Regulators Granting Gaming licenses
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)
Online casinos have been around since as early as the mid-1990s.
The tiny country of Malta, five times smaller than Greater London, saw an opportunity and in 2001 the Malta Gaming Authority was formed to regulate the various sectors of the gaming industry that fall under its authority. It was the first country in the world to regulate online gambling.
The effect of the creation of the MGA has been crucial to the country as a whole, the most important aspects of which have been some of the industry’s biggest names moving their Headquarters or subsidiary offices to the sunny island and many of them also being legally registered there, due to huge tax breaks.
Directly and indirectly, the industry now generates over 12% of the country’s GDP. KPMG noted that Malta hosts approximately 10% of the world’s online gambling operators. It’s also home to one of the most prestigious and best-attended online gaming industry events: the Summit of iGaming, Malta (SIGMA).
Arguably the main thing it does is granting licenses to operators, with their license generally considered one of the hardest to obtain and the most respected, with the possible exception of the UK one. Other duties and activities include:
• Promoting responsible gambling in a safe environment including protection of minors and vulnerable persons.
• Protecting player funds to ensure that money deposited into player accounts is secure and that operators have players’ funds available to be withdrawn at any time when customers choose to do so.
• Investigating complaints from players regarding licensees and dispute resolution.
• Ensuring games are fair in terms of the (genuine) randomness of all games of chance.
• Protection against corruption and crime such as money-laundering.
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Gambling Supervision Commission of Isle of Man
Experience goes a long way in all walks of life and it’s hard to argue there are many more experienced organisations in the world when it comes to all things gambling than the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. It’s been around since 1962.
Initially it wasn’t focused on internet gambling because that obviously didn’t exist till a good 30-odd years later. Instead, it first regulated gambling in its territory including betting offices, land casinos, land-based slots and lotteries.
But in the early 20th century it drafted the Online Gambling Regulation Act (2001), one of several documents outlining how it would regulate licensees applying for an Isle of Man Gambling License.
In 2009 it was one of the first organisations to issue a license for the running of a Live Dealer game, the recipient being Celton Manx, a company providing multiple e-gaming products.
In addition to the granting of gaming licenses, its responsibilities include:
• External testing of games- It doesn’t test the games itself but rather provides a list of the companies (see eCOGRA below) who are allowed to test them for randomness and approves the testing results when finalised.
• Monitoring Marketing activities- Making sure that promotions and other marketing activities are fair, transparent and compliant with the law and principles of fair gaming.
• Investigation of complaints- Anything from games crashing while being played, to withdrawal requests from players being refused, to players contesting that bets deemed losers should have been winners.
Other issuers of gaming licenses
The following regulators have all issued licenses to at least one (non GAMSTOP) casino on this website that we endorse.
• ARJEL (France)
• Kahnawake Gaming Commission (Canda/International)
• AAMS (Italy)
• Spanish Gaming Commission (Spain)
• Alderney Gambling Control Commission
• Curacao Internet Gambling Association (Curacao/International)
eCoGRA
Approved Testing Agency (ATA)
When discussing the Isle of Man gaming license above, we mentioned how the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission doesn’t test games themselves. Rather, it creates a finite list of companies who are allowed to do just that.
They (the Commission) then approve the testing results once they’ve been submitted.
And at the head of that list of testing companies is eCOGRA (eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance).
Any entrepreneur wishing to operate a business that involves offering games of chance needs an eCOGRA ISO/IEC 27001 Certification Service before it can do so. That certificate is therefore also a pre-requisite of getting a gaming license.
Those familiar with visiting online casinos and the industry as a whole will recognise eCOGRA’s distinctive certificate, normally at the bottom the page.
So, in this sense, it’s a regulator. As we say above, it’s not the only regulator for approving games of chance, it’s just the best-known and most respected one.
Established in 2003 and based in London, it does the extremely specialised job of testing games on behalf of operators, including online casinos, and the software providers who make those games.
This division of theirs is called their Approved Testing Agency (ATA).
Take a slot machine, for example. eCOGRA will test the game in its laboratories by spinning the reels thousands of times.
It will test whether the game crashes while being played and if so, how often. It will test that the bonus features are activated as frequently as they’re meant to over time. It will keep track of the amount of money won and lost in accordance with the game’s advertised Return to player (RTP) and so on.
Self Regulation Services (SRS)
In addition to this service, eCOGRA also offers Self Regulation Services (SRS), which means auditing casinos (as well as the likes of gambling affiliate websites) for evidence of fair gaming, player protection and responsible operator conduct.
These are all the things we’ve been talking about earlier in this article. They include:
• Responsible marketing.
• Commitment to customer satisfaction and an adequate Customer Service Department.
• Fighting criminal and fraudulent behaviour.
• Prevention of underage gaming.
• Protection of customer privacy.
• Customer payments made on time when requested.
