Malta

Malta Gaming Licence – GamingLicensing

Malta Gaming Licence

  • Secure business environment
  • Strong player protection
  • Low labour cost
  • Separate licences for different gaming activities
  • Licence validity period: 5 years

Malta was the first EU country to introduce online gambling regulations back in 2000. Today, it appears to be one of the most attractive countries for gambling business due to numerous advantages.

Malta

Advantages of the Malta licence

Firstly, it is a secure business environment for responsible gaming, with a highly-developed legal framework and a strong player protection.

Pre-existing criminal record denies the right to become a licensee, but also failure to operate in the best interests of the players leads to cancellation of licences and even issuing sanctions.

Secondly, the rapid technological development raised industrial standards for adopting the best gambling industry practices. As a result, an online forum was created to discuss various issues – including legal and technical ones. Licensing experts point out undisputable advantages of low labour cost, secure server hosting and explicit service.

Disadvantages of the Malta licence

As to disadvantages, there are some worth mentioning. For instance, if one wants to provide a set of different gaming activities, he or she must buy a separate licence for each. The Malta Gaming Authority – the only official gambling regulatory body in the country – outlined 4 distinctive licence types that suit interactive gambling activities: for casino games, online sports betting, advertisers and companies that host and manage remote gaming operations. The validity period of each of them is 5 years.

Fees & Taxes

According to some estimates, fees and taxation for interactive gaming activities are reasonable enough; however, they are definitely higher than in other countries.

In particular, the Application Fee in Malta is €2,330 and the Licence Fee equals €8,500. Also, €4,660 is a tax to be paid 6 times for the Class 1 Licence, and 5% of real income is to be paid for Class 3 Licence. In total, paid fees and taxes result in €500,000 estimate, that varies depending on a particular licence type.

Another fact to be kept in mind is that bets from the citizens of Malta are not allowed.

In general, this is a reputable and internationally recognised jurisdiction for running gambling business.