 stand-alone, and that a moratorium on new stand-alone licences was in place. SMN News reported that the Minister was working to formalise an increase of the stand-alone ceiling from 10 to 11, to reflect a licence already issued. Official sources do not state whether that revision has been adopted.

Lotteries

Under the Lottery Ordinance the Minister may license legal entities established in Sint Maarten to run a number lottery, a lotto, a sweepstake or a scratch lottery. For sound operation, a licence may be granted to a single holder. Licences run for at most five years and are renewable for at most five years at a time; the Social and Economic Council (SER) found that licences had been issued indefinitely. The ordinance prohibits selling, offering or promoting shares in a lottery organised outside Sint Maarten, with an exemption power for Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. Charity lotteries pay 10% of the gross proceeds of tickets sold. Other lotteries pay a monthly fee set by decree; the Audit Chamber reports monthly fixed fees of ANG 30,000 for a lottery, ANG 20,000 for sweepstakes, and ANG 12,500 each for a number game and for scratch tickets.

According to The Daily Herald, an advisory report of the SER dated 13 February 2023 found about 360 number-lottery ticket venues with seven operational licence holders and that the SER advised a 100-metre buffer between lottery venues and schools and clinics (The Daily Herald). Each sales point needs a branch licence. The same newspaper reported in 2019 that a moratorium on new lottery licences under the Lottery Licence Policy of 4 December 2012 remained in force, with a temporary moratorium on building lottery booths published on 27 September 2019 (The Daily Herald).

Online gambling: what is permitted and how it is enforced

The statute dealing with remote casino games is the offshore ordinance. It allows the Minister to license games of chance offered through service lines on the international market, and states that a licence is given “only to legal entities established in Sint Maarten”. Licences are non-transferable and revocable. Official sources do not state whether licensed operators may accept players resident in Sint Maarten, or on what terms they may accept players elsewhere.

The FIU’s 2024 risk assessment says that three online casinos currently exist under the ordinance and that one online licence was issued to a registered land-based casino. The CFATF’s 2025 report counts four online casinos. Official sources do not name the licence holders. A July 2025 quick scan by Regulus Partners, quoted in the explanatory memorandum to the 2026 draft, describes the online market as opaque, with at least US$1.2 million of annual domestic revenue and about 5% of adults taking part. In the Ipsos survey of March and April 2025 only 2% of respondents reported gambling online in the past year. The two estimates use different methods and are not directly comparable.

The 2026 draft does not change this picture. The public summary states: “Online gambling is not regulated by this draft law.” According to the explanatory memorandum, the government decided to develop the rules on internet gambling further before implementing them, with reference to the 2025 CFATF report. The draft would repeal the offshore ordinance, with transitional provisions, and reserves a section for internet gambling without regulating it.

Official sources do not describe how unlicensed online gambling is detected, blocked or prosecuted. The FIU’s AML duties, described below, cover games under the offshore ordinance.

Position of players

Persons under 18 and visibly drunk persons are refused entry to casinos (Article 1(3) of the hazard games ordinance). Residents shown to have visited casinos more than six times in the same month are refused entry for one year (Article 1(4)). This is a refusal of entry and not an offence by the player, and the ordinance does not appear to contain a provision making the player an offender. The General Audit Chamber notes that without an interlinked monitoring system a person can exceed the limit across several casinos, and the 2011 policy admits that resident play is not effectively limited. The 2026 memorandum says the current ordinance excluded residents but that most players are residents, and the draft drops that prohibition.

Prizes won in licensed games are legally enforceable (Article 5a). Whether a player commits an offence by taking part in unlicensed gambling, including on an offshore site, is a question the official sources reviewed for this guide do not answer, and the Criminal Code position is unconfirmed. Official sources also do not describe how winnings are taxed (see below).

Taxation

Operators

Licence fees are fixed and are not a share of gaming revenue. The amounts are in Netherlands Antillean guilders (NAf, also written ANG); the 2026 draft uses the Caribbean guilder (Cg). The decrees set the following amounts, which the General Audit Chamber (September 2021) confirms:

• Full casino: NAf 600,000 per financial year, payable in 12 monthly instalments, plus a one-time NAf 200,000 on grant or renewal of the licence.
• Licence limited to slot machines and bingo: NAf 120,000 per financial year in 12 monthly instalments, plus NAf 10,000 on grant.
• Late payment: a surcharge of 10% for each month of default. If the holder shows that the licence could not be used, payment may be suspended in whole or in part on written request.
• Lotteries: monthly fixed fees from ANG 12,500 to ANG 30,000, as described above.

