Gaming operators "took a risk"

Gaming operators had taken the law into their hands and invested money when the legislator had not yet released the specifications for video lottery terminals, Henri Mizzi, who was representing the Gaming Authority, told the court this morning.

The court was hearing submissions to decide whether to uphold a temporary warrant of prohibitory injunction stopping the police from elevating machines from eight gaming arcades.

Mr Justice Albert Magri had granted the warrant on August 6 on the request of the eight companies following a nationwide clampdown on gambling outlets. The companies are: Allied Games Ltd, Best Play Ltd, Gaming Operations Ltd, Media Gaming Malta EU Ltd, Laak Ltd, Vanguard Gaming Ltd, Zammit Videomatic Ltd and Silver Play Ltd.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio, who was nominated by the lawyers representing the gaming companies to speak on their behalf, said an action plan that would have led to the implementation of regulations had been publicly discussed.

However, a general exemption was given because the Gaming Authority was not able to comply with its own regulations.

The legal notice on gaming regulations came into effect on October 1, 2007 and the Lotteries and Gaming Authority wanted to enforce the regulations in stages.

The cut off date for the video lottery terminals to comply with the regulations was March 1, 2008 for machines that were already in Malta and not registered and December 31, 2008 for those that had to be modified to comply or be replaced.

The first cut off date was extended to June 1, 2008 because the authority said it would not process any licenses until all the regulations were put in place.

In fact, even former CEO Mario Galea had said that these operators had a general exemption.

Dr Giglio noted that the new regulations had still not come into force and for some reason the LGA was not meeting its own deadlines.

Operators, he said, had acted on the encouragement of the LGA and one of them, for example, had invested €5.5 million.

Dr Mizzi, however, insisted that there had never been a general exemption.

It was useless that the former CEO testified that this had been given for the law clearly stated that no one could ever give an exemption from that law.

If there was, hypothetically speaking, an exemption before October 2007, this ceased to exist on October 1.

Instead of waiting for the regulations to come into force, operators took the law into their hands, implemented new ones and invested a lot of money when the legislator had not yet released the specifications for the machines. “They took a risk.”

The government did not give a guarantee that a law would be enacted in a particular manner, Dr Mizzi said accusing the operators of clutching at straws.

A decision is expected later this week.