Latvian online gambling sets up a new record by securing a rise in its revenue by a decent margin of around 33% in the past year.
Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia (IAUI) releases its new report that mentions a profit of 10.5% more than that in 2018. The total annual revenue generated by the licensed online gambling operators was around €307m in the past year.
An overwhelming three-quarter of the generated revenue came from land-based slots that brought in €231.6m (+6.7% of the total from 2019). Table casino games added the second most value by bringing in €17.3m (+4%), while sports betting (land-based establishments) came in third by generating a revenue of €3.2m (+16.8%). Last but not the least, land-based bingo managed to bring out €232k (+8.2%) of the total revenue.
There are a total of 14 licensed gambling operators in Latvia that altogether brought in total revenue of €54.7m in 2019 (which has risen by 32.8% on a year-to-year basis). Casino games seemed to be the prominent factor that brought in a revenue of €39.3m (+42.5%). Sports betting is another category that chipped in a total of €14.9m (+12.3%) of the entire review. However, poker showed an overwhelming response by bringing in an astounding 61% increase from 2018, with a total revenue generation of up to €423k.
The most amount of profits were claimed in the last quarter of 2019. A total of €15.9m was generated in Q4 through online gambling that constituted up to 18.4% increase than the total revenue generated in quarter 3 ( about 27% higher than what was generated in Q4 of 2018). This sets up a new record in the online gambling market today.
The IAUI is known for its efforts in providing a fair chance to local online gambling operators to compete against some of the better known international brands. Last year, the lAUI was responsible for blocking 68 more unauthorized gambling sites. Thus, a total of 1,206 such domains have been blocked since August 2014, till the present date.
It has been perceived that this trend in the growth of the online gambling industry will continue to grow in the future as well. This is attributed to the fact of restriction in payment processing that was implemented on January 1st this year. To add to these restrictions, individual Latvian gamblers might be fined with a total of €350 for visiting and using the services of unauthorised gambling sites, as well as inability to pay taxes on such illegal earnings.
In order to curb the growing trend in gambling addiction, a registry was put into effect on January 1st as well. About 5400 Latvians registered themselves in this program since its inception. It has been estimated by the Latvian Health Ministry that about 16000 people are susceptible to this addiction – a serious growth in the trend.
However, land-based gambling establishments might get the blow in the near future. The northern city of Ventspils had taken a serious step in restricting all gambling practices that were being held outside the registered premises of four- or five-star hotels. This has already been done in Riga back in 2017. There might be a possible chance of stricter curtailing in the future as well.
