MGA suspends two companies’ gaming licences
The Malta Gaming Authority said the suspensions apply with immediate effect.
Malta.- The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has announced that it has suspended two companies’ Maltese gambling licences. The companies affected are SFJL Holding Limited and Green Feather Online.
The MGA said it suspended SFJL Holding Limited’s Type 2 Gaming Services licence on August 3 due to several breaches of Malta’s Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations. The regulator said that SFJL had breached regulations 9(1)(c), (k) and (j).
The first of these relates to failure to comply with obligations under a regulatory instrument or other applicable law. Section 9(1)(k) requires licensees to seek the MGA’s approval regarding certain material changes to their business, while Section 9(1)(j) relates to situations in which the MGA would not have granted an authorisation had it been aware of certain circumstances.
The MGA did not provide more details or highlight specific causes of the breaches, nor whether SFJL is working to amend the breaches. The company must not conduct gambling operations under its MGA licence during the suspension and has the right to appeal.
Meanwhile, the MGA has suspended Green Feather’s B2C Gaming Service Licence, under which the operator was running Bcasino.com, Bcasino.in, Boocasino.com, Boocasino.co, Galacticwins.com and Mrfortune.com.
The MGA said that Green Feather had breached sections of the Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations related to the submission of financial information. It mentioned breaches of Articles 41(1) and 41(2)(a) of the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive.
The former section requires licensees to submit management accounts for the first six months of the financial year by the end of the eighth month. The latter requires the submission of audited financial statements within 180 days of the end of the financial year.
The MGA said Green Feather must retain all customer information and refund credit to players. The operator has the right to appeal.
The latest rulings come a week after the MGA cancelled the B2C gaming service licence of EGMIT Elite Limited. The regulator ordered the operator to halt MGA-licensed operations and remove all mention of the MGA at its Elite24bet site.
The Maltese regulator said that the breaches were of such gravity that it has filed a police report on the operator and has begun liquidation proceedings. It says EGMIT Elite had breached a number of Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations, specifically in sub-sections (b), (c), (d), (i), (l) and (m) of regulation 9 (1).
