The Malta Gaming Commission has recently announced that it had suspended and terminated the licenses of four of its online gambling licensees – these four companies are therefore required to completely cease operations in the territory or risk much severe action from authorities. This is part of the gambling authority’s attempts to clean up the online gaming scene through stricter regulations and rules.
Bet Service Group Limited is one of the most recent casualties of the crackdown and this was confirmed last Monday when the gaming authority canceled the online gaming operator’s license. The company which provided B2C betting services through Gamebet, its flagship brand, was asked to cancel its authorization to provide gambling services under the gaming authority’s license and suspend its operations immediately.
On Friday, the MGA also canceled the B2C license of the World-of-bets EU Limited which, as it turns out, was the very first company to be licensed by the gaming regulator to operate online sports betting services back in 2008. World-of-bets EU has since canceled its operations under the MGA license since it was terminated. Both the Worlds-of-bets EU and Bet Service Group Limited are supposed to publish notices of cancellation on their websites in order to ensure that their customers are aware of the change.
Morpheus Games and Betixx Limited, on the other hand, were lucky enough to get away with only suspensions. While Betixx Limited primarily focusses on sports betting in the German market and was incorporated in Malta back in 2013, Morpheus Games holds a B2C license from the authority. After their suspension was officially announced, both companies were asked to cease their operations immediately and desist from acquiring any new customers till further notice. In the meantime, they will both be required to have new documentation to the Malta Gaming Authority for review.
Did Norway Have Something to Do with This?
It is still unclear why the Malta Gaming Authority is yet to disclose the reasons it resorted to the license suspensions and terminations. According to its officials, this is because the regulator wants to keep everything confidential so that further investigations into the matter run smoothly. However, it is speculated that the recent warnings issued by the Norwegian Gambling Authority (NGA) to six Maltese online gambling operators may have had something to do with it.
Gambling laws in the country initially restricted gambling operations to state-run companies and the companies that received the warnings were reportedly offering gambling services to Norwegian players illegally. The warnings were sent to both the MGA and the offenders which make the case for the speculations.
