Over 1,500 gamblers bar themselves from casinos

Casino players requesting to be excluded from Maltese casinos, bingo halls and gaming parlours in 2022 stood at 1,531, an increase of 284 (22.8%) from the previous year.

The data comes from the Malta Gaming Authority’s (MGA) annual report.

Gaming operators licenced under the MGA are obliged by law to offer a self-barring facility to customers.

The increase is partly attributed to the closure of gaming establishments like commercial bingo halls and casinos between 11 March and 7 June 2021 due to anti-pandemic measures.

The number of people requesting a ban from gaming establishments was still slightly lower than it was in 2019 when self-exclusions peaked at 1,602 but remains substantially higher than in 2014 when 1,017 players had requested self-exclusion.

Of the 1,531 players who requested a self-exclusion, 59.2% opted for a one-year period, while 40.8% applied for an exclusion period of six months. Only one player requested an indefinite self-exclusion period.

38.2% of those asking for a self-exclusion were aged 35-54, while 33.9% were 55-64; 23.1% were aged 25-34, and only 3.3% were aged 18-24; 1.6% were above 65. 76% of gamblers seeking self-exclusion were men.

Nearly 1.9 million barred from online gaming

In the same year, 1.9 million requests for exclusion were made by players on gaming websites licenced in Malta.

The number can include individual players who requested self-exclusion across multiple websites. It also includes one million who were banned by the operators themselves.

Online operators are obliged to have systems in place which offer online gamblers the possibility to self-exclude themselves for a definite or indefinite period. Exclusions can also be imposed by the operators, in cases where there are sufficient reasons to indicate that the player may have gambling issues. In the case of those exclusions imposed by the online operator, the absolute majority (91.8%) were imposed indefinitely, in line with previous trends.

Over-65s most likely to visit casinos

During 2022, non-Maltese players accounted for 59.2% of casino visits and for 48.1% of visits to gaming parlours.

Gaming parlours, which numbered 235 at the end of 2022, were mostly popular with men, whose visits accounted for 91.2% of the total visits registered during 2022.

Over-65s constituted the largest demographic category of visitors to casinos, accounting for 29.3% of the total visits. 35-54-year-olds accounted for 24.9% of visits, followed by visitors aged 55-64, who accounted for 19.4% of visits.

On the other hand, the 35-54 and 25-34 age brackets constitutes the largest demographic category of visitors to gaming parlours, accounting for 39.8% and 31.4% of all visits, respectively. Visits by players from the 65+, 55-64 and 18-24 age brackets accounted for 11.4%, 10.5% and 6.9% of the total visits registered in 2022, respectively.

Persons banning themselves from casinos

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