Malta Gaming Authority (MGA): What It Is & What It Demands

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is Malta’s single statutory gaming regulator. It licenses companies that offer games to players (B2C) and companies that supply the platforms and games behind them (B2B). It collects fees and gaming tax, supervises licensees every month of a ten-year licence, and suspends or cancels licences when operators fail. At the end of 2025 it supervised 311 licences held by 302 companies. The tax those licensees pay on Maltese players is 15% or 10% from 1 October 2026, depending on game type, and a flat 5% before that.

Most pages ranking for “Malta Gaming Authority” either come from the regulator itself or describe it in the abstract. This guide covers what the MGA actually requires of a licensee: the fees and how the compliance contribution is calculated, what you report and when, how enforcement works, how player complaints are resolved, and where the Article 56A dispute with the EU stands. It is written from the operator’s side. Across 300+ operators we’ve licensed end to end, the MGA is the regulator whose ongoing supervision costs are most often underestimated.

What is the Malta Gaming Authority?

“MGA” stands for Malta Gaming Authority. It is a public authority created by Maltese statute and the only body that licenses and regulates gaming in and from Malta. That covers online casinos and sportsbooks, land-based casinos and gaming parlours, the national lottery, and the B2B suppliers whose software runs the games.

It started in 2001, when the Lotteries and Other Games Act created the Lotteries and Gaming Authority. The authority rebranded as the Malta Gaming Authority in 2015. The current legal base is the Gaming Act (Chapter 583), together with a set of subsidiary regulations issued in 2018. These replaced the older class-based remote gaming licences with one simpler system: a licence to offer games and a licence to supply them, each covering whichever game types you actually run.

Who runs the MGA?

The Chief Executive Officer is Charles Mizzi, who succeeded Carl Brincat with effect from 26 January 2024. The MGA’s published Executive Committee also includes a Deputy CEO and Chief Operations Officer (Christopher Formosa), a Chief Officer – Regulatory, a Chief Officer – Policy, Research and Insights, a Chief Technology & Business Transformation Officer, a Chief Officer – Finance and a General Counsel. Names change, so check the MGA’s own Executive Committee page before you cite them.

Is the Malta Gaming Authority legit?

Yes. The more useful version of the question is whether a given site is legit. The MGA is a statutory regulator in an EU member state with real enforcement powers, which it uses. The risk is operators who claim an MGA licence they do not hold. Our MGA glossary entry explains the term, and the verification steps are further down this page.

Why are so many casinos registered in Malta, and why is gaming so big there?

There are three reasons. Malta built a licensing system for remote gaming inside an EU member state earlier than most of Europe. It kept that system predictable. And it built an ecosystem around it: lawyers, auditors, payment firms, key-function professionals and B2B suppliers all concentrated on one island. According to the MGA’s 2025 annual report, the gaming sector generated €1.42bn in gross value added, about 6.3% of Malta’s economy (8.2% including spillover effects). It employed 15,039 people in full-time equivalent roles. For an operator, the practical draw is banking and partner access: tier-1 PSPs and premium studios onboard MGA licensees readily. Our Malta gaming licence guide sets that value against the cost.

The MGA in numbers

Figures from the MGA’s 2025 Annual Report (published 7 July 2026), plus our weekly read of the public register:

Our own Malta licensee index tracks the public register weekly. In the 13 July 2026 snapshot, the 311 live entries split into 154 B2B, 109 B2C and 48 corporate-group licences. A corporate-group licence lets a group hold one licence across its entities. Type 1 (casino) appears on 279 of the 311, while only 8 carry Type 4 (controlled skill games). So suppliers now outnumber consumer-facing operators on the register. That matters if you are pitching B2B services into Malta: your competition is more crowded than your customer base.

