Best Online Casinos Malta

An MGA casino is an online casino which is in the possession of a valid gambling license issued by the Malta Gaming Authority. The Malta Gaming Authority is the strictest regulatory body globally, so you can rest assured that an MGA casino adheres to the most strict rules possible when it comes to online casino games. You don’t have to be afraid that you will be playing rigged games or not receive your winnings as these online casinos definitely do not want to lose their MGA gaming license.

New Online Casinos with Malta License

Most experienced casino players tend to play at new online casinos with Malta license. The main for this is that new online casinos often offer better bonuses, have bigger selections of games, accept more payment methods, and more complex, fun, and rewarding VIP and loyalty programs. Some of our top-rated new online casinos with Malta license include Tsars Casino, Hot.bet, and Playzee.

Features of Online Casinos Malta

Online casinos with a valid license in place issued by the Malta Gaming Authority offer great player protection, guarantee safety and reliability, provide excellent customer service, have fair bonus terms and wagering requirements, and often have great game selections. Below, our experts will highlight all of these features in great detail.

Advantages of Playing at Malta Online Casinos

You might wonder what the advantages of playing at Malta online casinos or gambling sites with Maltese licenses are. It might be the case that they have perfectly fine, regulated, and licensed online casinos in your country of residence. However, have you ever taken the time to compare the game selections of local casinos with Maltese casinos? What about the available payment methods? Let us tell you one thing: the best online casinos are Maltese ones. Below, our casino experts will explain to you why online casinos with a valid Malta license are the best ones you can play at in more detail.

The Regulation of Online Casinos in Malta

Before an online casino can be regulated in Malta, it must posses the following qualities or have planned to do the following things:

• The casino must be ready to conduct a gaming business, taking into account all the financial and security risks of today’s day and age.
• It must be correctly prepared by having a working and plausible business strategy perspective.
• It must meet the operational and statutory requirements to meet the obligations as set forth by law and policies.
• It has been thoroughly reviewed and has correctly implemented all requirements in a virtual environment before its official opening.

Every applicant must show the required incorporation documents, games to be offered, follow the correct business processes, rules, terms, conditions, policies, and procedures as set out by the Malta Gaming Authority. Additionally, all technical documentation of used gaming systems must be thoroughly examined and evaluated. Added to this, licensees are also required to issue a certain amount of shares and paid-up capital per share, depending on their required type or types of casino licenses.

For Type 1 and Type 2 licenses, €100,000 in paid-up share capital must be deposited as financial stability requirement. For Type 3 and 4 licenses, €40,000 in paid-up share capital is sufficient to start an online casino or gambling platform with a Malta license.

First Stage of License Issuing: Review of the Applicant

When a soon-to-be casino operator has submitted its license application to the MGA, an assessment will be conducted. During this assessment, all documents regarding financing, managing, and technical specifications of the games offered will be taken a look at. When foreign companies wish to apply for a Malta casino license, the MGA will partner up with national and international regulatory bodies to gauge the capability and legitimacy of the casino operator applying for the license.

Second Stage of License Issuing: Business Plan Analysis

Once the applicant has been thoroughly reviewed, the business plan of the soon-to-be casino operator will be analyzed. This business plan should include operational and financial forecasts, such as marketing and distribution strategies, as well as protocols for when a player hits a big jackpot.

Third Stage of License Issuing: Operational and Statutory Requirements Check

Once the business plan has been thoroughly analyzed, the MGA will take a look if the license is meeting the minimum issued and paid-up share capital requirements (€100,000 for Type 1 and 2 and €40,000 for Type 3 and 4).

Fourth Stage of License Issuing: System Review

After the first three stages of license issuing, the MGA will ask the soon-to-be casino operator to provide documentation of the technical environment. The casino operator will now have 60 days to appoint a service provider approved by the MGA to carry out an extensive system audit. If the 60-day deadline isn’t met, the application is canceled and the operator must reapply for its license.

Fifth and Final Stage of License Issuing: Compliance Review

After receiving the notice, casino operator licensees have 90 days to undergo a series of compliance audits. Usually, this compliance audit is conducted after the first year of operation. If the licensee or casino operator doesn’t adhere to the compliance audit, it may face a suspension or termination of its already granted licenses.

How does the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) Operate?

Malta is officially part of the European Union. This means that every player should be protected according to European law when it comes to online gambling. The Malta Gaming Authority isn’t only the regulatory body of the gambling industry in Europe, but it also has the task to keep an eye out on all the players and games offered to them. Some countries are even so jealous at the immense power the Malta Gaming Authority has that they have decided to form their own local regulatory bodies, which often copy a lot of regulatory rules from the MGA. One of the questions you might have at this point is: ‘’how does the Malta Gaming Authority operate?’’

