Online gambling & crime : an indissoluble relationship?

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on Malta‟s remote gaming industry and how crime impacts said industry. This research study primarily reviews already recognized literature in order to establish a comparative background model of how crime infiltrates and affects the remote gaming industry outside Malta. Said literature points out the most notable crimes (frauds, money laundering, match fixing, and distributed denial of service attacks) that are operated through the remote gaming platform and how these crimes are unique yet entail various methods. A qualitative approach entailing semi-structured interviews with professionals and stakeholders who are innate with the remote gaming industry in Malta is the research method that has been chosen for this research study. This method has provided the dissertation with vital, honest, and accurate information regarding crime in remote gaming that could have not been procured from any sort of literature. Said research led to various conclusions. First and foremost, it has been concluded that crime does exist in Malta‟s remote gaming industry and the interviewed professionals and stakeholders are all clearly aware of the existence of crime in this industry. Furthermore, it has been concluded that crime in the remote gaming industry, like jurisdictions abroad, is very much under researched and statistics regarding the subject matter is not properly conducted. A more notable conclusion was the fact that a vast dark figure of crime looms over the remote gaming industry in Malta having most crimes very much under-reported whilst some are not even reported at all, even though said crimes involve significant financial figures. It is being suggested that further studies regarding gaming operators‟ reaction to crime, the forthcoming European Union‟s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive impact on crime in Malta‟s remote gaming industry, and the influence of organised crime in the remote gaming industry is conducted.