Updated | Mallia seeks opposition’s backing on Council of Europe convention on iGaming

The government on Monday appealed for the support of the opposition in its stand against the wording of a convention drawn up by the Council of Europe on online gaming in general, and fraud, match-fixing and illegal betting in particular.

Minister Manuel Mallia, who was addressing a press conference at the PL headquarters in Hamrun, said the government was totally supportive of the spirit behind the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, but was contesting the wording on illegal betting, and had not signed the convention as presented.

The convention was drafted by the 47-member European entity, with the EU originally wanting all member states to ratify the Convention.

Due to the Convention’s mixed nature, covering various sectors, each member state would have to give its consent to be legally bound by the text before the EU can move ahead.

The definition on illegal betting currently reads: “‘Illegal sports betting’ means any sports betting activity whose type or operator is not allowed under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located.”

"As it stands, the definition of illegal gambling would be extremely detrimental to our industry, since it would require all iGaming operators in Malta to also be licensed in any country they accept bets from," Mallia said.

He said Malta's huge success in this industry was the envy of many countries and that 'other countries measured their failure by our success'.

He called on opposition leader Simon Busuttil to state whether the three PN MEPs would be backing the government position on this issue and whether he would be exerting pressure on the European Popular Party to rescind its approval of the convention draft as is.

"This is a chance for the opposition to clearly demonstrate if it has the country's best interests at heart," he said.

The government had objected to the wording of the definition on illegal gambling, as proposed by the commission, because it recognised this could have a very negative impact on the online gaming industry in Malta, Mallia said.

“This is an extremely important industry for our country, employing more than 8,000 people and bringing in more than €700 million in direct income alone,” he said.

Despite Malta’s objections, the European Commission had said the convention could pass by qualified majority, but its legal office had afterwards recommended that a consensus be sought and that the commission should try and get all the members to agree to sign the convention.

Mallia said that the European Parliament had last week raised the issue of the convention and that Malta had not yet signed it and was still objecting to it.

“The MEPs that raised the issue were all members of the EPP, which is the same party of which the PN is part,” he said. “And this is why I am now calling on Simon Busuttil to declare whether he will exert pressure on the EPP to withdraw its support of the convention, since the wording – as it now stands – would prejudice our industry.”

Mallia said that he looked forward to see whether the PN MEPs would vote with the EPP even in this matter, or whether they would act in the country’s interests and work and vote to have the wording amended.

Nationalist MEPs had last week voted with the EPP against the nomination of former minister Leo Brincat to the European Court of Auditors.

Busuttil claimed the MEPs were acting in the country’s best interests since the EPP and other parties in the European parliament had opted to censure Brincat for voting against a vote of no confidence in the Maltese parliament against former energy minister Konrad Mizzi, who was mentioned in the Panama Papers affair.

In a statement issued in response to Mallia’s press conference, the PN said that “the most partisan and divisive prime minister in Malta’s history” had entered into unchartered territory when he claimed that the PN did not have Malta’s interests at heart when defending the country’s gaming sector in the European Parliament. 

The PN pointed out that the gaming sector in Malta was set up under successive Nationalist administrations and that PN MEPs had always – and would always – stand  up for Malta and continue to defend the sector against the interests of other larger economies threatening it. 

“By trying to create a partisan issue where there is none, it is clear that Muscat simply does not understand the value of the gaming industry to Malta’s economy,” the PN said.

“In matters of this nature, PN MEPs have no problem with going against the majority of EU member states and political groups, including Muscat’s own Socialist Group, who believe otherwise.”

It insisted its MEPs would never hind behind a group whip to defend an administration “being brought to its knees by institutionalised corruption and a minister exposed in the Panama Papers scandal”. 

The PN asked how far prime minister Joseph Muscat would go to protect Konrad Mizzi and whether he would “sell the gaming and financial services sector down the river” to protect Konrad Mizzi?