Gaming turns €1.1 billion to Malta’s economy

According to the MGA, the gaming segment contributed over €1.1 billion to the Maltese economy in 2017.

Malta.- The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) released its 2017 annual report on Monday and revealed that the gaming industry contributed over €1.1 billion to the local economy. The amount was €100 million higher than in 2016, while the governing body collected €59.1 million in gaming tax revenue, €2.8 million higher than 2016’s total, even as remote gaming tax fell three per cent to €26.5 per cent.

Gaming was the fourth-highest producing sector in the country as it accounted for 11.3 per cent of its overall economy. According to the MGA, it will play an even larger role in the future – its licensees expect to see an 8-13 per cent yearly increase on their local expenditure over the next two years, as employment is set to jump by 10 per cent.

By the end of last year, there were 287 gaming operators on the MGA’s books – 28 more than in 2016 – while the total number of remote gambling licences issued jumped from 112 to 625. Furthermore, gaming jobs saw an increase from just 480 to 6,6731, all of which are full-time jobs, while the casino industry contributed with its 14 per cent revenue increase last year, even as visits were flat from 2016 at 910,000.

Regarding its proposed “sandbox test” of cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology, the MGA said it will “during 2018, be issuing a set of criteria for public consultation, for the establishment of a sandboxed (test and learn) live environment for cryptocurrency adoption within the online gaming sector, whilst also drafting guiding principles for the application of DLT and its various adaptations within the industry.”