MGA issues 2020 Annual Report

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Malta judged ‘fiscally secure’ and removed from FATF greylist

Malta has ended its year-long purgatory as a ‘greylist’ financial jurisdiction of the Financial Action …

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Malta gambling sector records growth but economic contribution slips

Ted Orme-Claye July 5, 2021Retail, Europe, Latest NewsComments Off on Malta gambling sector records growth but economic contribution slips

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The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has revealed that the country’s gambling sector has recorded one of its highest growth rates in value added relative to other sectors, but is now making less of a contribution to the island’s economy.

As detailed in the MGA’s Annual Report and audited Financial Statements for the financial year ending December 31, 2020,  the country’s gambling sector experienced a growth rate of 15.3% to a total valuation of €924 million.

However, this means that the sector is no longer placed within the top three contributors with regards to economic value.

Despite this, the MGA noted that 2020 had been an “exceptional year” where the total economy value added by 4.3%, whilst the gambling sector recorded impressive growth, and still accounts for 8% of the country’s total economic value.

Additional figures show that at the end of the year the number of companies licensed by the MGA, including both online and land-based entities, stood at 323, holding a total of 328 gaming licences and 357 game type approvals to offer various types of games under the B2C licence.

During the 12-months, the MGA collected a total of €73.5 million in terms of compliance contribution fees, levies, and consumption tax. It has been estimated that as at the end of 2020, the gaming industry directly generated almost 8,300 jobs in FTE terms, with 91.1% of these employees engaged in the online sector.

Furthermore, the number of Maltese-registered gaming companies offering online products increased from 284 in 2019 to 314 in 2020, whilst the number of active player accounts registered on Malta-licenced websites rose by 18.1% to 36.2 million.

Alongside player accounts, the estimated number of new active player accounts stood at 15.9 million, reflecting a 15.5% year-on-year growth.

In 2020, the report noted that the MGA received a total of 58 applications for gaming licences whilst 68 licences were issued. Moreover, 20 gaming applications were either rejected by the MGA or withdrawn by the applicants with the Authority cancelling 12 licences and suspending another three due to various regulatory breaches.

The financial and business impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were also noted in the report, with all land-based casinos in the territory ordered to temporarily close in March 2020 under the terms of the Legal Notice 76 of 2020, entitled Closure of Places Open to the Public Order 2020.

From 5 June 2020 casinos were permitted to reopen, but the closures negatively impacted new player registrations, with a reported 55,676 registrations into the four-land based casinos – Dragonara Casino, Portomaso Casino, Casino Malta and Oracle Casino – compared to the 175,433 registrations in 2019.

Furthermore, despite the reopening of the land-based sector, the report revealed that growth in the number of active online players continued at “very much the same pace of earlier years”.

Dr Carl Brincat, CEO of the MGA, remarked: “The year 2020 will undoubtedly be remembered for the challenges the pandemic presented us with, and I am proud of the Authority’s employees who worked tirelessly to ensure that we continued to perform the functions required of us at law.

“Keeping the ship steady during a challenging year serves as a strong foundation for us to look ahead with renewed commitment to keep building on the positives and improve on our shortcomings, to reach new heights in our regulatory approach.”

Lastly, with regards to compliance and legality, a total of 69 warnings were issued by the Authority whilst three licences were suspended and 12 cancelled.

In addition, 30 compliance audits were conducted by the MGA’s Compliance and AML departments, as well as 324 desktop reviews identifying 98 deficiencies, which were subsequently reported to the Compliance and Enforcement Committee.

Lastly, 1,475 criminal probity screening checks were undertaken – an increase of 13.% on the previous year – and eight individuals and companies were deemed by the Fit & Proper Committee to not up to the MGA’s probity standards, mainly with regards of money laundering of terrorism funding regulations.

The publishing of these statistics closely follows the greylisting of Malta as a potentially financially untrustworthy territory classed as having “strategic deficiencies” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the AML and anti-terrorist financing arm of the G7.

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Tags Dr Carl Brincat Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)

A Major Milestone

Spinomenal plans to expand the reach into the regulated markets of the world…

…which is something the Malta Gaming Authority license will be able to provide for them.

Says Nir Ronen, Spinomenal’s Director of Business:

“We are excited to announce this major milestone, now that our games are available for the MGA market – we are ready to deliver our unique content with special surprises.”

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An interview of Carl Brincat, Chief Legal Counsel at Malta Gaming Authority

To learn more about what regulators require of operators when it comes to security and fraud, we spoke to Carl Brincat, Chief Legal Counsel at the Malta Gaming Authority (in the picture below).

Bojoko: What requirements does the MGA put on online casino operators when it comes to preventing fraud, money laundering and scams?

Carl Brincat (CB): "With regards to anti-money laundering, operators are obliged entities and are therefore subject not only to gaming legislation but also to the relevant anti-money laundering laws which oblige them amongst other things to conduct a risk assessment of the business and of each player, as well as to conduct customer due diligence on each player upon that player reaching a certain transaction threshold.

These are only examples of the measures operators are required to take in order to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, as they form part of a holistic set of requirements that stems from AML legislation, as further explained in detail through implementing procedures issued jointly by the MGA and the Maltese FIAU.As regards fraud, operators invest heavily in anti-fraud systems and procedures in order to mitigate their business risk. Part of the MGA's licensing and ongoing monitoring consists in vetting these procedures and verifying the effectiveness thereof at the audit stage.

Bojoko: How do you ensure that online casino operators are meeting these standards? What happens if they are not?

CB: "The approach the Malta Gaming Authority takes to ensure that these standards are met is twofold – ex-ante and ex-post. Ex-ante: during the application process, the policies, procedures and systems of an applicant (online casino operator) are thoroughly vetted in order to assess whether, if effectively implemented, they will enable the operator to adhere to its legal obligations.

Ex-post: as part of ongoing monitoring, the MGA commissions compliance audits by accredited independent auditors to ensure that the approved policies and procedures are being put into effect and that any systems and tools that are being leveraged to achieve these results are functioning effectively. Moreover, the MGA and FIAU jointly conduct full-scope examinations of operators' anti-money laundering effectiveness, to ensure that the operator is making the necessary efforts and that they are being implemented in an effective manner."

Bojoko: Do you have to keep tweaking your requirements to make sure they cover that latest fraud, AML and scam threats?

CB: "This industry is very dynamic and innovative, meaning that threats change constantly just as products develop on a regular basis. Hence as the regulator, we do endeavour to keep abreast of developments in order to be responsive with changes to regulatory requirements if and when these are required.

Indeed, the new regulatory framework introduced in August 2018 is structured in a way which enables us to be quicker to react to the need to make changes to such requirements in an effort for the law to keep up with the pace of the industry."

Bojoko: Any tips on what players can do to ensure they do not fall victim to an online casino scam?

CB: "We would always encourage players to make use of the services of a regulated operator to ensure that it is subject to controls and oversight, and to have a regulator to resort to in case issues crop up."

While most European markets are now regulated – this includes the likes of the UK, Sweden, Spain and Portugal – others are not so it can be tricky for players in these countries to know where to play.

Bojoko always recommends playing at online casinos that are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission as this is one of the most established and respected regulators in the world.

Operators that carry a UK Gambling Commission licence are trusted and reputable and do not try to catch out players with scams or misleading adverts.

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*Source of industry data: Gambling Commission

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Made.com plans to cut a third of staff as it seeks buyer or investment

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About Malta Gaming Authority

Name	Malta Gaming Authority
Established	2001
Location	Malta
Website	https://mga.org.mt

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