MGA cancels Magic Service licence due to non-payment of fee

The MGA has ordered Magic Service Limited to halt all gaming operations and not accept new customers.

Malta.- The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has cancelled Magic Service Limited‘s Maltese gaming licence for non-payment of its annual licence fee.

The regulator has told the company to halt all gaming operations and not to accept new customers. Existing players must be allowed to access their accounts to withdraw funds.

Magic Services must also notify all players of the MGA’s cancellation of its licence and must pay MGA an outstanding licence renewal fee of €71,035.54.

The MGA had issued a Notice of Cancellation to the operator in May for an alleged failure to pay the annual licence fee, which put it in breach of Regulation 3 of the MGA’s Gaming Licence Fees Regulation.

It gave Magic Services 20 days to provide a reason for its failure to pay the fee, but the MGA said it received no explanation in the time given.

Magic Services must meet with the terms of its licence cancellation within seven working days, the MGA said.

Earlier this year, the MGA cancelled Smart Operations’ B2C gaming licence due to a breach of regulations. In the first half of 2020, it cancelled seven licences.

Malta put on FATF money laundering grey list

The country received a serious blow to its reputation last week after the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) placed Malta on its “grey list” of untrustworthy jurisdictions. 

Malta joins 19 other countries, which include Panama, Myanmar, Syria and Zimbabwe, on a list that has been shown by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cause investors to shy away, resulting in a significant fall in capital inflows.

There had been speculation that Malta might be able to escape a greylisting if it dropped its veto of an EU sports betting convention.

In March, the igaming operator association iGEN called for Malta to take “clear and decisive” action against any wrongdoing among officials and regulators in order to protect the Maltese igaming industry’s reputation.