Latvian Gambling Regulator Reveals Surge in 2019 First-half Revenues

Mike P. - August 16, 2019

Industry Legal

Latvia’s gambling regulator has announced year-on-year increases for the first half of 2019 across all major verticals found in the marketplace.

Latvia’s Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection (IAUI) body has unveiled a set of figures that show striking growth for the nation’s regulated gambling market, with performances excelling across all published verticals.

When comparing the first half of 2018 with that of 2019, the IAUI find that there was a year-on-year increase in gambling revenue from €134.6 million to €154.5 million, representing growth of 14.7%. For the same period, there was a 15.2% rise in gambling income from €99.9 million to €111.5 million.

The IAUI delved deep into the figures to determine that Latvia’s licensed operators drew the majority of their income from gambling machines. In this vertical, the year-on-year growth was 11.5% and the income reached €111.5 million.

iGaming Performance

The financial reporting also shone a light on iGaming, which was revealed to have risen from €18.2 million to €25.4 million, thus accounting for a dramatic year-on-year increase of 38.8%. All signs suggest that more Latvian residents are turning to online gambling.

In breaking down iGaming, it transpired that online casino games generated the most income at €18.1 million, which was are 40.1% rise. Table games rose only marginally by 2.6% to €8.1 million, and an increase of 35.3% then saw online betting income reach €7.1 million.

At the same time, there was a 65.9% increase for card tournaments on €193,482, and online bingo was also able to secure a healthy increase, growing by 37.0% year-on-year to reach the €123,000 threshold.

Blacklisting Unlicensed Domains

Next to those figures, the IAUI provided an update relating to the body’s efforts to stamp out illegal online gambling. The main efforts pertained to restricting players from signing up with gambling operators licensed outside of the country.

As part of the process, the IAUI was able to block a total of 87 IP addresses and 51 domain names. Going back to August 2014, the IAUI has since blocked 2,478 IP addresses and 1,166 domain names.