As seen on Gambling Insider Malta editorial
How is Malta fairing in the wider global marketplace?
The last few years have been full of external factors such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and financial instability wreaking havoc around the world. Despite those challenges, Malta is fairing really well compared to many other jurisdictions. As a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean, Malta is unique.
Currently, our biggest problem as an industry is recruitment and having enough people to achieve all the things we want to do. That is a very privileged position to be in. We have a critical mass of 8,000 qualified staff in the industry and at the moment there are an additional1,000 open vacancies on the island.
From a regulatory perspective, Malta has raised the bar, and although the importance of having a B2C licence is diminishing as more jurisdictions introduce their own licensing system, the island is still very much an important B2B hub, and I see this continuing as the country has built up a fantastic infrastructure for the industry to prosper.
Do you think Malta is currently focusing on attracting more iGaming companies to the region, or is it now focusing on retaining the ones that are currently there?
I think the current focus is on retaining the companies that are here. In the 10 years I have been in Malta, the first phase was certainly to grow the number of licensees. Malta was open for business. The second phase has seen a consolidation as the bar was raised and the MGA started doing audits and revoking licenses for non-compliant companies.
We also must mention that Malta was placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF)grey list last year, and we have to praise the government and other authorities for taking quick action and implementing new stringent rules that saw us removed from the list after just 12 months.
Although no major companies left the island as a result of the listing, it did damage Malta’s reputation and other unfortunate events in recent years have also abetted this notoriety. This is a social issue that Malta is working on improving butin the meantime, the gambling industry continues to grow and thrive on the island.
