Malta’s Gaming Legal Framework is currently going through major changes which will affect the way the industry is being run in the future. The Malta Gaming Authority has recently published a White Paper listing some proposals which could benefit the gambling field, and it has become known that the consultation period for the proposition is being extended to September 4th.
The original deadline of the consultation period was appointed to be August 23rd but the Authority has decided to allow more time for consideration and for feedback to be sent. According to the decision taken by the authorities, the proposal aims to revoke the currently existing legislation in the field and change it with a singular primary Act of Parliament. It is called the Gaming Act and it will provide the necessary regulation, in addition to a subsidiary legislation, which will take care of the main areas of regulation. Malta Gaming Authority is the sole regulator in the local gambling sector, so it is its duty to make those essential decisions.
As proposed in the White Paper issued by the Authority on July 12th this year, the new framework of the gaming field will endow the regulator with more power to make decisions and be responsible for them. The choices and changes made by it in relation to the business of casino operators and gambling venues will be able to happen much more easily. It will also remove the unnecessary regulatory burdens which make the whole process much slower and do not help the progress in the industry. The proposed overhaul will empower the regulator with better supervision of the gaming realm in Malta and ease the process of focusing on certain problematic areas of it.
The whole process of licensing companies will be reformed, by removing the current multi-license system with one featuring two different types of licenses. These will be a Business-to-Consumer one and a Business-to-Business. This will guarantee that all possible types of activities are covered and regulated, in order to provide the end customer with a variety of distribution channels to choose from. The Malta Gaming Authority will be able to intervene if there is a need to and boast a wide scope of influence in the field. This decision comes in the light of recent concerns about poor anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding measures.
Something very important and directly affecting players of Malta-licensed entities is the plan to fortify the player protection framework. This goal could be achieved by increasing the involvement of the Player Support Unit of Malta Gaming Authority and keeping it actively participating. The system is aiming to unify the self-exclusion database across the wide variety of delivery channels.