Allow our casino experts to explain. Basically the Malta Gaming Authority does three main things: it does extensive due diligence and research on online casinos before granting them a license, it conducts financial background checks and checks the finances of online casinos with an MGA license regularly, and it oversees all the games being offered by these online casinos to their players.

Extensive Due Diligence

Not a single online casino gets an MGA license just like that. First, they have to meet strict requirements and guidelines set out by the MGA. Then there are also financial requirements the casino operator must meet before being allowed to open its virtual doors to players. For instance, there must be enough cash at hand to be able to pay out winning players. Additionally, there must be enough liquidity to be able to process withdrawal requests in a timely manner when players ask for this or when they hit a big jackpot. So, before an online casino gets a Malta license, it will have to show that it can meet these financial obligations. Additionally, the to-be-licensed casino needs to prove that it will only offer provably fair games of chance that meet the strict requirements set out by the Malta Gaming Authority in this regard.

Financial Samples

Once an online casino has obtained an MGA license, the Malta Gaming Authority will continue conducting financial checks from time to time. There are certain rules set in place for this. For instance, online casinos based in Malta have to share their financial statements every six months. They really do have to show that they are financially stable enough to keep running their online casinos and/or gambling sites.

Random checks are carried out as well. This means that employees at the Malta Gaming Authority regularly create online casino accounts to play at the gambling sites to test if everything is in order and as stated in the MGA guidelines. They also check regularly whether the games offered are provably fair. This is done through so-called mystery gamblers, just like you would have mystery shoppers in physical stores. Based on that these mystery gamblers observe, the Malta Gaming Authority can conclude whether the online casino in question is operating as it should or if it is breaking any laws or guidelines.

Games Must Also be Licensed

A Malta gaming license isn’t easily issued to any online casino. First of all, the casino must be based in Malta. Added to this, not only must the website have an MGA license, but every single game as well. This is all being checked during random checks conducted by the MGA. This means that even casino software providers must hold MGA licenses and the Malta Gaming Authority has, again, set out strict rules and guidelines when it comes to the development and marketing of online games of chance in different categories. The software providers and gaming studios are checked upon regularly to see if they all operate within the rules set out by the MGA. Talking about casino games and categories, let’s take a look at the 4 different classes of Malta casino licenses in the section below.

Malta Online Casino Licenses

According to Maltese law,’’no person shall provide or carry out a gaming service or provide a critical gaming supply from Malta or to any person in Malta, or through a Maltese legal entity, except when in possession of a valid license, or when such person is exempt from the requirement of a license under the Act or any other regulatory instrument.’’

As such, there is basically a difference between two main things: a Malta Gaming Service License, which is when a business wants to offer a gaming service to consumers, and a Malta Criticall Gaming Supply License, which is a business to business type of license, where one company provides or carries out a critical gaming supply.

In general, there are 4 types of gaming licenses that can be issued in Malta by the Malta Gaming Authority, classified as Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4. In the section below, our experts will shed light on the differences and attributes of these casino licenses.

Type 1

Under a Type 1 license fall games that are played against the house. So this entails players playing against the casino by placing bets on or playing hands of Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat. Although it might sound weird, e-sportsbetting is also classified as Type 1.

Type 2

The second type of casino license, the Type 2 one, is required when an online casino or gambling operator wants to offer games of chance that are played by players against the house of which the outcome is determined by an event or competition separate from the game of chance itself. Examples of things that require a Type 2 license are fixed odds betting and pool betting.

Type 3

When certain games of chance or not played against the house or casino operator, but by players against each other, and the operator generates profits and revenues by introducing a commission or is charging the players certain fees based on their bets or wagers, these games require a Type 3 gambling license from the Malta Gaming Authority. These games include so-called peer-to-peer games like poker and bingo.

Type 4

All controlled skill games, where players can ‘’get better’’ in are classified under type 4. Fantasy sports are a great example of games of chance that require a Type 4 license issued by the MGA before being allowed to be offered by casino operators. For some reason, e-sports do not fall under this category.

It can be the case that a casino operator must apply for several licenses. Once they obtain any of these licenses, they are valid for a ten year period. After these ten years, they must be reevaluated again. Some games do not require a license at all, including games of skill which does not require a stake or grants returns in the form of prizes, a game which has a prize but is not known to be a controlled skill game, games of chance that doesn’t require a stake to participate and where there is no possibility of winning a prize, so-called ‘’mini-games’’,  licensed games that already have other forms of gambling licenses that are offered on board any vessel that wants to fly under the flag of Malta or is registered in Malta.