Latvia Records Increase in 2019 Revenues

Latvia has just unveiled an increase in gambling revenues for about 1/3 at the end of 2019. The result represents a new record for the Baltic country promising to deliver additional progress to the local sector.

According to Latvia’s Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia (IAUI) report, the licensed operators in the country marked €307m in revenues which is 10.5% better from 2018 figures.

Land-based slots are the most preferred option for local customers with three-quarters of total gambling in 2019. Only from land-based pokies, the country generated €231.6m while table chances brought €17.3m in revenues, land-based sports betting climbed to €3.2m and brick and mortar bingo reached the level of €232k.

There are 14 online gambling operators which saw €54.7m in revenues, which is a 32.8% year-on-year increase. The most favorable options were casino games with €39.3m generated income, sports betting with €14.9m and poker with €423k. All these contributed to the overall growth of the industry for 61% compared to the 2018 result. 

During the last quarter of 2019, the online gambling sector boosted in performance compared to any other option. Only in this period, overall gaming revenue stood at €15.9m or 18.4% higher than Q3 figure and 27% better than Q4 2018. 

Latvia’s Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection strives to secure a competitive position for the local gambling operators who are endangered by international gambling providers. For this reason, the country blocked about 68 gambling domains which resulted in the total number of blocked platforms to 1,206 as of August 2014.

It is expected that the Latvia online gambling market will continue with regular growth. The country has already introduced new payment processing restrictions starting from January 1. All these limits will be applicable on individual gamblers who could experience fines of €350 for using unallowed sites and penalties for tax evasion of illicit winnings.

The country has recently introduced a gambling self-exclusion regisrty and more than 5,400 individuals have signed up for the option. Additionally, Latvia’s Ministry of Health mentioned that 16k Latvians are in jeopardy of gambling addiction.

The county has been facing ongoing attempts of land-based casino restrictions. The same efforts remain in the force with the northern city of Ventspils announcing the ban of gambling activity outside of four- or five-star hotels. The same decision was firstly introduced by capital Riga in 2017. It is still to be seen how gamblers will react to all these changes.

Source: Strradbrooke, Steven. “Latvia’s online gambling market sets revenue record in 2019“. Calvin Ayre. March 4, 2020.