An applicant for a Maltese I-gaming license is now being granted a full license, rather than a preliminary one, at the end of the second stage of the licensing process, that is at the end of the written submissions phases.
This is the result of a new regime implemented by the Maltese Lotteries and Gaming Authority in mid-June. Indeed, rather than being granted a Letter of Intent, applicants who have successfully completed the first and second stages of the licensing process are now being granted a fully-fledged license to operate and provide their services.
The licence being granted is valid for 5 years and is issued subject to certain conditions to be fulfilled by the licensee. In particular, the license is subject to the successful completion of a compliance audit to be carried out by the Authority within 12 months from the issuance of the license. Previously, applicants being granted a Letter of Intent needed to undergo a compliance audit which had to be completed within 6 months from the issuance of the Letter of Intent. Hence, the advantages of this new regime include a longer period within which the compliance audit needs to be concluded. This ensures that, on undertaking the compliance audit, the operator has enough volumes of players for the audit to be performed in a proper manner. It also means that the operator has a longer period during which it can make sure that all systems are implemented and operating in accordance with the operator’s own submissions during the previous stages of the licensing process.
Other advantages include wider possibilities of marketing. It was noted that under the old system, marketing agencies and search engine entities were reluctant to enter into contracts with operators that were operating on a preliminary license. The new system is expected to result in improvements on this front.
Of course, the main benefit is the effect that such new system is intended to have on the players themselves who now have the comfort of playing on a fully-fledged licensee as from the beginning. This is likely to translate into increase volumes of transactions for licensees in their first months of their operations.
