Malta Gaming Authority

EbertScore

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Does anyone have any experience dealing with the MGA, or Malta gaming authority which regulates all the gambling websites based in Malta? Are they actually a fare third party who takes complaints seriously?

Or are they just a rubber stamp organization the Island has that does nothing more than collects Gaming license fees, and doesn’t care about the consumer?
 
MGA :rolleyes: :laugh: :puke:Sorry I'm a cynical old sod when it comes to government controlled or semi controlled ombudsmen, I think casinomeister's pab service gives complaints a fair hearing but some casinos seem to prefer the MGA to decide on matters, I can't think why? :confused:
 
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Does anyone actually have any experience with them? I’m gonna stay the course with my PAB, but just curious about them?
 
Does anyone have any experience dealing with the MGA, or Malta gaming authority which regulates all the gambling websites based in Malta? Are they actually a fare third party who takes complaints seriously?

Or are they just a rubber stamp organization the Island has that does nothing more than collects Gaming license fees, and doesn’t care about the consumer?

I have experience with them.

-They took 3 months to handle my complaint which was clearly well explained and had massive details
-They copy/paste what the casino told them instead of actually understanding my complaint, and of course stayed on the casinos side
-If you google them, you will find several articles of corruption
-Casinomeister deleted my post about them and leovegas (which was objective) for no stated reason
 
Have seen some complaints where they have taken players side, these were quite big and obvious ones where kind of wasn't anything unclear or small print in T&C:s where casinos could have been hide themselves. Nearly all complaints which are ending up there, casino is found to be right. Guess that most of here been reading some casinos T&C:s which pretty much in short are "We are allowed to do what ever we decide when ever we decide and you have accepted that at the moment you tick the box and create your account".

Casinos mostly go through all complaints and if let it to go to authorities, is quite sure to win that. Of course there always can be some mistakes done there in internal investigations, but most of these casinos are winning, so would make sure that breach of terms or what ever happened is very obvious and there are no way for casino to speak themselves out from it.

Hope they are casino who is dealing with CM PAB:s, in these for casino still have chance to solve case without authorities, Max have quite an experience with these and can quite sure point out possible mistakes and help to sort it out, success rate much better for player than MGA, just remember not to post anything related to this as long PAB is in progress, best of luck and let us know once PAB solved :)
 
Are those casinos safe to play at? Do they have a rep here and are either one of those casinos better than the other?
 
Why did casinomeister delete your post about them?

So basically they are a useless organization?0”

I have no idea why Casinomeister chose to delete my post.
I only posted about my experience with my complaint about Leovegas which rutheless took advantage of me (yes, I played my part in this as well 50/50 guilty I'd say), and that MGA didn't even
check any of the details I provided. I also mentioned that there are several newsarticles about MGA where they connected to corruption which they try to defend themselfes against on their hompeage.

But my guess is that Casinomeister does not in general appreciate negative feedback or negative discussions about casinos or MGA.
What else could it be? If I wrote my post here again, you'd see it's very harmless wording, but about a major issue.

I still work with MGA to see if their lovely Code of Ethics is just a paint on a broken wall, but they take forever to reply. 2 weeks in between every answer I get.
My tip to you, try chatting at their site and you will experience a person that does not know how to be objective and simply is rude.
In my case I was told 3-4 weeks for conclusion, it took three months without any investigation and MGA did not reply to why many of my factors were not considerated.
Simply a copy/paste answer from Leovegas and that's that. It was quite hilarious actually.
I have a feeling that there was some language barriers in my documentations.

Agian, their Code of Ethics says that they should act otherwise though...
 
I have no idea why Casinomeister chose to delete my post.
I only posted about my experience with my complaint about Leovegas which rutheless took advantage of me (yes, I played my part in this as well 50/50 guilty I'd say), and that MGA didn't even
check any of the details I provided. I also mentioned that there are several newsarticles about MGA where they connected to corruption which they try to defend themselfes against on their hompeage.

