MGA (Malta Gaming Authority)
The Malta Gaming Authority is Malta’s regulator for online and land-based gaming, and one of the most widely recognised iGaming licensors. An MGA licence signals a regulated operator to payment providers and banks, and it carries player-fund, AML, and reporting obligations.
For an iGaming operator, the gaming licence and the banking are linked: many acquirers and banks will only touch licensed operators, so the MGA route often has to be sequenced ahead of, or alongside, the banking search. Treating licence and banking as one project rather than two avoids a gap where you are licensed but cannot get paid.
A segregated account holds client funds separately from a firm’s own operating capital, so client money is never at risk if the firm becomes insolvent.
A high-risk merchant is a business that card networks and acquirers classify as carrying elevated risk of chargebacks, fraud, or regulatory exposure, based on its industry, model, or history.
Anti-Money Laundering is the framework of laws, controls, and monitoring a regulated firm must run to detect and prevent the movement of illicit funds.
The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission is Cyprus’s financial regulator, widely used to license forex and investment firms operating across the EU.