Malta Gaming Authority Reveals Ambitious Plans to Increase Player Safety

Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has recently revealed plans to implement a unified self-exclusion system for companies that have remote online gambling licensees in the country.

Recently, a similar self-exclusion system for land-based operators has been upgraded.

Taking Player Protection to a Whole New Level

All gaming operators licensed by the MGA are currently obliged to offer a self-exclusion system to the players, but this system is still not unified. Practically speaking, that means the self-excluded player from one operator, can still seek similar services from different operators.

MGA believes there is a serious gap in the player protection, so it will spend the next few weeks trying to find the appropriate technical solution. 

The new software would allow a player to be self-exclude across all gaming channels, land-based or remote ones.

Offering Necessary Tools for Responsible Gambling

Heathcliff Farrugia, Chief Executive Officer at MGA stated the protection of players was at the heart of the MGA’s regulatory agenda, and this project further underlined the resolve to ensure that players had the necessary tools to engage in gaming services responsibly.

He further emphasized that over the years the company had witnessed efforts from gaming operators to implement various responsible gaming measures, and thus they strongly believed that the unified self-exclusion system would be well received by the industry and consumers alike.

The Maltese gaming watchdog is also thinking about opening the system for subscription on a voluntary basis to operators licensed in other regions, making sure player’s data are well protected and in line with the GDPR.

Initially, this system will focus on companies that are active in Malta.

According to the latest news, the MGA could include Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in the quest to find the best technological solution to meet the intended objectives.

DLT’s technology is thought to have the necessary potential to provide an ideal platform for this system, due to its immutability and decentralization.

The MGA will most probably hold a public consultation on its plans, which will be followed by a call for requests for technical development and implementation of the self-exclusion system.