A new conflict of interest for a LGA's Director

While at the recent IGE show in London the Malta's Lotteries and Gaming Authority promoted its services under the slogan “trustworthy and experienced”, a new conflict of interest has emerged, this time involving board member Jesmond Pace, whose firm amongst other services offers to assist online gambling companies looking to obtain a license in Malta.
The Maltese Ministry of Finance immediately refuted the claims of a conflict of interest stating that Pace’s firm has never assisted gambling companies regulated by the LGA. The Ministry then added that under Malta's legislation it is the CEO of the LGA who is the regulator issuing online gaming licenses to companies.

Curiously when few years ago the conflict of interest regarded the LGA's CEO Mario Galea the line of defense chosen to clear the now former CEO was “you cannot expect we employ people who know nothing about the industry”.
And Mr Galea knew a lot both as a provider of IT services to the online gambling industry and as a consultant to the Ministry of Finance during the introduction of the first online gambling regulations in Malta in 2000.
The short memory of the Ministry of Finance speaks for itself, but the fact that they seem (should we say they rather) to ignore that it is the ethical principle that should be respected (it doesn't matter if Mr Pace's firm doesn't have online gambling companies amongst its clients now, but the fact that his firm is actively promoting services to such companies) shows what a joke of a jurisdiction Malta is.

At the recent London Affiliate Conference we decided to take bets from friends on how many Malta-based gambling sites will close by the summer and before the end of the year. The line for the summer was at over 1.5, while for the end of 2010 most bets went on the over 3.5. We had soon to suspend the markets as no one was betting the under...not even those who work within the industry in Malta.

Date published: 02 February 2010


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