Today, Malta hosts one of the highest concentrations of online gaming license-holders in the EU, and the industry now rakes in €1.2 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) in annual earnings on the island, making up 12 percent of Malta’s GDP.
The industry took off here after 2004, when the government, led by then-Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi of the Nationalist Party, introduced the first online gaming regulations in the European Union (EU). The others are remote gaming companies that are based in Malta but serve clients far afield. There are just four physical gaming establishments, and fewer visible bookmakers than in Italy or Spain.
If each had a bricks-and-mortar presence, the country would be knee-deep in gamblers. The small island of Malta is home to almost 300 invisible casinos.
