MGA: player numbers increase significantly in 2022

At the beginning of the month the Maltese Gambling Authority published its report for the first six months of 2022. These figures show that the online casinos licensed by the MGA, the Malta Gaming Authority had a significant increase in members. How many players are there now in the online casinos with an MGA licence?

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is still the most influential and important gambling authority in Europe. A few days ago the Maltese Gambling Authority published its report for the first six months, namely from January to June 2022. Last October, in 2022, we had published an article in which we had reported in detail about the MGA’s yearly report for 2021.

Over 19 million player accounts in online casinos with an MGA licence

According to the half yearly report of the Maltese Gambling Authority the MAG licensed online casinos registered a significant increase in the number of members. The number of registered player accounts has increased to 19.3 million. This means that the online casinos with a Maltese licence had nearly 20 million members during the first six months of 2022 – the highest number of members ever.

When compared to the previous year online casinos with a Maltese licence had an increase in their members of 8.7 per cent. Compared to the same time in 2019 the increase in member accounts was an impressive 25 %. In June 2021 we had reported that the Malta Gaming Authority had decreased the minimum disbursement quote for casino games. Since then, the rate is of 85 %, instead of the previous 92 %

Many online players are under 35 years

According to the MGA report nearly four in ten players in licensed online casinos are between 25 and 34 years old. (39 %). Nearly 25 % of all users were even younger. Nearly one third of the MGA users were between 35 and 54 years old. Besides this, around 5 % of all casino players were between 55 and 64 years old. The values in the older age groups were in the thousands. The age distribution shows that games in online casinos are especially popular with the younger audience. 

MGA helps with gambling addiction and carried out over 600 inspections

Besides this, in the first six months of the past year, around 2500 gamblers turned to the Malta Gambling Authority because of problematic gambling behaviour. In a somewhat older article we had for example reported about financing the BZga Hotline in the future.

Besides this, the Gambling Authority revoked a licence in the first six months of the year and carried out a total of 626 inspections on its licensees. Seven administrative penalties were issued and two further settlements amounting to 85,000 Euro were reached during these inspections.

Conclusion

If we take Germany as an example, even though the new Gambling Authority for all regions in Germany, the GGL, started its operations on the 1st. January 2023, the player numbers in the online casinos licensed by the MGA still increased in the first six months of 2022. We have to wait and see whether this trend will persist in the next business reports, or whether the Maltese Gambling Authority will see a change because of the legal situation in the important German market. 

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