Latvia's parliament to vote on tougher gambling rules
Latvia's Budget and Finance Committee has approved amendments that would raise the gambling age to 21, cap online play and tighten licence conditions, setting up a vote in the incoming Saeima.
Latvia is moving closer to a significant tightening of its gambling laws after the Saeima's Budget and Finance Committee backed a package of amendments to the Gambling and Lotteries Law, SBC News has reported.
The committee reached its decision following discussion on Wednesday 21 October. The measures have been placed on the agenda for the 15th Saeima, though no date has yet been set for them to take effect.
Among the central changes is a rise in the minimum age for gambling from 18 to 21, a threshold that would also apply to anyone buying retail lottery tickets.
Venues would be required to close between 6am and 9am, while online operators would need to limit each customer to 21 hours of gambling activity within any rolling 24-hour period, monitored through continuous play tracking across all licences.
The reforms also call for a single verification standard for online players. Operators would have to connect to a shared system designed to flag addiction risk, using personalised smartcards or similar technology to identify customers.
Further provisions would widen visitor registration requirements beyond casinos, lift the minimum number of machines required in gaming halls from 20 to 25, and standardise signage and shopfront design across premises.
The package follows a restructuring of Latvia's gambling oversight earlier this year. SBC News reported in April that the Lottery and Gambling Supervision Inspectorate had been folded into the State Revenue Service, bringing licensing, compliance and inspection work for gambling and tax matters under one roof rather than a dedicated regulator.
The State Revenue Service subsequently set up separate divisions covering licensing and compliance, and remote and on-site inspections. The Finance Ministry has said the merger was intended to cut duplication and sharpen oversight as online gambling takes up a larger share of the market.
Finance Minister Arvils Ašeradens set out the restructuring in September 2025, alongside plans to raise gambling duties from January 2026. Those changes include lifting the interactive gambling tax from 12% to 15%, and betting and wagering duty from 15% to 18%. Annual machine duties were due to rise from €6,204 to €7,440, and duties on roulette, card and dice tables from €33,696 to €40,440.
Industry groups have pushed back on parts of the new package. Latvia's licensed gambling association has estimated that raising the minimum machine count could force roughly 30 gaming halls to shut, put 240 jobs at risk and cut annual gambling tax revenue by €4.46m, while warning that stricter rules risk driving players toward unlicensed offshore sites.
The Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said it supports individual risk-monitoring measures but opposes the higher machine threshold, the online time cap and the extra data obligations placed on operators.
Committee chair Aiva Vīksna has conceded that elements of the proposals will need revisiting so they better match how the market currently operates.
It now falls to the incoming Saeima to decide whether to advance the legislation and how to weigh stronger safeguards for players against the risk of pushing activity into the unregulated market.