Parliamentary Secretary for competitiveness and economic growth Jose Herrera has recently described Malta as being a "giant amongst remote gaming jurisdictions." This comes as no surprise as Malta is a well-recognised European centre for the online gambling industry. In not much more than a decade, remote gaming has witnessed a remarkable rise to become Malta's largest economic sector behind tourism.
The Parliamentary Secretary said this during a recent press conference held by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) where the LGA announced positive interim results for the first six months of this year.
The LGA's Executive Chairman Joseph Cuschieri, disclosed that that the number of licences issued this year had in fact increased by 25%. The number of registered companies has also gone up 17% since last year. This also resulted in total revenue from the gaming sector to increase by 1.3%. Additionally, the license processing time has been reduced by 50% as now one was to expect the granting of the licence to take two and a half months.
The authority expressed its satisfaction to date in as far as
financial and regulatory performance. Mr Cuschieri said that Malta
is a major player in the global remote gaming industry and its
solid reputation was instrumental for its growth. He stressed on
the fact that innovation was key in terms of maintaining the
country's competitive edge over that of other remote gaming
jurisdictions. He continued by saying that gaming in Malta
was a major contributor to government revenue and had in fact
surpassed what financial services contributed to the Maltese
economy.
The Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera added that he wanted
Malta to become an "Electro-digital hub". The remote gaming
industry contributes 10-12% of local GDP, second only to
tourism. In addition, he said that – as regulators, one must
do one's utmost from the political aspect to maintain the
current digital edge. He also announced that the government will be
announcing a package of measures to combat the tussle with the EU
over VAT in the coming days. He also said that "there is no
other country in Europe that has a sector this successful in
terms of GDP.
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