But my guess is that Casinomeister does not in general appreciate negative feedback or negative discussions about casinos or MGA.
What else could it be? If I wrote my post here again, you'd see it's very harmless wording, but about a major issue.

I still work with MGA to see if their lovely Code of Ethics is just a paint on a broken wall, but they take forever to reply. 2 weeks in between every answer I get.
My tip to you, try chatting at their site and you will experience a person that does not know how to be objective and simply is rude.
In my case I was told 3-4 weeks for conclusion, it took three months without any investigation and MGA did not reply to why many of my factors were not considerated.
Simply a copy/paste answer from Leovegas and that's that. It was quite hilarious actually.
I have a feeling that there was some language barriers in my documentations.

Agian, their Code of Ethics says that they should act otherwise though...

Feel free to private message me
 
@Solaris - we do not delete posts at Casinomeister - only those that are spam deleted OR double posts which happen occasionally.

I checked our logs and "report a post", and guess what? We did delete one of your posts because you requested us to - it was a double post.

Here is the post:
Feedback - Leovegas takes advantage of problem gamblers?

So what the hell? Now you are insinuating that I don't want bad reviews about the MGA??? I probably have been the most outspoken person on this planet about the MGA. The record speaks for itself - I don't need to start posting links to explain my point.

They are not a rubber stamp; they are becoming a very strong and responsive regulator. Both Max an I are in direct contact with their operations chief, and if or when there is a problem, it gets solved. They may still be slow on dealing with player issues, but players will get a fair outcome to their grievances.

I expect a retraction of the bogus crap you've posted. Pretty rich coming from a newbie.
 
@Solaris - we do not delete posts at Casinomeister - only those that are spam deleted OR double posts which happen occasionally.

I checked our logs and "report a post", and guess what? We did delete one of your posts because you requested us to - it was a double post.

Here is the post:
Feedback - Leovegas takes advantage of problem gamblers?

So what the hell? Now you are insinuating that I don't want bad reviews about the MGA??? I probably have been the most outspoken person on this planet about the MGA. The record speaks for itself - I don't need to start posting links to explain my point.

They are not a rubber stamp; they are becoming a very strong and responsive regulator. Both Max an I are in direct contact with their operations chief, and if or when there is a problem, it gets solved. They may still be slow on dealing with player issues, but players will get a fair outcome to their grievances.

I expect a retraction of the bogus crap you've posted. Pretty rich coming from a newbie.


Hello Casinomeister and thank you for your reply.

This is not the post I was refeering to.

I do not understand you hard words and term "bogus" and "crap".
I've been fairly objective in all my posts and I stated a what could be a probable reason.


The problem with Leovegas is my own case with them and that they this year have been fined for acting ruthless towards problem gamblers.
 
@Solaris - we do not delete posts at Casinomeister - only those that are spam deleted OR double posts which happen occasionally.

I checked our logs and "report a post", and guess what? We did delete one of your posts because you requested us to - it was a double post.

Here is the post:
Feedback - Leovegas takes advantage of problem gamblers?

So what the hell? Now you are insinuating that I don't want bad reviews about the MGA??? I probably have been the most outspoken person on this planet about the MGA. The record speaks for itself - I don't need to start posting links to explain my point.

They are not a rubber stamp; they are becoming a very strong and responsive regulator. Both Max an I are in direct contact with their operations chief, and if or when there is a problem, it gets solved. They may still be slow on dealing with player issues, but players will get a fair outcome to their grievances.

I expect a retraction of the bogus crap you've posted. Pretty rich coming from a newbie.

I have to say, and defend casinomeister here. Especially given my situation where Casinomeister (thank you max d) really did go to bat for me against LeoVegas whose regulated by MGA. Casinomeister isn’t intimidated by the MGA, and they really do care about the players immensely as their track records have shown. This is why I only play at casinomeister accredited casinos. Even if they have other good outside reviews, I’m hesitant to play at any casino that is not casinomeister accredited.

