Italian Mafia bust implicates Malta in illegal gambling scandal
Malta has made headlines for all the wrong reasons once again due to its online gambling sector as a new investigation revealed a mafia group, the Santapaola-Ercolano clan, had run an illegal betting empire while basing their servers in Malta.
‘Operation Double Game‘ by the Organised Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigated some 336 individuals involved
in the online gambling scheme in Sicily, Puglia, Emiliana Romagna, Germany,
Poland and Malta.
The criminals set up a sports betting site called
RaiseBet24.com which, despite being unauthorised to operate in Italy, based its
servers in Malta to bypass the rules.
They then encouraged illegal ‘over-the-counter’ bets in
Italy which gathered more than €62 million. These illicit funds were then
funnelled into companies in Italy and Germany.
OCCRP reports that this is a common modus operandi for the
Italian Mafia. It also notes that “Maltese online gambling is an infamous cash
cow” for Italian criminals. They have infiltrated the market by making deals
with the owners of legitimate sites, many of whom have incorporated in Malta
due to its “favourable” fiscal regime.
Malta’s online gambling sector has been involved in a number
of high profile cases in recent years such as Operation Beta, led by the
Italian Carabinieri in 2017. This case was also linked to the
Santapaola-Erculano clan and saw 30 people arrested as a part of a clampdown on
illegal gambling and money laundering.
In the same year, Benedetto Bacci was arrested along with 31
others in an illegal gambling bust. He was believed to have entered into an
agreement with the Costa Nostra from Palermo. The accused had been using a
Maltese company, Phoenix International Ltd, to launder the flow of cash from
illegal gambling operations.
In 2018, Italian authorities seized more than €20 million in
assets from a group accused of managing an illicit online gambling business on
behalf of ‘Ndrangheta. They seized Malta company and online gambling license
holder Centurionbet and a number of bars and betting shops in Calabria.
Centurionbet allegedly entered into a commercial
relationship with an ‘Ndrangheta associated company. Prosecutors said they were
“well aware” of what they were doing. It’s reported the Maltese company made
some €5 million in illicit profits from the scam.
A report published in 2018 by two Italian organisations
claimed that Malta’s tax regime and its geographical proximity to Italy made it
an appealing option for both legal and illegal businesses.
Dipartimento Investigativo Antimafia (DIA) noted that
“thanks to a privileged fiscal system and a rapid process to set up a company,
in the last few years, Malta attracted large investments, even from Italian
criminal organisations”.
DIA reports from 2016 point to the same Santapaola-Ercolano
clan and their involvement in weapon trafficking, fuel smuggling, and illicit
gambling, all involving links to Malta.
Malta’s gambling industry has led to problems for other EU
countries. Sergio Nazzaro, journalist and adviser to the Parliamentary
Anti-Mafia Commission, told the OCCRP that this issue is being exported to
countries like Poland and Germany.
He added that the COVID pandemic further exacerbated the
issue. And it looks set to get worse. Estimates put the global value of the
online gambling industry at $160 billion by 2026 giving ample opportunity to
those looking to launder illicit funds.
In 2015, the Malta Gaming Authority said that 10 out of
every 200 licenses were held by Italians. This was the same year they revoked
the licences of nine companies including BetUniq, for links to the Calabrian
Mafia. The OCCRP referred to Malta in 2018 as the “ATM for the Italian Mafia”.
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