The Audit Chamber estimates potential revenue at about ANG 10.7 million a year (casinos 7.8 million and lotteries 2.9 million) and finds that realised government revenue from 2017 to 2020 was below that potential. It notes that on 7 June 2018 the Council of Ministers decided to “waive” casino and controller fees for two casinos from September 2017 until they reopened, and observes that a suspension means postponement rather than cancellation. An earlier Integrity Commission report (July 2014) said that about ANG 11 million of controller fees remained uncollected and that casinos paid neither turnover tax nor profit tax.

Several further points rest on news reports and not on official texts. The Daily Herald reported in September 2021 that the Finance Minister told Parliament of a proposal to abolish the casinos’ exemption from the 5% turnover tax. The Peoples Tribune reported on 23 February 2026 that the Finance Minister said the exemption should be revisited. The exact wording of the exemption in the turnover tax ordinance is not available from an official source cited here, and it is not stated whether any change has been enacted. The Daily Herald also reported on 3 April 2025 that the Minister of TEATT told Parliament that casinos owe a combined total of approximately 17 million guilders in unpaid fees, and that the government was reviewing the regulatory and fiscal framework and the fee structure. That figure is a newspaper report and is not confirmed by an official document. SMN News reported on 16 August 2026 that, in answers on the 2026 budget, TEATT said the reform had produced no additional revenue because the legislation was not enacted.

Players

Official sources do not state whether gambling winnings are taxed for residents. A 2021 IMF country report is reported to say that winnings are not subject to income tax and to recommend a 12.5% withholding tax on winnings, but that wording is unconfirmed and this guide does not rely on it. Anyone with a large win should ask the tax authorities.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Protections in the current ordinance are limited: an age limit of 18, refusal of entry to visibly drunk persons, and the monthly visit limit for residents described above. The Audit Chamber’s 2021 responsible gambling mini-audit noted that the visit limit is hard to enforce and that lotteries have no resident restriction at all.

The 2026 draft would add a fuller set of measures, according to the public summary: refusal of persons under 18 with ID and age checks, a central self-exclusion register allowing players to exclude themselves from casino gambling for at least six months, refusal of at-risk and intoxicated players, and a ban on broadcast gambling advertising between 6:00 and 19:00. These are proposals and not law.

On prevalence, the government announced in July 2025 the results of an Ipsos study (survey from 26 March to 8 April 2025, 800 or more residents). It found that 36% of respondents had gambled in the past year and that 6% showed moderate-to-high risk of problem gambling (government news item). The same study reports that 13% of gamblers use slot machines in bars and restaurants, and the memorandum to the draft refers to unauthorised slot machines and roulette tables in illegal casinos. Official sources do not identify a sports betting statute, although the memorandum acknowledges that people place bets.

Anti-money laundering

The Financial Intelligence Unit Sint Maarten (FIU, under the Ministry of Justice) supervises casinos and lotteries for AML/CFT; the Central Bank is the supervisor only for trust and company service providers. Casinos and lotteries must register with the FIU, identify customers and ultimate owners and report unusual transactions. The FIU’s Provisions and Guidelines for gaming service providers, updated in November 2024, cover games under the casino ordinance, the offshore ordinance and the Lottery Ordinance. The FIU’s 2024 national risk assessment rates the casino sector as high risk for money laundering and states that casinos contribute about 1.3% of GDP.

The CFATF fourth-round mutual evaluation of Sint Maarten was adopted at the CFATF plenary in Port of Spain in May 2025 and published on 16 July 2025. The on-site visit took place from 16 to 30 September 2024. Its findings on casinos include:

• Recommendation 28 (regulation and supervision of designated non-financial businesses, including casinos) is rated Partially Compliant.
• Supervision of these businesses was limited to questionnaires, and “no on-site examinations have taken place in the assessment period”.
• “Casinos do not have written policies in place.” The FIU issued dedicated casino guidelines in December 2024, after the on-site visit.
• Only nine casinos were registered with the FIU, so only nine were supervised for AML/CFT purposes.
• The report found no express provisions allowing the authorities to prevent criminals from holding or managing a casino, and no fit-and-proper tests for FIU-supervised businesses. Casino licences are renewed every five years for a fee with no additional checks.

The report recalls that the 2013 third-round evaluation rated this area non-compliant, citing inadequate AML/CFT regulation and supervision of casinos and no supervisory regime for internet casinos.

Recent and upcoming developments

• April 2025. The Daily Herald and SMN News reported the Minister’s answers in Parliament: 15 casinos (four hotel, 11 stand-alone), a moratorium on new stand-alone licences, a plan to raise the ceiling from 10 to 11, and unpaid fees of about 17 million guilders. These points come from news reports only.
• July 2025. The CFATF published its report on 16 July 2025.
• June to August 2026. The Council of Ministers approved the Gambling Authority project’s governance structure in June 2026, and SMN News reported on 16 August 2026 that the reform had produced no new revenue.
• 26 October to 4 December 2026. Public consultation on the draft Kansspelenverordening (consultation version of 23 October 2026), with stakeholder sessions from 6 to 12 November, according to the consultation page and a government announcement published by SMN News on 22 October 2026.
• After the consultation. The revised draft is to go to the SER for advice, then to the Council of Ministers, the Council of Advice and Parliament. Under the draft, existing casino and lottery licence holders would have six months after the relevant provisions take effect to apply for a licence under the new system, and the old law would apply in the meantime. Supervisory, application, renewal and amendment fees would be set in separate regulations, so the amounts are not yet known.

