SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Gaming Control Authority of Lithuania, which serves under the country’s Ministry of Finance, has hardened its stance against unlicensed online operators deemed to be targeting national consumers.
The Authority has issued a warning to non-compliant businesses, reiterating that only licensed operators with special permission for online gambling are authorised to offer online gambling services.
It maintains that any active online companies that are not licensed for online gambling and have not secured the correct permits are acting illegally.
These requirements and regulations of online gaming operators are established in the Gaming Law of the Republic of Lithuania.
In a statement, the Control Authority said that it “strongly recommends all online gambling operators, to review all their activities related to remote gambling in the Republic of Lithuania and take actions to ensure that such services are not available for Lithuanian customers”.
Now that the sites have been identified, the Control Authority is now authorised to take appropriate measures under the scope of the Lithuanian Gaming Law, in particular payment blocking and DNS blocking.
The regulatory body has further outlined that any betting and gaming websites without the required permits have been entered into the country’s ‘blacklist’ of illegal gambling operators – which the regulator expanded during 2021 to include the domains of Betway, Unibet, William Hill, PokerStars, Marathonbet and 188 BET.
Last year, the Vilnius Seimas (Parliament) approved further amendments to the ‘Republic’s Gaming Law’ delegating further market controls and duties to the Gaming Control Authority as national regulator.
The Authority moved to enforce new safer gambling standards on operator advertising duties, whilst further applying new transparency measures on licensed company ownership and management.