I think given Casinomeister’s reputation since 1998, it’s fair to assume they are not out for a certain agenda. They even allowed that sore loser to make a ridiculous post about magnets in live casino roulette, and didn’t delete that thread. I got a real good laugh out of that one...

Casinomeister is very legitimate and fights for players day in and day out as their reputation shows. I’m not sure why you want to slam a website where they tirelessly fight for players and Bryan has been critical of MGA in the past.
 
I have experience with them.

-They took 3 months to handle my complaint which was clearly well explained and had massive details
-They copy/paste what the casino told them instead of actually understanding my complaint, and of course stayed on the casinos side
-If you google them, you will find several articles of corruption
-Casinomeister deleted my post about them and leovegas (which was objective) for no stated reason
That is not true. It never happened.

But my guess is that Casinomeister does not in general appreciate negative feedback or negative discussions about casinos or MGA.
What else could it be? If I wrote my post here again, you'd see it's very harmless wording, but about a major issue.
Making an assumption on something that is not true.

This is not the post I was refeering to.

I do not understand you hard words and term "bogus" and "crap".
I've been fairly objective in all my posts and I stated a what could be a probable reason.
To say that I deleted some post that was critical about Leo Vegas and the MGA is bogus. To insinuate that there is a air of dodginess about that is crap.

If I moderated this forum in the way that you are assuming that I do - this forum would have been dead in 1999. I have run this forum for 20 years and I've never deleted posts that were "negative discussions" about casinos or regulators. There are thousands of people who can attest to this.
 
I have to say, and defend casinomeister here. Especially given my situation where Casinomeister (thank you max d) really did go to bat for me against LeoVegas whose regulated by MGA. Casinomeister isn’t intimidated by the MGA, and they really do care about the players immensely as their track records have shown. This is why I only play at casinomeister accredited casinos. Even if they have other good outside reviews, I’m hesitant to play at any casino that is not casinomeister accredited.

I think given Casinomeister’s reputation since 1998, it’s fair to assume they are not out for a certain agenda. They even allowed that sore loser to make a ridiculous post about magnets in live casino roulette, and didn’t delete that thread. I got a real good laugh out of that one...

Casinomeister is very legitimate and fights for players day in and day out as their reputation shows. I’m not sure why you want to slam a website where they tirelessly fight for players and Bryan has been critical of MGA in the past.


I did not say this site is not trusted and I did not talk about agenda.
You asked me why did they delete my post in the other thread?
I stated what could be a reason because I was never told why it got deleted.

About the sore looser, just think about him what he actually feels inside.
Does he need people laughing at him or does he need people protecting/helping him?
 
I hope he gets the help he needs.

But it is still funny for someone to lose at a game your suppose to lose at, and then complain about magnets. I can’t help my feelings.

The bottom line is Casinomeister does not have an agenda, and they have been critical of the MGA in the past and do not censor discussion.
 
That is not true. It never happened.


Making an assumption on something that is not true.


To say that I deleted some post that was critical about Leo Vegas and the MGA is bogus. To insinuate that there is a air of dodginess about that is crap.

If I moderated this forum in the way that you are assuming that I do - this forum would have been dead in 1999. I have run this forum for 20 years and I've never deleted posts that were "negative discussions" about casinos or regulators. There are thousands of people who can attest to this.


Dear Casinomeister


I had a post that was called something like "Leovegas and MGA" some weeks ago. That is not bogus.
I tried to find it because of EbertScore questions about MGA and it is not anywhere to be found.
So either someone deleted it (it had around 80 views the first day) or there is a technical error.

Assumptions are not necessarily true, that is why it is an assumption.

I think you get a wrong impression of my assumptions.
I do not write here to call Casinomeister Forum a dogdy place, I am here for the discussions.
Critics benefits every part as long as it is as objective as possible.
And I have no problem admitting if I am wrong in assumptions that I think is quite mild language wise.

