A half year report was issued today by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) that is responsible for the licensing of several top online casinos that serve the UK and European gambling markets which include a number of Microgaming casinos such as Roxy Palace Online Casino.
Several interesting trends that were seen in the first half of this year was noted by the MGA. According to the interim report, employment within the country’s gaming industry increased by 31% from January to June 2016.
Malta’s gaming sector currently employs over 6,150 people, contributing greatly to Malta’s economy. Twelve per cent of the island-state’s total economic value is contributed by the gambling industry.
The MGA has predicted that the gaming sector will continue to perform strongly and that the year 2017 will be a very prosperous year.
A full gaming report will be issued by the MGA in May next year with regard to the whole of 2016.
According to the report, nearly 500 gaming licenses have been issued by the authority and approximately 257 gaming companies are currently operating in Malta. In the first six months of 2014 there were 414 licenses issued.
An amount of €28 million in tax revenues from the gaming sector was generated which was 4.6% of the government’s total indirect tax intake.
Despite the fact that the number of visitors to land casinos showed an increase of 12.2%, gamblers spent 11% less during their visits and gaming revenue dropped by 22% per visit.
Meanwhile, the number of active accounts in the remote gaming sector climbed by an average of 31% over a 12 month period.
