Lithuanian gambling authorities warn illegal bookmakers

The Gaming Control Authority, a part of the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania, announced that it issued a warning to every sports betting company operating in the country regarding illegal remote betting activity.

What will Lithuania's GCA do?

On 25 October, the Authority published a notification which mentioned that only adequately licensed companies have special permission to conduct online betting operations in the country. According to the Lithuanian legislation, the Gaming Control Authority is permitted to take regulatory measures and set penalties against operators that violate the Gaming Law.

An Authority spokesperson stated: “The provisions of national legal acts do not provide for the possibility to remove the reference to the subject (gambling operator) from the Blacklist; if the subject was identified as an illegal gambling operator in Lithuania, the domain was blocked and blacklisted. The only possibility to be removed from the Blacklist is to receive a license and permit to organize remote gambling in Lithuania, as it is established in the Gaming Law.”

The regulator’s actions mirror those of numerous other European countries that have been determinedly trying to limit the negative impact of having unlicensed gambling operators in their markets. Recently, the Swedish government also spoke on its decision to tighten its rules. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities gave 3 days warning to all unlicensed sites to terminate their operations, and the Dutch authorities vowed to combat unlicensed gambling sites.