Malta gambling license: benefits and how to obtain

A gambling license is a permit that allows you to operate a legal gambling and betting business in the jurisdiction it has been issued in. Apart from that, if the license is international, its holder may work within other jurisdictions that do not prohibit such activities. The SBSB company suggests considering Maltese gambling licenses of various classes, B2C and B2B.

Advantages of Maltese licenses

Several significant benefits make the operators favor this jurisdiction:

Tax incentives;
An EU country license;
Trust from the players;
Possibility to cooperate with the world banks and payment systems;
Perfect reputation;
The country is not an offshore zone;
Licensing of a large number of different games.

Types of Malta gambling licenses

Malta issues B2C licenses of the four following types:

Class 1 – casino games and lotteries with guaranteed prizes. The required authorized capital is 100,000 EUR.
Class 2 – fixed-odds games, betting, and cybersport betting. The required authorized capital is 100,000 EUR.
Class 3 – poker, betting pools, lotteries, bingo, lotto, peer-to-peer games, etc. The required authorized capital is 40,000 EUR.
Class 4 – skill games. The required authorized capital is 40,000 EUR.

Please, note that if a company opts for several types of games, the total amount of the authorized capital shall be accumulated up to 240,000 EUR.

Requirements and the procedure

Malta puts forward specific requirements for the company employees, such as:

1. 1 shareholder, either a physical or a legal body.

2. At least one resident director – an individual with relevant qualifications.

3. The company must open a physical Maltese office.

4. You will need to open at least two banking accounts before the license is issued:

operational account;
gamer account to deposit the funds of the players.
операционный банковский счет;

5. The company shall employ:

An MLRO resident who shall act as the Responsible Gaming and Key Compliance Officer, Network and Information Security Officer, and administer the risk management campaigns;
Data Protection Officer acting as a specialist in legal issues and financial strategies;
Internal auditor.

6. You must pay the monthly MGA fee for compliance with the regulations (calculated based on the accumulated income for a year):

Class 1 – 15,000 – 375,000 EUR;
Class 2 – 25,000 – 600,000 EUR;
Class 3 – 25,000 – 500,000 EUR;
Class 4 – 5,000 – 500,000 EUR.

7. Along with the application for a license, you must pay the state duty of 6,500 EUR and the yearly license fee after the issuance of the permit (from 10,000 EUR). You also must pass a systems audit and compliance audit at the application.

The license is issued according to the following procedure:

Registration of a legal entity in Malta and opening of the two accounts at one or several banks (one account is for the authorized capital, the other is for clients’ money).
Collection of the documents and information required by MGA, followed by the writing of the application and the submission of the package to the regulator.
Verification by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) of all the issues related to the management and financing of the company. Special attention is paid to the money laundering and possible financing of terrorism issues and whether anyone from the company may be involved in such activities. The reputation check also takes place through inquiries at law enforcement authorities.
A thorough examination of the applicant’s business plan. It must include a detailed operation description and forecast. This concerns marketing operations, strategy distribution, and forecasted growth of the company. The business plan must be drawn up for three years.
Detailed analysis of statutory documents. The regulator will check the business processes applied to the execution of online games, the rules, terms, conditions, and procedures. They will also look into the software architecture, gaming systems, and management systems. At this stage, the candidates pay the authorized capital the amount of which depends on the license class.
The applicant is notified of the positive outcome and they go through a systems audit. If any inconsistencies are detected at this stage, the company has 60 days to solve the issue.

The term of registering for a Malta license is about 12 months; the license is valid for 5-10 years.