Because the ordinance is a draft, its content may change before adoption, and the Gambling Authority cannot exercise powers until the ordinance is in force.

Related country guides

• Gambling laws in the Caribbean (regional overview)
• Saint Martin gambling guide
• Curaçao gambling guide
• Aruba gambling guide
• Caribbean Netherlands gambling guide
• Saint Barthélemy gambling guide
• Netherlands gambling guide

Sources and further reading

1. Sint Maarten, Landsverordening hazardspelen ter bevordering van het toerisme (accessed 2 November 2026).
2. Sint Maarten, Landsverordening speelvergunningsrecht bij hazardspelen (accessed 2 November 2026).
3. Sint Maarten, Landsbesluit ter uitvoering van artikel 3 Landsverordening speelvergunningsrecht hazardspelen (accessed 2 November 2026).
4. Sint Maarten, Landsbesluit … artikelen 4 en 5 Landsverordening speelvergunningsrecht hazardspelen (accessed 2 November 2026).
5. Sint Maarten, Loterijverordening (accessed 2 November 2026).
6. Sint Maarten, Landsverordening buitengaatse hazardspelen (accessed 2 November 2026).
7. Government of Sint Maarten, Casino Policy: Rules of the Game (June 2011; accessed 2 November 2026).
8. SMN News, Rules of the Game (copy dated 15 October 2019; accessed 2 November 2026).
9. General Audit Chamber of Sint Maarten, Mini Audit: Responsible Gambling (September 2021; accessed 2 November 2026).
10. Commissie Integer openbaar bestuur, Doing the right things right (July 2014; accessed 2 November 2026).
11. Tweede Kamer, Aanhangsel Handelingen 2014-2015, no. 488 (accessed 2 November 2026).
12. Financial Intelligence Unit Sint Maarten, National Risk Assessment, Landscourant 2024 no. 26 (11 October 2024; accessed 2 November 2026).
13. Financial Intelligence Unit Sint Maarten, Provisions and Guidelines for Gaming Service Providers (Casinos and Lotteries) (November 2024; accessed 2 November 2026).
14. CFATF, Fourth Round Mutual Evaluation Report of Sint Maarten (July 2025; accessed 2 November 2026).
15. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Casino Guide (accessed 2 November 2026).
16. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Legal Framework (accessed 2 November 2026).
17. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, FAQ (accessed 2 November 2026).
18. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Public consultation on the draft National Gambling Ordinance (accessed 2 November 2026).
19. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Public summary of the draft Gambling Ordinance (consultation version of 23 October 2026; accessed 2 November 2026).
20. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Explanatory memorandum to the draft Kansspelenverordening (English translation; accessed 2 November 2026).
21. Sint Maarten Gambling Authority, Draft Kansspelenverordening (English translation; accessed 2 November 2026).
22. Ipsos I&O / RE-Quest, More Than Just a Game: Gambling Prevalence and Consequences (June 2025; accessed 2 November 2026).
23. Government of Sint Maarten, Gambling Research (14 July 2025; accessed 2 November 2026).
24. The Daily Herald, report on unpaid casino fees (3 April 2025; accessed 2 November 2026).
25. SMN News, Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten addresses casino license questions in Parliament (28 April 2025; accessed 2 November 2026).
26. The Daily Herald, report on a proposal to end the turnover-tax exemption for casinos (16 September 2021; accessed 2 November 2026).
27. The Peoples Tribune (via sxm-talks.com), report on possible new casino licences and the turnover-tax position of casinos (23 February 2026; accessed 2 November 2026).
28. International Monetary Fund, Country Report: Sint Maarten (2021; accessed 2 November 2026).
29. The Daily Herald, report on the Social Economic Council and lottery booth numbers (14 March 2023; accessed 2 November 2026).
30. The Daily Herald, report on a temporary moratorium on new lottery booths (30 September 2019; accessed 2 November 2026).
31. SMN News, Government announces public consultation on draft National Gambling Ordinance (22 October 2026; accessed 2 November 2026).
32. SMN News, report on the status of the gambling reform and the Gambling Authority (16 August 2026; accessed 2 November 2026).
33. StMaartenNews, report on the preparation of new gambling legislation (7 November 2023; accessed 2 November 2026).

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