Malta regulator reports more illegal gambling reports this year

Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority received an increased number of illegal gambling reports in 2013, but the lack of evidence in many of these resulted in few prosecutions, the island’s minister for the economy, Chris Cardona, has revealed.

The Malta newspaper The Independent reports that in replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Claudio Grech, minister Cardona said that illegal gambling reports in 2013 were, at 105, higher than any in the past four years.

The minister said that the LGA received 96 reports in 2009; 16 reports in 2010; 34 reports in 2011 and 44 reports in 2012.

However, the figures provided by Dr Cardona also show that the evidence behind the reports was lacking. While most reports to the LGA in 2012 were followed up with the police or judiciary, only a handful of the 105 reports in 2013 went beyond the LGA.

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