MGA warns public over four unlicensed gambling sites using its name
The Malta Gambling Authority has taken the measure of naming four specific sites.
Malta.- The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has taken steps to warn the public about four online gambling websites that it says are operating without a licence. It says the sites either falsely claim to have an MGA gambling licence or use the MGA’s logo in a misleading way.
Two of the sites are run by Debet, a Vietnamese company that sponsors the English Premier League football team Wolverhampton Wanderers. Debet.moi and debet.bot were found to be displaying the logo of the MGA at the bottom of their websites despite having no Maltese licence or any connection to the Maltese gambling regulator.
The other two websites shamed by the regulator are vavadahades.com and fortwinbam.com. These claim to operate under an MGA licence granted to Genesis Global Limited, but the MGA suspended Genesis Global’s licence way back in 2023. The company was declared bankrupt after laying off 140 staff in Malta and was ordered to remove references to the MGA from its 23 gaming websites.
The company had left the British gambling market the previous year six months after receiving a £3.8m fine from the Gambling Commission due to social responsibility and money laundering failings.
The Maltese regulator stressed that it had “no connection” with any of the four websites named and that any reference to the MGA was “false and misleading”. It reminded the public not to use operators without checking that they are licensed via the MGA website
“The activities of unlicensed entities are unregulated and do not provide the necessary safeguards… making transactions with such entities risky for consumers,” it said.
The last MGA annual report shows that the regulator received 24 applications for new gaming licences in 2023, a drop from 41 applications in 2022. It issued 15, while 13 applications were rejected or withdrawn. It issued 28 warnings to gaming licensees. It suspended nine licences and cancelled 11. It also issued 19 administrative penalties and one regulatory settlement, which together totalled €172,900 in fines.
Meanwhile, 14 online gambling operators have achieved the MGA’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting standard since its launch. The ESG Code Approval Seals were launched as part of the Maltese regulator’s voluntary ESG Code of Good Practice, which was published in July 2023.
