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Malta’s gambling regulator has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) gaming charter after finding that governance is struggling to keep pace as the technology becomes more widely used across the sector.
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), working alongside the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA), drafted the voluntary charter following extensive surveys and interviews with industry licensees.
That study found that AI adoption across the gambling industry remained uneven. It highlighted customer support, data analytics, fraud detection, and responsible gaming as areas where the technology was already being heavily used.
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Operating profit rose to €227.7 million, up from €220.6 million, while profit for the period reached €234.2 million, compared to €229.6 million a year earlier.
The company attributed this positive financial momentum to growth within its digital channels.
Digital gross gaming revenue represented 64.5% of the parent company’s total in H1, up 3.6 percentage points from the previous year.
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Bally’s has been granted two years’ worth of extensions for the permanent project. State law allows for two-year temporary licences, but the Illinois Gaming Board approved an extension to three years in 2023. That pushed the deadline to this September, but Bally’s ultimately received another year’s worth of extensions through language included in the state’s omnibus revenue bill that was passed in June.
If the latest extension had not been granted, Bally’s would have had to close its temporary casino at Medinah Temple until the permanent venue was completed. That would have resulted in multiple months with no revenue in the market, but Kim told iGB at the East Coast Gaming Congress in April that a closure of the temporary site was “not the end of the world”.
Meanwhile, Bally’s is forging ahead with an even bigger project to the east, its $4 billion Bally’s Bronx resort in New York City. The company was one of three NYC licence winners last year, alongside Resorts World New York City and Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park.