With a steady stream of visitors coming to visit the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) in Malta, following Malta’s highly successful stand at the main e-gaming trade fair in London last January, Chief executive officer Reuben Portanier, appointed only 7 weeks ago, said in an interview with Vanessa MacDonald of di-ve.com, that Malta flew the flag (for e-gaming) and its presence was reassuring proof of its growing market share.
There are 320 current e-gaming licences in Malta, with a slightly lower number of operators, as some may have more than one licence. Malta’s strategy has been to build up a solid regulatory and fiscal framework that would attract the top players in the market – believing that once the big names went there, many smaller ones would follow. E-gaming currently generates EUR15.5m in tax revenue while the LGA has revenue in excess of EUR45m. Its direct share of GDP is estimated to be around 1%.
“We opted to be a well-regulated environment with a steady income rather than a gaming haven, because the latter is very volatile. As it is, we have created an economic sector which is high value-added and which is creating jobs,” Portanier said. “And it is also one which has sufficient safeguards for society and for the economy.” E-gaming currently employs around 2,500 directly, many of whom are EU citizens as the operators offer a full customer support service in 24 languages. Mr Portanier estimates that the sector generates a further 3,000 jobs through legal and financial services, real estate, hospitality and even schools.
Individual EU countries are facing considerable pressure from the European Commission to relax their monopolistic hold on access to e-gaming sites. A number of countries actually face infringement procedures because restrictions on access to foreign sites contravene the principles of freedom of establishment and freedom of services. France has promised to liberalize its e-gaming access policy on January 1, 2010. Malta strongly believes that restrictions only serve to drive activity underground while opening up the market would increase competition to the benefit of all operators. The experience garnered over the past few years would place Malta in the ideal position to act as a hub for the passporting of cross-border licences.
A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining the new possibilities that offshore e-commerce open up for business, and analysing the offshore jurisdictions that have led the way in offering professional e-commerce regimes for international business, with a particular focus on e-gaming, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report6.asp
Network Tweets Archive
| Resources | Partners
| Site Map | Links
| Newsletter
Archive | Contact
| RSS Feeds
About | Syndication |
Advertising & Marketing |
Recruitment |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
All content provided by BSI Media
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment