There aren’t many jurisdictions who are as close to the cutting edge of technology as Malta is. If anyone understands the territory best, it’s probably BDO Malta CEO Mark Attard, who’s company provides advice and assistance to operators to navigate Malta’s systems and regulations. He recently joined CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero at ICE London 2019 to talk about his company and several other topics.
For operators who don’t understand what BDO Malta offers, Attard explains that they’re just there to help in any way they can when it comes to Malta. He explains:
“The setup for companies and structures in Malta can seem to be quite complex. We try to simplify it as much as we can. To assist our clients, to go to that painful process of setting up the structure, the legal side of it, the tax side of it, and eventually even the regulatory side… We provide them services in all areas, of compliance, of legal, of accounting, auditing, anything that they would require to remain compliant in Malta.”
There are clear advantages to getting licensed in Malta as well. “Really we’re a little bit different from other jurisdictions,” Attard told us. “We’re a regulated jurisdiction, so we create let’s say, a standard platform for them to work, and a structure that’s steady for them to work, and obviously to people look for something which is a long term solution for their business.”
Where BDO can also help prospective clients is in understanding Malta’s new crypto sandbox. Being one of the first jurisdictions in the world to encourage cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in gaming sets Malta apart. “I think Malta’s made the first difficult step, which is to regulate something which nowhere else in the world has been regulated,” said the BDO Malta CEO. “I think we’ve done a great first step, still I think we’re in its infancy. We’re at the very start of it.”
It very much looks like the future of the industry, so there’s a lot more to tell in the story of blockchain and gaming. According to Attard, “Definitely the two will interact, not just from a client point of view, we see many clients who do both, as part of the iGaming industry and also on the blockchain side.”
It’s not just a question of when will operators adopt crypto payments, but the opposite as well. “I think also from the [payment] services, eventually we’ll see cryptocurrencies come as part of a means as payment which we’re already seeing into our gaming clients too,” he noted.
