Malta To Withdraw EU Sports Betting Veto

Malta have a dilemma on having to withdraw its veto rights on EU Sports Betting in order for it to be able to pass the Financial Action Task Force’s Moneyval test which would allow it to stay on the trusted financial jurisdictions and not moved to “untrustworthy”.

The country has a veto on sports betting with the EU and has used to oppose the definition “illegal sports betting” which states that each member state can demand a separate license for operators as opposed to using the singular license issued by the Maltese Gambling Authority.

A senior government official in Malta said: “We will probably have to bow our head and just get on with it.”

The Moneyval test determines if a region passes a money-laundering review, having Malta fail that test would mean it would be considered a less than preferred jurisdiction for online gambling. That would endanger the huge amounts gained in taxes for Malta that has a large gambling hub on the island.

Since 2014, Malta has contested a definition in the Convention which could affect its lucrative gambling revenues. Malta has objected to the definition of “illegal sports betting” because the article in question will make illegal any sports betting activity in one state, if the applicable law of the jurisdiction of the consumer of the betting service considers it to be so.

This allows Malta to offer a single license to operators to permit them working in each of the legalised EU states without applying individually.

Segments courtesy of Malta Today