Malta's MGA refines checks on foreign-licensed firms

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has finished reviewing the feedback on its planned changes to the Recognition Notice framework and says it has made "a number of refinements". In a short release on 29 October, the regulator said the changes are meant to keep the approach "proportionate, risk-based and practical for RN holders".

A Recognition Notice (RN) is a certificate from the MGA that recognises a gambling authorisation issued by another EU or EEA country, or by a country with largely equivalent safeguards, as having the same effect as an MGA licence for offering gaming services or supplies in or from Malta. In plain terms, it lets a company offer gambling in or from Malta on a licence from another country.

What the MGA has said

The MGA opened a targeted consultation in April 2026. At the time it said the changes followed an internal review in line with Malta's latest National Risk Assessment and its anti-money-laundering strategy for 2024 to 2026, and were meant to strengthen checks when a notice is granted and add more structured ongoing monitoring.

This week's release says a Feedback Statement setting out the responses, the MGA's position and the way forward has gone to RN holders and their representatives. As of 30 October the statement is not on the MGA's website. The MGA says it will share more on how specific requirements will work "in due course".

What next.io reports

Next.io says it obtained the Feedback Statement, dated 26 October. The MGA's published release does not list these details. According to next.io:

• Firms will only have to give information on their ultimate beneficial owners instead of a full corporate structure chart.
• B2B suppliers are exempted from many of the obligations.
• A standard legal-opinion template was dropped; the MGA will instead specify the key confirmations legal opinions should address, next.io reports.
• A request for five years of regulatory history, including correspondence, was replaced by a request for material fitness and licensing matters only.
• Deposit value and volume will be reported in predefined bands, and payment methods by category.
• Collection under the new rules starts this year, covers the 2025 reporting period and applies to B2C operators only.

Next.io also reports that, according to the statement, stakeholders generally supported the direction of the changes but stressed proportionality, practicality and avoiding duplication with the rules of the foreign licensing authorities. It says the MGA acknowledged that some requirements may need amendments to the existing framework.

Our reading

The MGA calls the outcome refinements; next.io describes it as the regulator pulling back after industry pushback. Both point the same way: the information firms must hand over looks lighter than first proposed, and B2C operators are the focus. What remains unclear is how the requirements will work in practice, which the MGA has promised to explain later. A Recognition Notice is a recognised foreign licence, not an absence of one.

For more on Malta, see the MGA's memorandum with the consumer authority on player complaints, the EU court case on Malta's Bill 55 and the MGA's AI gaming charter.

For readers outside Malta: the framework covers firms working in or from Malta on a foreign authorisation; it is not a licence to serve players in any particular country.