For so many years, online operators seeking an offshore internet gambling licence would often look to places like Malta or Curacao. Those two jurisdictions were traditionally by far the most popular for offshore licences given their relative low cost and general acceptance from external stakeholders.
However, according to one of the foremost experts in offshore licensing, the popularity of the Curacao licence is now dwindling. Those offshore licensees are now looking away from the Caribbean and towards the Indian Ocean. Nestled between the east coast of Mozambique and the west coast of Madagascar is Anjouan, a tiny island nation which is now home to the most popular offshore licence in the world.
Ron Mendelson, Founder and CEO of Fast Offshore – a consultancy specialising in offshore regulatory regimes – explains that Anjouan is now the number one jurisdiction, with nearly 600 licensees at the time of writing.
Mendelson explains: “Through the lens of my 27 years of experience at this moment in time, the number one licence in the world is the Anjouan licence. It offers more value than any other licence. It offers the same or better coverage than any other licence on a euro-per-euro or dollar-per-dollar basis. It’s number one for a number of operators, number one for flexibility, number one for speed of issuance and number one for acceptance from stakeholders in the industry.”
According to Mendelson, the Anjouan licence is available at a much lower cost compared to its peers; prospective licence holders can obtain one at around €17,000 per annum, compared to around €65,000 in Curacao and around €200,000 in Malta.
He also outlines that another benefit of Anjouan is that businesses can be licensed there almost entirely virtually. “Some of the benefits of an Anjouan licence is that you can apply for a licence with a company from almost anywhere in the world. So there’s no requirement for a local company. There’s no requirement for a local office. There’s no requirement for local employees.”
One example of the Anjouan licence becoming useful is the ongoing situation in the Phillippines. “We have a huge influx of operators from the Philippines that have this new ban that’s just happened for Pogo licences. All of them are flocking to get an Anjouan licence to replace that.”
Another significant context that Mendelson is noticing is that there are more what he calls “innovative” operators coming to Anjouan. These include crypto casinos and other operators which switch out traditional RNGs for similar blockchain technology.
Mendelson notes that these “would never fly” in Curacao or Malta, but that in Anjouan, the gaming commission takes each case individually and examines the technology to assess whether it is fair.
This means that, in Mendelson’s view, innovation is encouraged and not stifled in Anjouan compared to other jurisdictions.
“Innovation is definitely encouraged, so long as it makes sense,” he says. “The whole thing is that it has to make sense. This includes the parameters for fair play for the players and everyone being treated fair.
“It’s like highways, right? You want to go to Washington DC. There’s more than one road to get there.There’s a million paths that you can take. So long as you get to where you’re going, which is fair play, how we arrive there should be open to interpretation. Sometimes the traditional RNG doesn’t make sense.”
It would be remiss not to acknowledge that offshore licences certainly have their detractors, who argue that there aren’t adequate standards when it comes to player protection, KYC processes and fair play.
And while Mendelson certainly concedes that sometimes there are instances where offshore licence standards are sometimes brought into question, Anjouan is not one of those. The commission takes a strong approach on player protections, KYC processes and background checks.
“There’s no one with a criminal record that has an ongoing licence that the authority is aware of, because they do criminal record checks. They do checks for previous licences. They do adverse media checks. They do all of the legal scans and database scans to keep out the bad actors.”
Besides, he argues, those detractors need to “get on board” with the Anjouan regime, as the wind is blowing in that direction due to its popularity.
“The thing about it is, those that aren’t on board with it, will at some point, have to. It’s the number one licence in the world. I remember when Curacao, people wouldn’t accept it, you know, it’s a sub licence. The regime is questionable. Everybody had their complaints about Curacao 20 years ago until the crescendo of about four years ago, when it was the number one licence in the world with 2,000 active operators.
“Anjouan is efficient. It’s fast. All the stakeholders are on board. Those that aren’t at some point the volume speaks loud, in other words, and they’re going to need those sales volumes.
“The internet gambling business, just like banking, just like any industry that’s a money service, should be more of a partnership. This is how you ensure everybody participating in that ecosystem is treated fairly. And I think Anjouan is getting that right and that’s why they’re winning the day.”
Fast Offshore is working with existing and prospective clients to help them assess whether an Anjouan licence is right for them or not. The firm, which has been active since 1998, guides customers through the entire process and offers feedback when it feels that the client isn’t quite ready to meet the authority’s standards.
“We’re certainly proficient in the licensing process, whether it be in Anjouan, Curacao, Kahnawake, what have you seen from our book of business that the Anjouan licence is the dominant licence in the field.”
Importantly, Fast Offshore can help operators get licences quickly, with the average Anjouan process taking six-to-eight weeks.