The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) defended controversial Bill 55 following criticism the amendment is not compatible with European law.
The MGA said Bill 55, also known as Article 56A of Malta’s Gaming Act, does not go against European law. The legislation protects Malta-licensed operators from legal liability resulting from their gambling activities, when the activity is covered under their MGA licence.
This follows yesterday’s (24 August) news the German gambling regulator said the law conflicts with the Brussels Recast Regulation, which governs how legal judgements are settled between EU members.
In response to this, the MGA pointed to the section in the Recast Regulation which says a member state may refuse to recognise a legal judgement if does not match with the principles of its legal system.
As such, the regulator said the lawmakers’ intention when writing the law was not to build any new exceptions to the regulation. Instead, it was to “enshrine into law the long-standing public policy of Malta in relation to the gaming sector”.
To support the law, the MGA also said the scope of Bill 55 is “highly restrictive”. It added the law does not stop every legal action taken against a Malta-licensed gambling operator, highlighting the law sets out specific conditions for it to do so.
The regulator outlined an operator could only be protected from a suit when its gambling activities are legal according to the country’s Gaming Act. It added the lawsuit would need to conflict with or undermine the legality of the Malta gaming framework for Bill 55 to take effect.
