Gambling license in Malta
A Maltese licence runs ten years and bills from the day it is issued. We classify your games against the four types, evidence the capital and name the key functions on time.
Licence term
Срок лицензии
ten years
десять лет
Application fee
Плата за заявку
5,000 euro
5 000 евро
Annual licence fee
Годовая пошлина
25,000 euro
25 000 евро
Go live within
Запуск в срок
90 days
90 дней
When you need a gambling license in Malta
Your game moved between types
The type sets the minimum share capital, the compliance contribution band and the floor under it. A feature that shifts the game from one type to another shifts all three.
You are established outside the Area
Nobody is eligible to hold a licence unless established in the European Economic Area. Where your group sits decides whether you can apply at all.
The licence is issued, nothing is live
Fees, the compliance contribution and gaming tax all run from the date of issue, and the window to go live is ninety days. An idle licence is not a free one.
Key functions are still unfilled
Three are named at application. The rest follow within six months of issue, and each person must hold a certificate of approval to carry the function.
You want the group licensed at once
A body corporate may apply for itself or for its corporate group. Where the group applies, every member is a licensee, jointly and severally.
What is required for a gambling license in Malta
Malta issues one licence for ten years and then charges you for the whole of it. That is the shape of the regime: a long authorisation, a short list of game types, and a stack of payments that keep running whether the site is busy or idle.
The other thing it asks for is people. Ten named roles count as key functions, each carried by someone the authority has approved, and that list is the part applicants underestimate.
The rest of our work on the island sits on the Malta page; forming the company itself is company registration in Malta. If Malta is still one option among several, that comparison lives on gambling licensing.
What you get
- Your product read against the four game types before anything is filed, because the type sets the capital and the contribution
- The eligibility question answered first: where the applicant is established, and whether the group or the company applies
- The key function map: who is named now, who within six months, and who needs a certificate of approval
- A payment calendar that starts on the day of issue rather than on the day you launch
The four game types
Type 1
Games of chance played against the house whose outcome a random generator decides: casino games, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, poker against the house, lotteries and virtual sports.
Type 2
Games of chance against the house decided by an outside event, where the operator manages its own risk through the odds it offers. Sports betting sits here.
Type 3
Games not played against the house, where the operator takes no gaming risk and earns a commission on the stakes or the prize: peer poker, bingo, betting exchange.
Type 4
Controlled skill games, classified as such by the authority. The lowest annual fee and the lowest contribution floor of the four sit here.
What you pay, and when
A one-time application fee of 5,000 euro, non-refundable, makes the application complete. The annual licence fee is 25,000 euro for a consumer-facing licence, or 10,000 euro where the operator provides only Type 4 services. A business-to-business licence is 25,000 euro for the first year and priced on annual revenue after it: 25,000 up to five million, 30,000 up to ten million, 35,000 above. On top, a compliance contribution is calculated monthly on gaming revenue and paid before the twentieth day of the following month, with a floor and a ceiling for each type. Gaming revenue from players physically present in Malta carries gaming tax at five per cent.
Capital, and the ten key functions
Minimum issued and paid-up share capital is 100,000 euro for Types 1 and 2 and 40,000 euro for Types 3 and 4. The key functions are chief executive, gaming operations, legal and compliance, finance, marketing and advertising, player support, technology and the control system, prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, risk and fraud, and internal audit. Holders need not be employees, but they do need full access to the licensee's systems and a certificate of approval for the role.
Sources: the ten-year term, eligibility in the Area, the game types and the key functions — the Gaming Authorisations Regulations; fees, contribution bands and share capital — the authority's note on licence fees and taxation; the ninety days to go live — its published answers.
Stages of work
Classifying the product — 3–5 working days
What is wagered, what converts back into money, and which of the four types each of your games falls into. The authority has full discretion where a game shows features of more than one type, so the argument for the classification is written down now rather than defended later.
Eligibility and the applicant
Where the applicant is established, and whether the licence is sought for one company or for the corporate group. Both answers change the file, and the second changes who carries the obligations afterwards.
Assembling the application
The prescribed forms, the information and assurances the authority requires for the category and the game types, the share capital evidenced, and the first key functions named: chief executive, legal and compliance, and where relevant the technology role.
Filing, the fee and the decision
The application fee of 5,000 euro is paid, the file goes in through the authority's portal, and its progress is followed there. The annual licence fee falls due before the licence is issued.
The first year after issue
Ninety days to go live, with a declaration of go-live filed at least two days before the date it names. The remaining key functions within six months. Compliance contribution monthly from the month after the licence period starts, and audited statements and agreed procedures on the authority's calendar.
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