Malta Gaming Authority Got Itself a New CEO: Carl Brincat

Article by : Helen Feb 2, 2021

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After several months without a chief executive officer at the helm, the Maltese gambling regulator finally announced who got lucky enough to take up its CEO role. Having spent three weeks on the selection process that followed an open call for applications, the Board of Directors settled on Dr. Carl Brincat, effective immediately after the announcement’s publication on January 26.

Before he was appointed Malta Gaming Authority’s CEO, Carl Brincat served as the regulator’s Chief Legal & Enforcement Officer. After finishing his criminal law training, he has been a part of the Maltese regulator’s legal team for more than six years, with four of them being a part of “forming the strategic direction of the Authority.”

MGA’s new CEO is also a board member of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, a Maltese government agency dedicated to fighting money laundering and the funding of terrorism. Malta Gaming Authority opened a public call for the position in the middle of December, with the deadline for application on January 4. This was the first time the regulator decided to find the new chief executive officer by announcing a public call.

According to the published call for applications, the selected candidate will report to the Board of Directors and will be responsible for “defining the [regulator’s] strategy and directing and managing such implementation,” “sustaining and reformulating MGA’s branding and positioning strategy,” as well as “ensuring respectful and effective communication between the Board and the stakeholders,” among other things.

In an official statement on his appointment, Carl Brincat commented on how thrilled he is about the appointment and what course he would like to set for the regulator: “It is an honour to be selected to lead the organization at such a critical juncture for the MGA and the industry alike. I am proud of the work that has been done by the Authority so far in raising regulatory standards and committed to ensuring that we continue along this path.

However, it is essential that we cultivate stronger partnerships with other regulators and stakeholders, and the industry itself, to achieve a regulatory environment that accomplishes the MGA’s objectives as set out in the law in the most effective, transparent, and proportionate manner.

Malta Gaming Authority had to go on without a chief executive officer after Heathcliff Farrugia, MGA’s previous CEO appointed in 2018, decided not to renew his contract with the regulator in October last year. And he wasn’t the only one to call quits: Karl Brincat Peplow, who was serving as the regulator’s officer for authorizations, also decided to “seek new ventures” at the same time as Farrugia.

Heathcliff Farrugia’s time at the Malta Gaming Authority will likely be remembered by his “sour” relationship with the regulator’s board of governors that broke the news in 2019. The two parties’ strain led to MGA operating without the board for four months as the Maltese government didn’t extend its members’ terms.

Farrugia might have also been involved in a notorious murder case, which could be one of the reasons he decided not to renew his contract at MGA. According to a Times of Malta report published in November last year, Farrugia was questioned in the case over his “alleged communications at some length” with Yorgen Fenech. Fenech is a businessman mostly dealing with casinos and hostels in Malta who has been charged with complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist.

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