What the MGA licenses

The Gaming Authorisations Regulations (S.L. 583.05) set out two licence categories. A Gaming Service licence is the B2C licence to offer games to players. A Critical Gaming Supply licence is the B2B licence to supply and manage the material elements of a game, or the software that generates and records regulatory data (in practice, the platform and the games). One company can hold both. Each licence lists the game types it covers:

The term is ten years, both for an original licence and for a renewal. Renewal depends on your compliance record over the previous term. The applicant must be a Maltese company with real substance in Malta; an offshore holding structure does not replace it. The regulations also list ten key functions that must each be held by a named, MGA-approved person. These cover the chief executive, gaming operations, legal and compliance, finance, marketing, player support, technology and information security, AML/CFT, risk and fraud, and internal audit. Our Malta gaming licence types guide maps products to types. The requirements checklist and the B2B supply licence guide cover the application file for each side.

What the MGA charges a licensee

The fee schedule is in the Gaming Licence Fees Regulations (S.L. 583.03). It has three layers: one-off administrative fees, a fixed annual fee, and, for B2C licensees, a compliance contribution calculated on revenue.

The compliance contribution is calculated on gaming revenue from the licensed game type, with no limit to Maltese players. The bands are marginal. For Type 1, the rate is 1.25% on the first €3m, 1.00% on the next €4.5m, 0.85% on the next €5m, then 0.70%, 0.55% and finally 0.40%. Type 2 starts much higher, at 4.00% on the first €3m and 3.00% on the next €4.5m. There is a floor and a cap per licence period: Type 1 €15,000–€375,000, Type 2 €25,000–€600,000, Type 3 €25,000–€500,000, Type 4 €5,000–€500,000. The minimum does not apply in the licence period in which you first receive the licence.

Here is a worked example. A Type 1 casino with €10m of gaming revenue pays €37,500 + €45,000 + €21,250 = €103,750 in compliance contribution, plus the €25,000 fixed fee. A Type 2 sportsbook with the same €10m pays €305,000. Sportsbooks often miss this difference when they compare regulators, and it frequently tips them toward a different licence mix. Our Malta cost breakdown adds share capital, substance and advisory costs.

Gaming tax: 15% or 10% from 1 October 2026 (5% before)

For most internationally facing licensees, the base is narrow. Gaming tax applies only to revenue from players in Malta, and B2B suppliers do not pay it. So for a business whose players are mostly abroad, the rate change affects cash flow far less than the compliance contribution does. It does change the numbers for anyone with a real Maltese customer base. Take a Type 1 operator with €500,000 of GGR from Maltese residents: its tax goes from €25,000 to €75,000 a year. Company profits are taxed separately under Malta’s corporate income tax system, and a parallel VAT amendment (L.N. 86 of 2026) takes effect on the same date. Plan both with a Maltese tax adviser.

Life as a licensee: what the MGA expects every month

The licence is where supervision starts. In practice, the MGA’s day-to-day demands come down to five things:

• Monthly returns. Compliance contribution and gaming tax are both paid monthly. Each payment goes in with a regulatory return before the 20th day of the following month. Late amounts carry interest.
• Approvals before changes. A new domain, a new game vertical, a major change to software or infrastructure, a new key-function holder, or a transfer of a qualifying shareholding all need the MGA’s prior approval, and each has its own fee.
• Audits and thematic reviews. Expect periodic compliance audits and topic-specific reviews: 15 full-scope audits and 109 thematic reviews in 2025.
• AML/CFT. B2C licensees are subject persons under Malta’s anti-money-laundering framework and are supervised on CDD, source-of-funds checks and reporting. The MLRO key function carries that personally.
• Player protection and ADR. Every B2C licensee needs a documented complaints procedure and an agreement with an ADR entity (more below).

Enforcement and sanctions

The Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations (S.L. 583.06) give the MGA a graded set of tools. It can order a licensee to do or stop something, issue warnings, add or amend licence conditions, impose administrative penalties for breaches that are not criminal offences, file a police report for offences under the Act, and suspend or cancel the licence. Enforcement normally follows a compliance review or formal investigation. In exceptional cases the MGA can act first, in the interest of players or to protect Malta’s reputation.

