Actualités des opérateurs
Latvia – Latvian gaming up 18 per cent despite Riga closures
By Phil - 5 août 2019
Land-based slot machines helped drive Latvian gambling revenues up by 17.7 per cent to €154.5m during the first six months of the year.
The Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection (IAUI) published results showing the country’s slot machines generated GGR of €111.5m, an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to the first half of 2018. Traditional table games produced GGR of €8.1m, up 2.6 per cent whilst bingo generated revenues of €123,000, an increase of 37 per cent in the first six months.
Online and mobile gambling jumped 38.8 per cent from €18.2m to €25.4m with online casino games proving most popular with a revenue increase of 40.1 per cent to €18.1m. Online sports betting increased by 35.3 per cent to €7.1m.
Latvia’s gambling revenue increased by 11.7 per cent in 2018 to reach €277.701m.
Growth in the land-based sector is likely to be curbed though with the government trying to ban all casinos and slot halls in the capital except in four and five-star hotels. This will only leave a handful of casinos including Olympic Voodoo Casino located in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Shangri La Casino located in Kempinski Hotel Riga, Empire Casino and lounge in Mercure Riga Centre and Royal Casino Spa. Olympic Entertainment Group currently operates 29 casinos in the Latvian capital.
The first wave of closures saw 42 gambling venues in the historical center of the Latvian capital closed in 2017 in Riga. No new licenses have been issued since 2011.
The government crackdown has been extended to online gaming with the IAUI blocking 51 domain names and 87 IP addresses.
