The destruction of the amusement industry in Malta has been brought about by politics and, effectively, 'throwing the baby out with the bath water', as the saying goes.
The island country now has perhaps 400 amusement machines, down from a peak five years ago of 2,500, and a hotch-potch of regulation, which effectively stifles any hope of revitalising the industry. A rush to kill off the growth in gambling machines two years ago led to the closure of everything - including amusements.
Ivan Camilleri, whose Camilmac Holdings included the island's biggest FEC, the Jokers outlet in Paceville, the tourist and entertainment area not far from the capital, Valletta, closed the location down in May because it simply couldn't pay. Now the island has just two small arcades still in operation, Fun City and Funland, each with about 20 games.
Malta has even banned ticket redemption games, one of the very few countries in the world which fails to see ticket redemption as harmless family fun.
Camilleri told InterGame: "The licensing structure here is now too cumbersome and the taxation element too high to enable the industry to exist. The authorities here have decided that an 'amusement machine' is a video game, even though most of them are not these days. So you have to have a Class I licence to operate each machine and pay €1,000 a year in tax. If you rotate a game into another location you have to pay it all over again.
"We had 175 machines in Jokers, in 1,500sq.m of space, but without redemption games and with high taxation, it could not make sense. But in the days when we were allowed redemption, we issued over 10 million tickets in a year, which shows how popular it was."
The politician's view that an amusement machine is a video game and it is also a gambling machine, is a fixed prejudice that Camilleri and other island operators have tried hard to overcome.
"Games come under the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority and they have sympathised with us and tried to get some help for the industry, but politicians appear very prejudiced against us."
The island has some very odd regulations concerning individual machine types. A pool table must be operated on 'up to €1', so must a kiddie ride, or a soccer table, all rates which are unworkable. But a pinball falls outside of that, unless of course it contains a video monitor. And all of the net income from a machine is subject to 18 per cent VAT.
