02-03-2007 Reputable, responsible, secure

Following last week's communication that the Lotteries and Gaming Authority in Malta is waiting for clearance from the banks before it can process the payments to the Playbanks players, I've asked the Authority if there was a particular reason why players who deposited through Moneybookers haven't been paid yet.

I totally understand that the Authority has to investigate each single claim for payment. I also believe that many of the former customers of Playbanks have charged back their original credit card deposits. But I don't see a valid reason why players who deposited through Moneybookers are still waiting to receive their money. Nor I've received an answer to my simple question.

Then a couple of days ago I've read an article about Casino-for-me becoming the 250th operator licensed by the LGA in Malta. Two hundred and fifty online gambling companies operating online casinos, poker rooms, bingos, sportsbooks and betting exchanges.

While I was googling for an updated list of these operators, I've found an article about Bell Med, the IT provider of choice for the large majority of Maltese-licensed online betting operators.

What I didn't expect to find out is that until 2004 Bell Med was fully-owned by Mario Galea, the Chief Executive of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority.

Although Mr Galea sold his shareholding in Bell Med to a nominee company four months after his appointment as CEO of the LGA in February 2004, and while the Maltese Ministry of Finance seem to think that Galea's connections with Bell Med do not create a conflict of interest, I believe it's absurd and ridicolous that the same person responsible for the issuing of gambling licenses, he is also profiting from the provision of IT services to licensed companies.

The LGA's motto on the Authority's website reads: reputable, responsible, secure. But it sure seems more like: contracts, contracts, contracts.

P.B.