Lithuanian MPs Proposing to Further Tighten Gambling Advertising

VILNIUS, Lithuania (February 12, 2024) — Lithuanian MPs registered amendments to the Gambling Law proposing to further tighten gambling advertising in the country as of 2025, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) reported Monday.

According to LRT around 50 MPs, mostly from the ruling majority, have signed the amendments proposing to prohibit the dissemination of information of the gambling companies sponsoring any public events, activities, natural or legal persons.

If adopted, the amendments would eliminate the advertising of betting, wagers, and casinos on television, in newspapers, magazines, or news websites, and on street billboards. Neither the names nor the logos of gambling operators could appear on the jerseys of athletes and in arenas during the sporting events.

Companies would only be able to publish information on the types of gambling at the gambling venue or on the compan’s website, the address of which is specified in the Gambling Regulation.

It is proposed to allow gambling companies to publish information on gambling only in publications aimed at professionals in the business. They could advertise their name and brand on their head office building or gambling venue.

Lithuanian MPs have started considering tightening the requirements for gambling advertising amid allegations that Šarūnas Stepukonis, a former BaltCap Infrastructure Fund partner, has embezzled and gambled away millions of euros of the fund’s money.

Gambled away millions of euros from the Foundation’s companies, and that the gambling company Olympic Casino Group Baltija has publicly attempted to shrug off its responsibility.

The initiator of the amendments, Mindaugas Lingė of the ruling conservative Homeland Union, has previously said that last year the total revenue of gambling operators amounted to 222 million euros, up from 103 million euros in 2020.

The amount spent on advertising in the gambling business doubled from 6.36 million euros in 2020 to 12.73 million euros in 2023. Gambling operators’ profits increase from 20 million euros in 2020 to more than 53 million euros in 2022.

SOURCE: Lithuanian National Radio and Television