Malta Gaming Authority Revokes ASAP Italia's Gaming License, Orders to Cease Operations

Operator ASAP Italia had its Maltese iGaming license canceled by the country’s regulator, Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). They have been ordered to immediately cease all skill-based gaming operations and activities on their territory as a result.

The order came on June 17th with the operator instructed to put up a notice on their website that will inform their s on this development. The decision applies to sites operated under and associated with ASAP Italia’s Maltese license.

Players Should React Immediately

All the players who were active on ASAP Italia websites…

…are advised to the MGA and relay their name, address, telephone number, date of birth, port or ID card copy, casino name, a description of product/service in question and screenshots of any balance or cashouts they may have on those sites.

The MGA remarked that they won’t be releasing any other info on this process at this point, so as not to jeopardize the integrity of the investigation that needs to be performed by the regulator or other authorities.

This comes only a week after the MGA revoked With Me Luck’s license. Likewise, in February, the operator suspended Bet Service Group, World-of-bets.eu and Betixx.

Unified Self-Exclusion

In late March, Malta’s regulator officially announced the beginning of preliminary market consultation necessary for gathering opinions regarding plans to launch a unified self-exclusion system.

The proposed mechanism, basically, allows players to limit or block their access to licensed operators on the island. That means, players will no longer have to exclude themselves from every site separately, but they will have one single database that will bar them from playing on any casino.

The system, according to officials, may be expanded so that it includes operators that are not licensed in Malta.

Union With Sweden

A one-of-a-kind agreement was reached with Swedish regulator, Spelinspektionen, in March this year…

…when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in order to boost and enhance the level of cooperation between the two bodies. The key objective of this Memorandum is to make the communication between parties easier and more effective, but also to establish a framework for sharing crucial information.

Regulators will be obliged to provide the best possible operational assistance to one another in order for the culture of regulation to grow.

Camilla Rosenberg of the Swedish authorities, said:

“By opening the communication channels between the authorities we become stronger in our supervisory activities This is the beginning of a broad and long-term cooperation, and our plan is to initiate corresponding collaborations with more gambling authorities in Europe.”

MGA’s CEO, Heathcliff Farrugia, added:

“This MoU, signed with the Swedish Gambling Authority, is an important step towards achieving both our respective regulatory goals in vital areas of mutual interest, especially since the MGA and the Swedish Gambling Authority share a significant number of operators licensed by both regulators. We are eager to start this mutually beneficial journey with our Swedish counterpart.”

Source:

“Malta regulator cancels ASAP Italia’s licence”, igamingbusiness.com, June 17, 2019.