There are no arcades in Malta any more. The islands have a scattering of children's rides and the odd pool table or two, but apart from one family entertainment centre in St. Julian's, the state of limbo which came with the closure of the business 16 months ago, remains.
At that time Malta had a rash of gaming arcades, small locations with perhaps 10 or 20 video lottery terminals up to the largest with a maximum of 75. But there were around 80 of these locations, in the opinion of many, far too numerous. A knee-jerk reaction by the government saw them closed virtually overnight.
Since then, Malta’s operators have waited, negotiating with the Ministry of Finance’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority to try and get a revised set of laws agreed. Many of those operators have gone away and done something else. Some have diversified into other areas. Johan Schembri, for example, a leading VLT operator in 2008, is now part of a consortium which this year bought the licence to operate the Dragonara Casino - one of four on the island. Ivan Camilleri and his brother Aaron, who run Camilmac Holdings, one of the oldest operating companies on the island, have just one FEC operating. Like everyone else, they are waiting for news.
They hoped that the Minister of Finance’s annual budget for the island’s economy announced on October 25 might have reference to a revised gaming act, but there was no mention of it.
So they wait…. But it isn’t all downside. The government of Malta has gone on record accepting that a fresh gaming law is needed. That commitment at least indicates a willingness to permit gaming on the island and its smaller neighbour, Gozo. In fact the opportunity is now there to tidy up several areas of gaming in Malta in one go.
The four casinos are operated on three licences - one of them is split to permit two casinos - and of those 10-year licences, one (Casino de Venezia at Vittoriosa) comes up for renewal next year. So too does the licence for the operation of Lotto and sports betting on the island, a seven-year permit that was granted in 2004 to Maltco, owned by a consortium which includes Intralot.
There are a few bingo clubs on the islands, but that market is only developed in a minor way. But taken together, the lottery and sports betting situation, the casino relicensing situation and the controversy over VLTs, suggests a total rethink of the country’s gaming laws to cover all of the points in one go.
The talk - and it is no more than talk at this time - is that any one of a number of possibilities could result. A casino licence for the smaller island of Gozo has been the subject of some speculation, but with only 28,000 people, that may be a little ambitious. Mention has also been made of tidying up the age restrictions on entry to the casinos. At present that is 25 years for locals and strangely, only 18 for non-residents. The whispers are that VLTs will be back on Malta after the 16-month ban, but that licences will only be issued to premises on the basis that no food and drink would be served in the establishment and opening hours would be restricted to 11am to 11pm. This would effectively stop VLTs being used in bars, restaurants or the private members’ sporting clubs. They would then be kept to arcades. Talk also surrounds a possible tough taxation regime which would make each VLT pay €500 or even €1,000 per month.
All of that, as we said, is talk…. But experience of what happened with the growth of VLTs in the period immediately prior to the overnight shut-down 16 months ago, may have led to some or even all of the speculation.
Nevertheless, an appreciation of the demand, and an even larger anticipation of the taxation benefits, has led the Maltese authorities to consider wrapping all of their gambling worries and regulation into one new package and that is what is expected in the next few months.
Meanwhile, we have the situation of limbo. The operators are all now into something else or marking time and waiting on events. The Camilleri brothers, Ivan and Aaron, run the only amusement centre on the island, the Jokers at Bay Street in St. Julian’s, a shopping and entertainment complex. The location is a second floor establishment of 150-plus amusement games and the nearest it gets to gambling is in the innocent sector of ticket redemption. Investment is a problem, says Ivan Camilleri.
"I don’t even know how many tickets to buy for the redemption games because we don’t know how long it will last." He is referring of course to the possibility that VLTs will be permitted back on the island - sounding the final death of the amusement device. "It is very marginal, trying to operate on amusement-only equipment. We once had four amusement centres on the island - now we have just this one."
Like all of the other one-time VLT operators - and Camilleri had the largest on the island - he is waiting on events; talking to the government officials, trying to lobby law-makers to get a decision made. "There is a commitment to rewrite the laws," he said, "but it is taking too long."
The promise of a rethink on the laws is at least effectively holding out a promise to the operators on this island of 400,000 people which joined the EC in 2004, just after opening up its doors to increased levels of gambling activity, more casinos, privatising lottery and sports betting, encouraging overseas e-gaming companies to licence with Malta. The intention seems to be there, but as usual the law-makers are dragging their feet.
Perhaps an appreciation of what happened in Germany where the government got a bloody nose over its monopoly on lotteries and in Greece where the arcades ban was overturned in the European Court of Justice, is at the back of the minds of Maltese law-makers. A playing field needs to be level for everyone. Either all forms of gambling should be permitted and policed to ensure fairness, or none at all.
