The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) said it is “unable to comment in specific terms” on the claims made by the NGO Young Africans Fighting Online Gambling (YAFOG) that “Malta-based gaming companies are targeting millions of African youths”.
According to The Shift article, “Malta’s public coffers make millions of euros in tax revenue from the roughly €2 billion in annual turnover the local industry sees yearly; and they (Malta) hosts over 10% of the world’s online gaming companies, which, in turn, provide the country with around 10% of its gross domestic product, significant tax revenues and over 10,000 well-paid jobs”.
In response to these allegations, the MGA, answering to questions by The Malta Independent on Sunday, said that the article on The Shift includes “a number of statistics … without the backing evidence that would enable us, in turn, to analyze and compare them to the data that we hold”.
“All gaming companies operating under an MGA license must be fully compliant with the regulatory and legislative requirements imposed by Maltese law, wherever their customers may reside,” the MGA went on.
In relation to measures of protection, the MGA said that “the requirements relating to player protection are robust, evidence-based and subjected to audits by the MGA and by independent external service providers”.
