Malta Changes Online Gambling Policies in Light of Recent Raids, Scandal

The Maltese Government will begin to embrace new policies pertaining to its lucrative online gambling sector following a series of arrests and controversies.

Malta last year requested an opinion from the European Court of Justice pertaining to the Manipulation of Sports Competitions but have now decided to take on a different approach. 

From Online-Casinos.org:

Malta has now removed its request for an opinion, choosing to go with a legislative process in the Council of Europe in an attempt to initiate change in the Convention. Malta’s Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness José Herrera commented on the direction of the Authority, “Given the developing circumstances, and after examining the legislative proposal, Malta considers that other solutions may be available to it and has decided that, at this stage, it is more appropriate to try to achieve an acceptable state of affairs for Malta through deeper dialogue at the European level, without however renouncing to any of Malta'’ rights and prerogatives,”

Malta has long been recognized as a leading licensing jurisdiction for some of Europes top online slots. 

Earlier this month, the island nation was forced to suspend the license of several Internet casino businesses after Italian authorities seized €2bn (£1.4bn, $2.2bn) of assets that belonged to the Italian Mafia.  A number of other Maltese-based Web casinos were shut down after operators were charged with fraud in the U.S.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com