Gaming law that got MaltaToday fined €7,000 is ‘unconstitutional’

The Constitutional Court has declared that the prohibition of advertising of Maltese casinos in terms of the Gaming Act is in violation of the right to freedom of expression.

The judgement, delivered by Mr Justice Gino Camilleri, follows a constitutional application filed by the former editor of The Sunday Times, Lawrence Grech against the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, after he was charged by the police in 2003 with having published an advertisement featuring the Oracle Casino.

MaltaToday was fined €7,000 in 2009 by the Criminal Appeals Court under Judge Giannino Caruana Demajo, when it overturned a previous acquittal on police charges in 2005 when this newspaper featured a snippet, tucked in its commercial section, that made a passing reference to the presence of slot machines at the Dragonara brasserie.

The Attorney General had appealed the original verdict by the magistrates' court, which had acquitted editor Saviour Balzan of promoting gambling, but the Appeals Court later overturned the ruling.

The maximum fine outlined in the gaming law for publishing an advert promoting gambling stands at €232,000 as well as two years' imprisonment.

In his testimony Balzan had declared that MaltaToday had never received a cent for the miniscule snippet that promoted first and foremost a restaurant, arguing that reference to the slot machines was inconsequential.

In the case of the Sunday Times, Grech contested the charges, saying the publication was not an advertisement but a small article published in the social pages of his newspaper about an offer by Go Mobile. The article was published free of charge.

Grech added that other local publications, such as Malta This Month, which was distributed on Air Malta flights, regularly contained advertisements for local casinos.

The Constitutional Court this week said that while the state licensed casinos that were accessible to the Maltese public, the ban on advertising of casinos was "a cosmetic gesture", because advertising of casinos in places frequented primarily by tourists and on the internet was still allowed.

Mr Justice Camilleri said the restriction on freedom of expression was not justifiable.

Saviour Balzan, managing editor of MaltaToday, reiterated comments he made in 2009, that the Attorney General's appeal, as well as the police charges filed by the LGA under the chairmanship of Joe Zammit Maempel, were clearly intended to hit out at the newspaper "by picking and choosing whom to apply the draconian gaming law."