Malta’s gaming regulator is committed to preserving the reputation and business-friendliness of the world’s largest online jurisdiction and will continue to provide the government with technical and regulatory advice in the run-up to Budget 2013, chief executive Reuben Portanier told The Times Business this week.
Meanwhile, the LGA is actively working to strengthen Malta’s proposition to investors as it collaborates with the government to design other gaming regulatory frameworks, Mr Portanier added.
Stakeholders, including the real estate, telecoms and service provision sectors, are keen to see Malta’s ability to attract igaming operators protected or even enhanced to continue to strengthen one of the island’s most lucrative industries.
Mr Portanier said the Lotteries and Gaming Authority was conscious of all the effort it placed, together with the investments made by local services providers, in order to achieve the status Malta enjoys today. As the first EU jurisdiction to regulate online gaming in 2004, Malta is looked upon as the ‘veteran’ on the continental circuit.
“The LGA, as the government’s technical advisor always provided invaluable technical and regulatory advice on the way forward and will continue to do so,” he added. “Over the past years, Malta, as one of the prime jurisdictions, effectively and thoroughly regulating the remote gaming sector, has left no stone unturned to maintain the high international esteem gained so far. This has allowed not only the retention of the remote gaming sector operators, but also continued to attract new operators.”
Licences under the LGA’s supervisory control have doubled to more than 420 since 2008, and employment figures attributable to the sector have followed the same trend to reach just under 4,000 people. Online gaming now generates around €22 million in tax and licence revenue.
Mr Portanier was keen to underline how the results were “not coincidental but remarkable considering the economic and regulatory turmoil across the EU”. He outlined how the LGA continuously adopted a self-improvement system to maintain its hard-earned status as one of the world’s top regulators. Operators were attracted and retained on the strength of the island’s authorities providing regulatory certainty, he pointed out.
The latest Deloitte-Malta Remote Gaming Council industry study confirmed the business friendly outlook adopted by Malta.
“This not only indicated the direct growth in the sector, but presented how year-on-year ancillary sectors, including the real estate, telecoms, hospitality, data centres, law firms, audit firms, and banks all registered positive results as a consequence of the well thought out strategy of creating sectors of added value with a multiplier effect,” the CEO said.