Latvia resumes gambling reform bill with raising age to 21

Latvia’s Budget and Finance Committee presents its long-delayed gaming reform bundle for very first parliamentary reading. The propositions will raise the minimum gaming age to 21 and present more stringent player-monitoring requirements.

The committee backed the changes in concept on October 21, more than 2 years after the government-backed expense was described it on September 26, 2024. No application date has actually been set, and the present committee plans to leave the staying work to the next parliament. The next Saeima will figure out which arrangements continue through subsequent readings.

Proposed guidelines tightening up online and land-based gaming

The bundle consists of numerous procedures impacting betting operators and gamers. It will raise the legal from 18 to 21 and forbid under-18s from acquiring retail lotto tickets. The operation sin betting locations will be needed to stop briefly operations in between 6am and 9am.

Online betting would be restricted to 21 hours within any 24-hour duration, whether played in one session or a number of. The visitor-registration will be broadened and increased video-recording retention from 7 days to a minimum of 30 days. In video gaming halls the minimum variety of the makers in hall will be increased be 20-25.

Latvia’s certified gaming association likewise alerts that increasing the minimum variety of video gaming makers per hall might require around 30 locations to close, put 240 tasks at threat and decrease yearly betting tax profits by around EUR4.46 million. The association has actually required modifications, arguing that betting behaviour and the marketplace have actually altered significantly considering that the legal procedure started in 2019.

The arrangements are illegal yet unless the legislation is passed and works.

Market agents argue that targeted tracking would use a more proportional technique than broad constraints impacting all gamers and operators.

With the expense now approaching the inbound parliament, the last shape of Latvia’s gaming structure stays unpredictable. The 15th Saeima will identify whether the proposed safeguards advance, go through significant modifications or are dropped entirely.