Following the introduction of the new regulatory regime on the 1st August 2018, the key official role was replaced by several key functions, defined by the MGA to further segregate roles within a remote gaming operation. Such key function roles may only be provided by natural persons and are required to hold a certificate of approval. 

As part of our ongoing compliance services, we offer assistance in the approval process and support such persons adopting the following key function roles within the entity:

  • Compliance with the licensee’s obligations emanating from the licence or licences issued by the Authority;
  • The administrative and financial strategies of the licensee, including but not limited to the payment of tax and fees due to the Authority;
  • The prevention of fraud and support to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer; and
  • Adherence to applicable legislation relating to data protection and privacy.

Compliance services typically include but are not limited to the following:

  • Assist the Head of Compliance in exercising their compliance duties;
  • Ensure that the remote gaming system is set up and maintained in accordance with the remote gaming regulations and any licence conditions imposed by the MGA;
  • Submission of periodic financial, administrative, data and record returns and reports to the MGA. These include:
  • Submission of incident reports to report controlled and uncontrolled incidents;
  • Preparation and submission of notification reports to submit to and seek MGA approval prior to effecting any critical changes to the gaming infrastructure, core system modules, gaming operation, rules of the games, terms and conditions and games portfolio;
  • Preparation of monthly player and gaming data reports including the reconciliation of monthly player balances in the gaming system to the players’ bank account;
  • Assistance in the preparation and submission of personal declaration forms, pertaining to key function roles;
  • Submission of complaints log to the MGA in line with the updated player protection directive;
  • Submission of contracts directly effecting the operation to the Authority;
  • Submission of six monthly interim financial statements and annual audited financial statements;
  • Calculation of monthly gaming contribution and annual gaming licence fee within the stipulated time frames;
  • Assistance in the submission of any share transfer approvals as result of changes in corporate structure;
  • Monitoring adherence to the provisions of the Gaming Act and subsidiary legislation; and
  • Addressing any ad-hoc queries to be raised by the licensee.

Anti-Money Laundering Services

The prevention of fraud and support to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer services typically include but are not limited to the following:

  • Assist the MLRO in exercising their compliance duties;
  • Provide advice and assistance as a result of the business risk assessment to ensure ongoing monitoring of risk as changes occur within the company and approval by the board of directors;
  • Ongoing review of operational and support processes through the control system to ascertain the levels of the risk- based approach adopted;
  • Assess the number of reports filed internally as well as with the FIAU and relative Authorities;
  • Review the controls in place in order to maintain up–to-date documentation;
  • Ad hoc testing of due diligence documents requests;
  • Ad hoc reviews of documented processes pertaining to of the due diligence process;
  • Review changes to operations and their potential impact on fraud management and business risk assessment;
  • Assist and support in the preparation and submission of potential suspicious transactions reports; and
  • Assist and support in the submission of the annual risk questionnaire.

Business Risk Assessment

Following the issue of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive issued on the 20th May 2015, all remote gaming operators are required to carry out an annual AML Business Risk Assessment.

Our compliance team at RSM Malta have extensive knowledge and experience in order to assist all remote gaming operators in drafting the AML Business Risk Assessment Report in order to be compliant with the Prevention of Money Laundering and Counter of Terrorism Regulations and 4th AML Directive.

Our services include the following:

  • Gain an understanding of the overall operations;
  • Assess the applicability of the risk-based approach;
  • Classify risk scenarios for each segment according to the risk appetite of the company;
  • Identify inherent risks being faced by the company;
  • Analyse the risk scenarios in order to determine the impact and likelihood of each scenario;
  • Understand the controls in place to mitigate risks according to the risk appetite of the company;
  • Analyse the controls in place for each scenario;
  • Determine the residual risk of each scenario by comparing inherent risk and the level of control;
  • Verify whether the risk is within the risk appetite of the company;
  • Determine the type of action to be taken to increase control to reduce risk.

Ad hoc Business Advisory Services

Ad hoc advisory services are customized by engagement depending on the client’s needs and requirement.  Remote Gaming Operators engage our advisors to assist the Compliance Team to bring their processes in line with the requirements of the Malta Gaming Authority and UK Gambling Commission. 

Our ad hoc services include the following:

  • Preparation of business plans according to requirements of the relative Authorities;
  • Assistance in the application for a Recognition Notice Approval ;
  • Review of policies and procedures to ensure that they are in line with the current Regulatory requirements;
  • Carry out an overall impact assessment in order to highlight the shortfalls of the entity in line with the current Regulations being imposed;
  • Perform due diligence on a target entity from a financial, fiscal and compliance perspective;
  • Assistance in preparation and submission of gaming tax to the relative Authorities;
  • Assistance in the preparation and submission of the personal declaration forms pertaining to the key functions, personal license applications etc. including collection and review of due diligence to be enclosed;
  • Preparation and submission of all documentation including due diligence with respect of share transfer approvals to the relative Authorities;