The online gaming sector (iGaming) has undoubtedly blossomed over the last few years. With the country managing to attract some of the leading names the in the industry. Legislation and company formation procedures have improved and evolved to accommodate this lucrative industry.

This has created a niche in the worldwide iGaming industry. This niche has now turned into a sizable percentage of the world market.

The iGaming industry is one of the backbones of the economy along with financial services, shipping & logistics, manufacturing, real estate and construction and of course retail and hospitality. Consequently, substantial employment opportunities are arising with Malta now a fully fledged center of iGaming.

Along with the online casinos themselves, there are also a number of related sub categories such as; Software development, production of online casino slot games, payments processing to mention just a few.

Malta’s reputation as a solid jurisdiction to set up an iGaming company is attracting new as well as established companies in the field of iGaming. This means the demand for services to set up this particular type of company structure is on the increase.

It was back in the 1990s, that the government of the islands of Antigua and Barbuda; the very first country to pass a Free Trade and Processing Zone Act in 1994. Ten years down the line, in 2004, Malta had just joined the European Union and everything changed in the iGaming industry, to Malta’s advantage it has to be said.

The proof is in the pudding, and the facts and official figures do not lie. Suffice to say that the iGaming sector has netted the government of Malta considerable tax income, created thousands of jobs for Maltese and foreign nationals. Furthermore, it had contributed considerably to the country’s GDP.

To take the latest official figures available; in 2016, the iGaming was responsible for contributing 12% to Malta’s GDP with an increase of 11.9% over 2015. Some research with the Malta Gaming Authority reveals the majority of this is due to in service offerings by various firms along with new investments. These would include relocation of these companies to Malta. Employment in the iGaming sector increased by an impressive 33% over 2015. There are in excess of 6200 jobs registered within the iGaming sector at the time of writing. The Remote Gaming sector registered the highest increase. During the first half of 2016, the government of Malta collected €28 million in tax revenues which represented 4.6% of the total, indirect tax earned by the Government of Malta within the same period.

We can expect continued growth during 2017 and beyond based on figures released to date. Since there was also a notable increase in new licenses using B2B services. These increased by more than 10% compared to last year, reaching 300 licences this year. On the number of Remote Gaming licences issued up till June 2016 reached 490 representing an increase of 16 licences over the same period in 2015. Although Three was a minimal decrease in the amount of new companies incorporated, this is down to the fact that there have been a number of mergers and acquisitions within the industry along with consolidation of operations.

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