Licence fees: What do the licences cost?

Malta's gaming tax was restructured by Legal Notice 84 of 2026, effective 1 October 2026, replacing a prior flat 5% rate with a tiered structure: 15% on Type 1 casino, RNG and lottery revenue, 10% on Types 2 through 4 betting, peer-to-peer and skill-product revenue, and 5% on controlled-premises and lawful-junket revenue, the last unchanged from the prior flat rate. Tax is computed monthly, with the first return under the new rates due 20 November 2026. The reform also raised the Studio Broadcasting Levy payable by critical-gaming-supply licensees from €500 to €3,000 per annum, payable in advance, effective the same date. The combined effect is a materially higher cost base for Type 1 operators specifically, a moderate increase for Types 2 through 4 operators, and no headline-rate change for controlled-premises and junket operators, while all licensees face the raised broadcasting levy if they hold critical-gaming-supply status.

The revised gaming tax and VAT framework introduced by LN 84/2026 and LN 86/2026 entered into force on 1 October 2026. The Malta Gaming Authority has confirmed a transitional reporting mechanism: submissions for the September 2026 reporting period remain due on 20 October 2026, completed in accordance with the requirements applicable to that reporting period under the prior regime, while new-regime portal functionality becomes live from 1 November 2026. The practical cost impact is administrative rather than a change in tax rate or base: operators must correctly apply the prior regime's filing requirements to the September period notwithstanding the new framework's nominal commencement, and should expect full operational use of the new portal only from November onward.

Legal Notice 84 of 2026 consolidates Malta's gaming tax and gaming device levy into a single structure effective 1 October 2026, setting rates of fifteen per cent of aggregate gaming revenue for Type 1 services and ten per cent for Types 2, 3 and 4, the latter including controlled skill games, with controlled gaming premises and junkets taxed at five per cent. For remote services, taxability turns on the player's establishment, permanent address or usual residence rather than physical presence. The same instrument introduces a new Studio Broadcasting Levy of three thousand euro per year for critical gaming supply studios and deletes a prior regulation that had sat alongside the former levy mechanism. Layered on top, Legal Notice 86 of 2026 narrows the VAT exemption for gambling services from the same date, bringing remote betting, RNG casino, poker and bingo within VAT in principle, subject to place-of-supply rules confining the Maltese charge to Malta-resident customers. Together these instruments raise the cost-to-operate baseline for every licence type from 1 October 2026.

Legal Notices 84 and 86 of 2026, both effective 1 October 2026, materially reset Malta's cost-to-operate basis for gambling licensees. Legal Notice 86 amended the VAT Act so that the VAT exemption for gambling supplies now applies only to low-risk games, approved occasional junket events, and on-site betting facilities for live sporting events; other gaming services lose blanket exemption, become VAT-taxable, and gain a right to recover eligible input VAT. Legal Notice 84 amended the Gaming Tax Regulations to consolidate the gaming tax and the gaming device levy into a single tax structure keyed to game type and mode of offer. Operators filing for the September 2026 period remain subject to the prior regime for that submission, with filings due by 20 October 2026, notwithstanding that the new structure is already in force for current activity. The combined effect is a joint shift in both the VAT treatment and the underlying tax calculation methodology that licensees must now model together.

From 1 October 2026, the Gaming Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2026 replace Malta's flat five per cent gaming tax with rates differentiated by service type and abolish the existing device-based levy; local casino revenue is separately reported as rising from five per cent to fifteen per cent from the same date. From the same effective date, Legal Notice 86 of 2026 narrows the VAT exemption under Item 9 of the Fifth Schedule to the VAT Act (Cap. 406) to 'betting, lotteries and other forms of gambling, as may be approved by the Minister', moving a wider range of gambling and business-to-business platform and game-supplier supplies from VAT-exempt to taxable status. Together, these two instruments represent a material and near-term increase in the cost base for Malta-licensed operators, with 1 October 2026 as the operative planning date across both the direct gaming-tax and indirect VAT dimensions of the cost structure.

The Gaming Tax (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, issued under Article 12 of the Gaming Act and confirmed at Tier 1 by both the Malta Gaming Authority and PwC Malta, restructure Malta's gaming tax basis from a flat statutory rate to differentiated rates set by service type. The regulations abolish the existing device-based levy entirely and introduce a higher fixed studio broadcasting levy, with all changes effective 1 October 2026. As subordinate regulations made under the enabling Act rather than primary legislation itself, this instrument carries mixed durability: it can be revised again by the same mechanism without recourse to full legislative process. The practical effect for operators is increased compliance complexity, since the applicable tax rate now turns on classifying revenue by service type rather than applying a single uniform figure, and operators with studio-broadcast exposure face a materially higher fixed levy under the new schedule. This is a confirmed, structural cost-side tightening that should be built into any Malta cost model ahead of the October 2026 effective date.

Malta's cost-to-operate picture shifted materially this cycle. Legal Notice 84 of 2026 replaces the prior flat five per cent gaming tax and twelve-and-a-half to thirty per cent device levy with a fifteen per cent tax on Type 1 games' aggregate gaming revenue, effective 1 October 2026, abolishing the device levy and introducing a new three-thousand-euro annual studio broadcasting levy; the equivalent tiered rates for Type 2 through 4 games are not yet fully resolved. Compounding this, Legal Notice 86 of 2026 narrows the VAT exemption under Item 9 of the Fifth Schedule of the VAT Act to betting, lotteries, and other Minister-approved forms of gambling, per MTCA Guidelines issued 6 April 2026, bringing some previously exempt gambling-service flows into VAT scope. Both instruments carry mixed durability, resting on primary tax statutes implemented through ministerial legal notices, and together they raise the effective cost base for both incumbents and new entrants from 1 October 2026.