The rules on publication are more nuanced than most summaries suggest. Suspensions and cancellations must be made public. Other sanctions are published when the MGA decides it is in the public interest. The 2025 figures show the typical pattern: many cease-and-desist letters and warnings, 30 fines with an average of roughly €5,400, and a handful of licence suspensions and cancellations. In our experience, the failures that reach the top of that scale are rarely product problems. They are AML gaps, unapproved changes of control, and key-function roles that exist only on paper.

Player complaints and ADR

Under the MGA’s ADR Directive (Directive 5 of 2018), a player with a grievance first complains to the licensee. If the response does not satisfy them, they can take the complaint to the MGA’s Player Support Unit or to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entity. B2C licensees must publish both routes, contract an ADR entity, notify the MGA which one they use, and report referred disputes to the MGA every month. This explains why players leave MGA reviews on Trustpilot. The regulator is a visible escalation point, even though it does not rule on the merits of every dispute itself.

How to verify an MGA licence in two minutes

1. Open the MGA Licensee Register and search by company name, licence number (formatted like MGA/B2C/…/year) or URL.
2. Confirm that the status is active and that the licence category (B2C, B2B or corporate group) and game types match what the site offers.
3. Confirm that the exact domain is listed. A real company name next to an unlisted domain is a common trick.
4. Click the site’s MGA seal. A genuine seal is dynamic and resolves to the register entry. A static logo is a red flag.

We explain how to read each field in our Malta gaming licence check guide. You can also browse all live licences, with game types, in the Vantegris Malta licensee index.

Article 56A (“Bill 55”): where it stands

In June 2023, Malta added Article 56A to the Gaming Act through Bill 55. It requires Maltese courts, on public-policy grounds, to refuse to recognise or enforce foreign judgments against MGA licensees where the claim rests on the services being illegal in another member state but lawful under Maltese law. In practice, it targets player-refund lawsuits, such as those brought by Austrian players.

The EU is pushing back. The European Commission sent Malta a letter of formal notice in June 2025. The MGA’s position, stated on 18 June 2025, is that Article 56A codifies the existing ordre public exception and is not a blanket ban. On 23 April 2026, Advocate General Emiliou gave his opinion in Case C-683/24 (Spielerschutz Sigma). He found the reference inadmissible. He added that, if the Court does answer, a measure like Article 56A is “manifestly incompatible” with the Brussels I bis Regulation, and that a Maltese licence is in principle valid only in Malta and in states that choose to recognise it. The opinion does not bind the Court, and as of our September 2026 check the judgment was still pending.

For licensing decisions, the conclusion is the same whatever the Court rules: an MGA licence is not an EU passport. Serve only markets where you hold a licence or which have no local regime, and geoblock the rest. Do not price your risk on the assumption that Article 56A will hold.

What this means for your licensing decision

The MGA suits operators who need an EU-regulated home base: tier-1 banking and PSPs, premium content deals, B2B credibility, or an exit where a clean regulatory history adds value. It suits them less well if you need to go live next quarter on a lean budget with crypto payments. In that case, a faster offshore licence first, with Malta as the upgrade once the model works, is usually the answer. Our Anjouan vs Malta comparison and Isle of Man vs Malta comparison cover both trade-offs, and the licence finder narrows the field in two minutes.

We handle MGA applications end to end: game-type scoping, the Maltese company and key functions, the system review and the ongoing dialogue with the regulator. We will tell you if your stage points to another licence first. Start with our MGA licensing service for B2C and B2B applicants, or book a free consultation to find out whether the MGA fits your launch, and what the October 2026 tax change means for your numbers.

Iryna H.

Gaming Licensing at Vantegris

Iryna H. is part of the Vantegris team, which prepares and files licence applications across 40+ jurisdictions. This article was reviewed by Vladyslav S. (Compliance & Legal).

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This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional before acting.