The government noted that online gambling participation with unlicensed operators will be significantly restricted following the signing of the law.

Lithuania’s gambling regulations

The Lithuanian government consulted relevant financial institutions on the amendments to the law and concluded that payments should be blocked for users when they attempt to gamble through unlicensed gambling portals. This works to increase gambling protections and contribute to overall increased transparency in the gambling sector.

One issue highlighted was that current payment procedures do not provide the necessary data to block prohibited transactions, including the recipient’s legal entity, company code and bank account number. This has historically hindered the financial institutions’ ability to properly implement the mandatory payment blocking instructions from gambling regulators.

As such, the Gaming Supervisory Authority (LPT) will compile a list of companies entitled to conduct remote gaming activities in Lithuania. The whitelist that authorises businesses to conduct payments as usual will include only the licenced operators.

Payment service providers who do not comply with the new law within 24 hours of receiving a directive could be subject to fines ranging from EUR 1,800 to EUR 3,800. The LPT supports applying direct controls on banks as the best measure to monitor black market activities, having already banned 1,600 websites from Lithuania’s markets.

The government noted that it also accounted for measures to combat unlicensed remote gambling during the initial regulation of the activity in 2015. The LPT blocked 1,809 illegal sites from 2016 to the end of 2024 and has issued mandatory instructions for payment service providers to block payments. Despite the efforts, in 2021 illegal online gambling activities still accounted for 15%, or EUR 18 million, of Lithuania’s gambling market. Lithuania’s Treasury believes that illegal gambling has cost the government a liability of EUR 2 million in uncollected taxes.

The Lithuanian government projects that the new system will ultimately prove more effective than the previous ad-hoc approach. Moreover, from 2 July 2025, the country will increase its legal gambling age from 18 to 21, approved as a new amendment to the Gambling Law. The age restriction will apply to all gambling activities (land-based and online), except for national lottery draws.

Further developments see Lithuania’s gambling sector awaiting the decision of the Ministry of Finance to impose a new tax framework on gambling income in 2025, which will increase the tax rate on slots, casino games, and online gambling to 22%.