Malta, through its Malta Gaming Authority, has published its recommended guidance on making use of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technology in the online gaming space of the nation.
This document is presently available to the public for feedback. It also explains why the body must protect their consumers; prevent crimes such as money laundering and other crimes. The body set out a criterion in the paper that will help inform a structured regulatory sandbox environment. However, the sandbox may result in new guidelines and rules for cryptocurrency trading exchange and the remote gaming ecosystem of the country.
The exceptions for brands
It is worthy to note that companies that intend to accept digital currencies may have to satisfy a wide range of conditions. Some of these conditions include ensuring that the cryptocurrencies offer both technological and financial value and that they can enter cryptocurrency trading exchange platforms with competitive market capitalization. These currencies must also be integral to the use case of the company.
The regulator states that it will assess each cryptocurrency to offer final approval over the power of a company to use it in their businesses. Custom tokens are not exempted from this new regulation as similar conditions also apply to them as well as reported in the document.
As a part of the sandbox, all games hosted by the operator has to make use of a distributed ledger. This will help maintain transparency while proving the fairness of the games.
The Malta Gaming Authority, in their statement, said:
“During the time of the sandbox, the Gaming Authority will only accept games that are fully or partially hosted on the Blockchain environment, as long as the operator ensures that the gaming service isn’t unduly disrupted by the operational setup.”
Further, the guidelines specify how the AML procedures will be undertaken. It also notes that the operators must make plans for all risks that may arise or be aggravated by using custom tokens or cryptocurrencies as a method of funding.
