The Malta Gaming Authority ended December 2025 with 302 licensed companies holding 311 gaming licences, down from 323 licences and 315 companies a year earlier and from 326 licences held by 316 companies in 2023. Over the same two years, the sector's contribution to the Maltese economy moved in the opposite direction, rising from €1,323.6 million in gross value added to €1,422.0 million. The figures come from the Authority's annual report and financial statements for 2025, published this month.

Consolidation, in the regulator's own words

The Authority does not treat the shrinking register as a setback. It describes the reduction in entities and licences as consistent with an industry "transitioning towards a more mature phase" and undergoing what it calls strategic consolidation, with operators aligning licensing strategies across multiple jurisdictions and restructuring around compliance priorities.

The mechanics behind the fall are visible in the licensing tables. Twenty-eight licences were surrendered during 2025, against 20 the year before. At the same time the number of applications rejected, withdrawn or cancelled dropped sharply, to 11 from 20 in 2024, while new applications received rose to 38 from 28.

Most of the new licences are business-to-business

The composition of new activity matters as much as the total. Of the 38 applications received in 2025, 24 were for B2B authorisations, and of the 19 new licences issued, 12 were likewise B2B. Renewals followed the same pattern, with four of the eight licences renewed relating to existing B2B permissions. The growth in Malta's register is coming from suppliers of platforms, games and services rather than from new consumer-facing brands.

That distinction is easy to lose in a headline licence count. A platform supplier does not take player registrations, so a register of 311 overstates how much consumer choice sits behind it. Compilations of casino sites licensed in Malta cover only the B2C end of that register, and on the 2025 figures the B2C end is not the one expanding. The Authority has meanwhile been explicit about steering the sector towards new business models and a larger role in the international B2B landscape, an ambition that also runs through Malta's push into games and e-sports.

Output and employment moved the other way

Gross value added of €1,422.0 million represented a 3.5% increase on 2024 and about 6.3% of Malta's overall economic output, a share the Authority puts at 8.2% once wider spillover effects across the economy are counted. The underlying estimates are drawn from National Statistics Office data.

Employment rose in step. Roughly 15,039 people were working in Malta with MGA-licensed operators at the end of 2025, a 4.8% increase in full-time equivalent terms on 2024 and up from 13,404 in 2023. Of those, 950 were with land-based establishments and 10,115 were engaged on activities covered by an MGA licence, while a further 3,974 worked for MGA licensees on activities licensed in other jurisdictions or providing services to Malta-licensed firms. Fewer licence holders supporting more output and more jobs is, in effect, a productivity story, and one that mirrors a wider debate about where Maltese growth comes from next.

What the Authority collected, and what it enforced

During 2025 the MGA collected €82.4 million in compliance contributions, licence fees, levies and consumption tax. On the enforcement side, the annual report and financial statements record 35 cease and desist letters, 22 warnings and 30 administrative penalties totalling €162,520, alongside one licence suspension and two cancellations. The penalty total splits almost evenly between two enforcement streams, with five cases accounting for €81,400 of it and the remaining 25 for €81,120.

A shorter register is not the same as a smaller industry. On the 2025 figures, Malta is regulating fewer companies that are producing more.