Maltese online casinos for Real Money

Gambling has been legal in Malta since 1922 when the country first passed its Gambling Act. Several amendments have been made since then, but the general rules remain the same. Malta was one of the first countries to legalise online gambling, too, doing so way back in 2004.

Malta’s gambling law is divided into four types of betting – Type 1 consists of games of chance against the house, Type 2 involves games of skill against the house with elements of chance, Type 3 involves games of chance against other players, and Type 4 involves purely skill games.

Malta has four licensed land-based casinos, and virtually all forms of betting are legal in the EU member state. Can the Maltese gamble, though? The short answer is yes. Maltese players are invited into land-based gambling outlets, and they are welcome at any online casino that has an MGA license. Many UKGC-licensed sites also accept players from Malta, so Maltese players are spoilt for choice in terms of where and what they can play.

The important thing to remember here is that Malta’s population is considerably small. Therefore, MGA-licensed casinos wouldn’t be able to stay afloat if they relied solely on Maltese players. It is certainly understandable that Malta-licensed casinos cater to players based outside of the country. However, to even the playing field, Malta’s players can easily join offshore casinos, too. This isn’t what the Maltese gambling authorities want, but it is within EU law for Maltese players to do so.

All online casinos, land-based gambling enterprises and even many offshore casinos are regulated and licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority, or MGA. Licenses fall into two types – B2B and B2C. The former is a license for casino software providers, while the latter is a general online gambling license for operators of betting sites.

The Malta Gaming Authority is, by and large, a thoroughly well-run licensing and regulatory body, though. Online casinos operating with an MGA license and typically trusted on par with those with a UKCG license, and we have no reservations about recommending MGA-licensed betting sites to our readers. In fact, the UKGC values the transparency of MGA licenses so much that they are amongst those sites on a whitelist which can legally accept players from the UK.

Make no mistake about it, though – it is not easy to obtain an MGA license. Casinos that have obtained MGA licenses must maintain high standards to keep them. They must not overly promote gambling; they must have responsible gambling policies and tools and be affiliated with problem gambling programs. On top of this, they must feature RNG-certified games and be fair. The same rules apply to sportsbooks, casinos, poker sites, bingo rooms and any other form of online gambling site. More recently, the MGA has begun to license selected crypto casinos.

Anything and everything are fair game in Malta. Maltese bet on sports, casino games, table games, slots, video poker, instant win titles, lotteries, bingo, poker, and live dealer games. There isn’t one type of game that scores more highly than others, with most Maltese online casinos supporting thousands of games from dozens of top-tier software developers.

The MGA licenses most major casino software providers. Every company from iSoftBet to EveryMatrix, SoftSwiss, Playtech, NetEnt and more have obtained gambling licenses issued out of Malta. This helps as it ensures that all these casino software providers can technically offer their games to players at Maltese and Malta-licensed online casino sites.

In short, most players can have a stab at online casinos in Malta. Unlike other EU countries, these are not “national licenses” in the way that Belgian or Swedish licenses work. An MGA license can be awarded to any online casino operating anywhere in the world. There are strict requirements that must be met to claim one, but these sites can then offer their services to players in a broad array of countries.

Malta’s casinos are effectively globally trusted sites, and they are known to be playable in a wealth of languages, using scores of payment methods and different currencies. They are the definition of truly global casinos.