Malta Gaming Authority chairman Joseph Cuschieri said yesterday he was looking into why one of the gaming companies allegedly linked to the Italian Mafia was given a licence backdated by more than a year and a half.

The Times of Malta is informed that Mr Cuschieri signed the licence of Uniq Group Ltd in December 2013 but the date on the licence made it effective in May 2012.

Asked to explain the reason behind the lapse in time, Mr Cuschieri said he needed to check exactly what happened.

Asked whether it was normal practice for the authority to issue backdated licences, Mr Cuschieri replied by saying that his signature was the last stage of several checks.

There will always be some bad apples

“This might be because of issues related to due diligence. However, I will check and have no problem in giving you all the necessary details.”

He insisted Malta was a role model when it came to gaming regulations and the serious checks and balances that were in place for license holders.

Earlier this week the MGA suspended six gaming licen-ces, including those related to Uniq Group Ltd, following Italian police claims that these companies, based in Malta, were being used by the ’Ndrangheta – the Calabrian Mafia – to launder massive amounts of dirty cash.

When asked, Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera denied Malta had recently relaxed its enforcement in the gaming industry, prompting criminal organisations to infiltrate.

“On the contrary, we have tightened our due diligence even more in the last months. However, there will always be the case of some bad apples,” he said.

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