SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has sanctioned a €2.4 million penalty charge on Blackrock Media Limited for ‘operating gaming services through a Maltese legal entity without being in possession of the necessary authorisation’.
The penalty charge follows a joint investigation undertaken by the MGA and Malta’s Executive Police force, which uncovered that Blackrock Media had processed payments to and from players as part of gaming services which were not duly authorised.
Blackrock Media is a subsidiary brand of Netherlands based Blackrock Entertainment, which operates the Wild Sultan online casino brand under a Curaçao licence.
In its statement, the MGA confirms that Blackrock Media has paid its €2.4 million penalty charge. The fine represents the MGA first penalty of 2020, following a very busy 2019 for European regulators – with 15 fines issued according to industry compliance tracker GamblingIndustryFines.com
Closing its 2019 legislative agenda, MGA governance disclosed that it had suspended 11 operator licences and refused a further thirteen licence applications during the period of January-June 2019.
Strengthening its regulatory oversight, the MGA stated that its licence refusals had been sanctioned on the basis that individuals connected to the operators had been deemed unfit to operate an online gambling enterprise.
