The Maltese Parliament has during the month of May 2018 approved the third and final reading of the new Gaming Act, which shall elevate the jurisdictional profile of Malta from a regulatory perspective by strengthening the Malta Gaming Authority’s (MGA) supervisory role, specifically the compliance and enforcement functions to better achieve the regulatory objectives, in line with concurrent developments relating to anti-money laundering and combating the funding of terrorism.
This new framework shall also broaden the regulatory scope to increase the MGA’s oversight and to allow, in a proportionate manner, intervention where necessary. The new Act will also segment the role of a Key Official within a licensed entity into various key functions for direct scrutiny and targeted supervision controls, and shall strengthen the player protection framework by formalising the role of the MGA’s Player Support Unit as a mediator between aggrieved players and operators. The new Act also envisages new and more effective processes for criminal and administrative justice.
Other important areas of focus include consumer protection standards, responsible gaming measures, reporting of suspicious sports betting transactions in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions and objective-orientated standards to encourage innovation and development.
