In this morning’s episode of The Boardroom, which aired on WhosWho.mt’s Facebook page, Malta Gaming Authority Chief Executive Officer, Heathcliff Farrugia, declared that he did not want to contemplate a Plan B should Malta be greylisted by MONEYVAL, stressing that rigorous work has been carried out to pass all upcoming assessments.

Today’s episode of The Boardroom focused on the iGaming sector, with Mr Farrugia delving into the major issues impacting the industry today.

Malta has until October to address anti-money laundering shortcomings or face becoming the first EU member to be greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, while MONEYVAL is an associate member. 20 Council of Europe member states are evaluated by the FATF, while 27 Council of Europe member states are members of MONEYVAL.

Asked by presenter and business-writer Jo Caruana about what the plan is should Malta be greylisted, Mr Farrugia said:

“I hope it won’t happen and I don’t want to think about a Plan B. It would be really bad for the country and it would be extremely bad for the gaming industry…keeping in mind that we have a number of listed gaming companies in Malta.

“Ultimately Malta is the place for iGaming and there is no other hub in Europe that is comparable. To have the main hub for the iGaming industry based in a grey listed country is something nobody is hoping for.”

Elaborating on the efforts undertaken to stave off the grey-listing, Mr Farrugia shared that he is part of the National Coordinating Committee aimed at implementing the recommendations made by MONEYVAL in order to have Malta up to code.

“If you look at what the country has been doing from when we got the original assessment till today, I can tell you a lot has been done.

“The vast majority of the recommendations have been either totally completed or are nearing completion.

“There are a couple of pain points which still need to be addressed. We have the remaining three -three and a half months to show concrete action on these areas.

“If we manage to show concrete improvement in these areas coupled with the majority of recommendations being concluded I think we have a good chance of passing the assessment.

“For the time being I don’t want to think about a Plan B as I am so focused for the country to pass through this assessment and avoid this grey listing,” he said.

Turning to the impact of COVID on the sector, and the kind of support the MGA offered, Mr Farrugia explained that there were two main requests for support.

There were the land-based operators, such as casinos, that had to close their doors to all customers as Malta’s economy was being shut down to stop the spread of the virus. He explained that such operators were eligible for the COVID wage supplement, tax deferrels and other support.

For the iGaming operators, he explained, there were those who’s main or only source of revenue is sports betting. Such operators were hit hard as sporting events around the world first became cancelled and then major leagues became postponed to next year.

Mr Farrugia those operators received a tax deferral benefit which he said was greatly appreciated. Other iGaming operators had a more diversified portfolio of product lines, so while sports betting had dried up for them, a surge in online casino and other only betting services partially made up for the losses.