Have to admit I do not appreciate foul language, but it is your site, you run it the way you want, that I respect.
 
Well, instead of us squabbling about it, why not start a new thread "Leovegas and MGA" and go from there. I'm supposed to be doing my taxes, not arguing on the Internet. Thanks!
 
I hope he gets the help he needs.

But it is still funny for someone to lose at a game your suppose to lose at, and then complain about magnets. I can’t help my feelings.

The bottom line is Casinomeister does not have an agenda, and they have been critical of the MGA in the past and do not censor discussion.


Sure, we all laugh at other peoples
Well, instead of us squabbling about it, why not start a new thread "Leovegas and MGA" and go from there. I'm supposed to be doing my taxes, not arguing on the Internet. Thanks!


Hehe, maybe I will if you allow me :p

I will tone it down in assumptions to respect your T&C.
Cheers and thanks for our squabbling :cheers:
 
I have experience with them.

-They took 3 months to handle my complaint which was clearly well explained and had massive details
-They copy/paste what the casino told them instead of actually understanding my complaint, and of course stayed on the casinos side
-If you google them, you will find several articles of corruption
-Casinomeister deleted my post about them and leovegas (which was objective) for no stated reason

TBH, can't really see any huge case in your topic linked here, all casinos offering these tools to control your playing with different ways which you were offered and they also checked with you that you are ok with your spending. If casino interact with player and try to ask if one is comfortable with level of playing and advised about limits they have available, not sure how they should act if player is stating that is ok with level of gambling and willing not to set any limits.

From your emails and deposit pattern probably were signs about RG issues casino took action and you were contacted, from that point ball is thrown to player him/herself to set limit or self-exclude if having severe gambling addiction. I really feel you and that was not a small amount of money and addictions are really not easy to control, even trying very best, there can be just some very little thing what is triggering it and make life hard. Having same problem myself with alcohol (sorry, not really this forums issue, but will count it bit related) and having few pints can make take again few weeks or something.... But i can't really blame my regular pub, even if i go there every day quite early in a day and drink till midnight, i could ask them not to serve me anything in few months but then i just need to walk two hundred meters more to get my drinks from shop or other pub.

Spotting out problem gamblers is not really easy and close to impossible (except very extreme occasions), to be sure about somebody have really problem and how severe, thing to do is interact and check politely with player that one is ok and advise about limits. It's quite harsh from casino to accuse player straight that "You are gambling addict, we have now closed your account". I would take it as a quite rude communication and action from casino to call me addict or problem gambler if i haven't bring it up, therefore asking and offering limits it's many times IMO right thing from casinos to do and carry their part of their social responsibility. Accusing some to gambling addict etc.... could end up to court if somebody get really pissed after some company start to call him/her addict....

Casinos in general are not really (what i have experience about industry) willing to take advantages from problem gamblers and are offering these limits and exclusions, for many who have severe problems are not long term high value players for casino either (some small rogue ones can have bit different way of thinking), at least "good guys" in industry rather find players with good retention and from that way life time value for casino when one keep coming back after year and year instead of somebody with problems loose big amount in few months and life time value was there.

Anyway, i really understand your point and have experience about addiction and how it is to live with that and hope all the best for you.

(sorry about long post, still bit sleepy even having my second coffee, fingers faster than brains..... might be bit repeating myself....)
 
TBH, can't really see any huge case in your topic linked here, all casinos offering these tools to control your playing with different ways which you were offered and they also checked with you that you are ok with your spending. If casino interact with player and try to ask if one is comfortable with level of playing and advised about limits they have available, not sure how they should act if player is stating that is ok with level of gambling and willing not to set any limits.

