Gaming Authority to present draft legislation for more transparency in November – Jose Herrera

The gaming authority has been in talks to fine tune the industry for months and it was going to present a draft legislation in November to reorganise the industry and make it more efficient and transparent, regardless of the latest scandal, Parliamentary Secretary for competitiveness Jose Herrera said.

Last week, the Malta Gaming Authority  suspended the licenses of Uniq Group Limited (Betuniq) and Betsolution4U Limited. The firms had been operating in Malta since 2011. The suspension of licences – and the arrest of six Italian nationals in Malta – followed a crackdown by Italian police on an entire on line betting network of companies, with direct connections to the ’Ndrangheta, the notorious Calabria criminal organisation.

The six Italian nationals - Gennaro, Margherita Giudetti, 34, Francesco Ripepi, 38, Alessandro Ciaffi, 40, Rocco Ripepi, 36 and Fortunato Stracuzzi, 37 - connected to the Betuniq brand who were living in Malta, were arrested under a European Arrest Warrant and will spend the next  days in custody until they are deported to Italy.

Reports in the Italian media said that the police inquiry dubbed ‘Gambling’ shows that the Texas Holdem Poker tournaments in Malta were being used for the recycling of money deriving from criminal activities, principally from the Tegano clan.

Earlier today the authority also suspended licenses for Soft Casino Limited, FenPlay and Softbet, but it hasn't yet confirmed reasons for the suspension to avoid throwing any doubts or prejudice on the investogations.

Herrera said that Malta had among the most efficient and rigorous industries in the world, where it carried out due diligence even on the individual workers, unlike other countries.

Malta Gaming Authority chairman Joe Cuschieri pointed out that Malta was considered a “best-practise” industry both in terms of due-diligence and in regulation of the industry.

“Countries sometimes ask Malta for advice about how to regulate their online gaming sector,” Cuschieri said.

He added that Malta had reacted immediately when the European arrest warrants were issued, Malta was one of the only countries to suspend the licenses for the companies in question.

Herrera added that the gaming industry had developed significantly over recent years and that Malta had been the first country to introduce a regulator for the sector.

“One rotten apple, or in this case one alleged rotten apple, does not necessarily mean that the whole industry is corrupt,” he said, stressing that the regulator had been created precisely for this reason.

“The regulator was created precisely to tackle these issues and to nip any of these bad companies in the bud, just as it did in this case,” he added.

“Nevertheless, you can never know whether an individual may be tempted or not,” he stressed, adding that the number of rotten apples had remained rather low considering the volume of companies over the year.

He added that despite the strict due diligence processes currently in place, some companies might get on the wrong path after these processes would have taken place.

“Criminal activity may be present at all times, but the gaming industry is working in a transparent manner,” he said.

Asked whether there was any need for improving due diligence, Herrera said that improvement was always welcome.

“All sectors are subject to evolution, so improvement is natural,” he said adding that sporadic fine-tuning was necessary.

Herrera said that Malta is the jurisdiction with the biggest number of licensed and registered companies involved in remote gaming.

“The local industry is one of the most attractive and proliferous so attacks on these industries are never quite welcome,” he said stressing that the gaming industry was a very sensitive and volatile one.