The Government is awaiting the conclusions of an audit on the operations of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority.
It said it should soon be in a position to take “a number of decisions for the strengthening of the LGA’s reputation” if that were needed.
The Government was reacting to an item carried by Times of Malta yesterday entitled Gaming Watchdog Under Fire For ‘Gross Negligence’. The article was about claims made by a number of foreign poker gamblers on the way the LGA dealt with Everleaf, an online gambling company operating until last month under a Maltese licence.
The Office of the Prime Minister said that the Parliamentary Secretariat for Competitiveness and Economic Growth took “immediate action and has forwarded complaints on Everleaf to the local regulator” via the proper channels. It added that similar complaints received by the Prime Minister were also forwarded to the parliamentary secretariat and then to the LGA as per procedure.
“The Parliamentary Secretariat is informed that the LGA acted upon the complaints received on this operator and used the information as part of an investigation,” the Government said.
Confirming that the LGA had been receiving complaints for the past 16 months, the Government said that “the new Administration acted immediately and, in less than a month, the LGA issued a statement in relation to Everleaf”.
The LGA reported in April that Everleaf was under scrutiny due to slow payments of players. It said it had intervened directly with Everleaf to rectify the matter.
In its statement, the LGA had also said that, despite its intervention, it continued to receive more complaints, which were all investigated.
“It resulted that a number of complaints that were also being indicated to the media were complaints stemming from non-genuine players and were coming from affiliates disguising themselves as players,” it had said.
The LGA suspended Everleaf’s licence at the end of July.
The Government said that, in view of the Everleaf case and other issues, it commissioned an audit of the regulator’s operations.
“Once the audit results are out, in a matter of weeks, the board of directors will be in a position to take a number of decisions to strengthen the LGA’s reputation if the need is so felt.”
The Government said that Everleaf “is currently under further investigation by the relevant competent authorities and, thus, it would not be prudent to disclose any further information on this case”.
Gamblers complained to Times of Malta that, despite various warnings made to the LGA over the past 16 months, including e-mails sent to the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth, Edward Zammit Lewis, “everyone” ignored them until the licence was suspended last month.
Everleaf, registered in an office in St Julian’s, specialised in online poker games.