From your emails and deposit pattern probably were signs about RG issues casino took action and you were contacted, from that point ball is thrown to player him/herself to set limit or self-exclude if having severe gambling addiction. I really feel you and that was not a small amount of money and addictions are really not easy to control, even trying very best, there can be just some very little thing what is triggering it and make life hard. Having same problem myself with alcohol (sorry, not really this forums issue, but will count it bit related) and having few pints can make take again few weeks or something.... But i can't really blame my regular pub, even if i go there every day quite early in a day and drink till midnight, i could ask them not to serve me anything in few months but then i just need to walk two hundred meters more to get my drinks from shop or other pub.

Spotting out problem gamblers is not really easy and close to impossible (except very extreme occasions), to be sure about somebody have really problem and how severe, thing to do is interact and check politely with player that one is ok and advise about limits. It's quite harsh from casino to accuse player straight that "You are gambling addict, we have now closed your account". I would take it as a quite rude communication and action from casino to call me addict or problem gambler if i haven't bring it up, therefore asking and offering limits it's many times IMO right thing from casinos to do and carry their part of their social responsibility. Accusing some to gambling addict etc.... could end up to court if somebody get really pissed after some company start to call him/her addict....

Casinos in general are not really (what i have experience about industry) willing to take advantages from problem gamblers and are offering these limits and exclusions, for many who have severe problems are not long term high value players for casino either (some small rogue ones can have bit different way of thinking), at least "good guys" in industry rather find players with good retention and from that way life time value for casino when one keep coming back after year and year instead of somebody with problems loose big amount in few months and life time value was there.

Anyway, i really understand your point and have experience about addiction and how it is to live with that and hope all the best for you.

(sorry about long post, still bit sleepy even having my second coffee, fingers faster than brains..... might be bit repeating myself....)



Hello Slottery and thank you for your post.


You're from Malta?

Do you assume my case is about me being a problem gambler?


But lets get it on:

These limit choices are not the casinos moral choice to have on the site, is it not by law?

I do agree that you cannot accuse anyone directly to be a problem gambler, but seeing a pattern using AI
is not so hard as you might think. Ludomania is a diagnosis that have clear patterns.

Here is a brief example (not necessarily the exact solution):
-Take 10000 people who has spend a certian amount of money that have self excluded themselves or have their account closed because of rage etc.
-Find the similarities in the patterns: Time spent playing, upping/downing bets, deposits, cancelling withdrawals, fast spin button etc.
-Mash this together and you will find a pattern in slots and other games.
-Contact this person and make him/her fills out a sort of form that will determine if more action is needed or that he/she can play more.

How many non problem gamblers would have this exact pattern?

And yes, problem gamblers are not free of all responsibility, but they grow in numbers and needs protection like all addicts.
If not, why would we even discuss it?


What does not work as of today for problem gamblers is:
-Inexperienced Customer Services that have absolutley no experience with human psychology, and that think it's cool to be a keyboard hero defending the casino.
-A pop-up that says how much you have lost.
-A set limit reminder (how cute)..


You say that casinos are not willing to take advantages of problem gamblers, but who do they really earn the big bucks on?
Masses of 30€-a-months-depositers or hammering problem gamblers that does not know what it means to loose tens of thousands of € a month?
They run a business and needs to survive, but also have to follow laws and regulations. A fine moral line that breaks every day.

And last but not least, make the slots more fair...(for another topic)


Hope you enjoyed your coffee :)
 
That's true that you mentioned some signs which can address somebody to be at least high risk problem gambler (sorry, you asked that i assumed your case was about problem gambling and casinos responsibilities when was reading that link CM added in his post, apologies if i was mistaking), and casinos are really following player behavior from their different reports, many including to these things you mentioned, loads of deposits in short time, time spent online, cancelling most of withdrawals and other marks which could be red flag for problem gambling. Many operators are closing players accounts if playing is getting really extreme, but it's not that easy to just simply decide that one have so severe problem that self-exclusion or closing account is only thing to do, what then if player is coming back and demand to get account opened?

