Malta Remote Gaming Regulations

How to obtain a Gambling licence from The Lotteries & Gaming Authority (LGA)

Malta has successfully established itself as a serious and well-regulated European jurisdiction and attracted on-line gaming companies in the last years.

A complete revision and consolidation of the gaming legislation by the government led to a new overarching gaming law according to that the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) has been established.

The Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority has rectified the regulations whereby all Gaming activities could be allowed after an application is submitted and a licence is granted. This includes online casinos, casino-style games, online poker, betting exchanges and lotteries.

Since 2004 regulations are established under the main Act as Other Games by Means of Distance Communication, this means that: 

• the gaming principles are the same as those of the principal act that requires parliament intervention to change;
• the regulations are under the control of the LGA and can be changed by way of a simple legal notice.

Key Official Requirement and Support

A Key Official would need to be appointed within 21 days from issue of the Letter of Intent.

The Key Official (KO) of the company has the following responsibilities that need to be

• System review / Certification of compliance.
• Sealing of Servers, report of sealing to LGA and also responsible to make sure seals are not broken.
• Incident reports
• Any changes made to either the hardware or software of the company, have to be reported by the KO to LGA by signing and submitting the incident reports.
• Keeping the LGA updated in respect of any changes to be made, to the set-up originally approved by LGA.
• Monthly submission on gaming tax and annual gaming license fee.
• Company's Accounts / Audit have to be submitted.
• Ensuring players' funds are adequately held by the Company at all times.
• Data Protection.
• NSO - National Statistics.
• KO is to have access to the back-end system.

The following Malta regulations have to be met and the Key Official together with the Management of the Company must ensure that the Company is operating in line with them:

• Companies Act, 1995
• Data Protection Act, 2001
• Electronic Commerce Act, 2001
• Electronic Communications (Regulation) Act, 1997
• Income Tax Act, 1948
• Income Tax Management Act, 1994
• Lotteries and other games Act, 2001 as amended (Remote Gaming Regulations)
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 1994

The LGA has a staff compliment of over 40 personnel, all with the necessary background in the different areas of gaming. The officers directly involved in Remote Gaming are involved in the following functions: Application Processing, Involvement Verification, Regulatory Supervision, Financial & Accounting, Information Management, Legal & Enforcement, Inspections and Marketing.