SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Lithuania’s Gaming Control Authority (GCA) has publically criticised Stockholm-listed European online betting operator Unibet, for allegedly breaching its online gambling policies.
The GCA who under the authority of Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance issued a blacklist in January, detailing Unibet, William Hill and Betway amongst European operators deemed to have breached national gambling laws, stated that Unibet had breached laws by advertising services to Lithuanian consumers.
Current GCA laws only permit operators with Lithuanian land based assets to offer online gambling services. At present Losimu Strategine Grupe, which operates under the brand of TonyBet, Orakulas and Olympic Casino Group are the only operators allowed to operate online gambling services.
GCA governance stated that the operator had been ‘purposely malicious’ stating that its market presence was ‘infringing legal requirements of the Republic of Lithuania by continually changing internet domain names systematically and persisting in violating the Gaming Law.’
In January Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaitė granted the GCA more power to restrict the services of operators deemed to be unlicensed, giving the authority the right to block ISP and penalise banks for processing transactions with unlicensed betting operators.
Unibet governance has hit back at the GCA and Lithuanian governments actions, stating that its gambling laws and frameworks were currently ‘unenforceable’.