UKGC have already gone more strict and been giving some quite big fines for casinos for failing to fill their social responsibilities with responsible gaming, MGA expected to follow that route as well, dunno how strictly and when we see something really start to change, but quite surely it will happen sooner or later.

UKGC ruling which is discussed in at least few different topics, is not really clear, i bet most of casinos would be really happy to receive exact ruling to follow when it's coming to money laundering and responsible gaming, but as long operators don't really get much support how to bring these things to their operations, it's quite much grey area when to do what and some operators are more strict than others and many totally lost in these rulings. At least some (sorry to speak just some operators etc... but can't know all of them, just some what i use or somehow know) operators are already carrying out Source of Wealth checks for players under MGA license, which information can be used to recognize possible money laundering and problem gambling. All players are not happy at all to share quite sensitive information like their payslips, bank statement transaction information and all documentation which is needed to understand players economical situation and where money is coming from. Even that is not bullet proof like anything else, player can post proof of winnings from other casino for part of it, but there really is no way to know if it's spent already, how many casinos player is playing or is some money showing bank statement actually meant to be family savings or what ever.

As we came to conclusion that we all can get addicted to different things, i don't really see that casino operators wouldn't already now carry more responsibilities (what you mentioned are not helping) than places who sell alcohol for people they know to be alcoholics, strip clubs who are happy to take every single coin from your pocket when you are already actually sleeping there, computer game providers who can see that one person is playing online extreme amount hours daily etc....

I would say that for casino operator, players life time value and retention is more beneficial than some problem gambler loosing big bunch of money in short period, there are players who play more than your mentioned 30€ monthly but still not more than can afford and keep it fun, when starting to get fully in that fun called SOW checks where you have to open all your financial details to casino operator what you wouldn't like to share with your friends or any people in the world, it will quite surely help to see that one is playing what can afford but if you have seen some posts from this and other forums, for many it's pain in somewhere and not willing to do that (It can feel that it's easier to get mortgage from bank than proof your SOW to casino as at least some topics showed here), minority of players have bad addictions and hopefully recognize it themselves, casino operator can't easily follow up everything in real time but losing fast is very easy and if your account get blocked, you find Bonanza or what ever is your favorite game from few hundred of other sites. UKGC and MGA are moving to self-exclusions which are taking effect for all casinos under their license, but does that make problem gamblers spend their money to some rogue casinos under Curacao, Costa Rica etc... licenses where we all probably have seen stories that players rights are quite much worse than in Europe (not all of them, but there you hear more stories where you don't see your winnings and some quite horrible T&C:s with small maximum payouts etc...)?


What you mentioned about customer support, it's quite tough demand that operators would start to hire psychiatric educated persons there, probably not really big pile of CV:s if you add that to needed education. They do assist you how site is working, about ongoing promotions, escalating possible technical issues or if your payment haven't reach your account and many other tasks. Many operators have quite clear instructions to support to escalate also possible problem gamblers to relevant department if player is mentioning about playing too much, played rent money or shows other clear signs, then you will most probably be contacted and ask that you are ok and be offered limits, if you can't agree that you might need some limits, it's quite heavy decision for operator to bank some player because "We thought you play too much...."

Really hope that it would be that simple to build system that nobody don't get harms from playing but that's kind of hard call. If you think that you can easily solve that problem without ruining fun from "normal players", i bet you would be quite wanted to work in most of, especially very big operators. Point just is that many things have been tried players are risk followed up but that magic haven't yet happened that all players with problems can't be helped by operators as can't other addicts, it just for many takes to get very deep before willing start to help him/herself.

Last point about make slots more fair i don't really get, all of them must have clear rules, RTP and other information which have to be accurate, not sure how to make them more fair, but that's not really up to casinos but game providers and when you look games average RTP:s, there might not be much space to make them higher and still run business with all it's expenses. Playing online is not good for all and can cause big problems, drinking is not good for all who can't control it, could carry to this list quite long.... :)
 

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