Information from the Latvian Lotteries and Gambling Supervision Inspection indicates that the total turnover of gambling companies was EUR 290.534 million in 2022. Profits from gambling reached EUR 264.775 million that year.
The industry’s revenue from slot machines was EUR 131.129 million, whereas revenue from interactive gambling was EUR 123.988 million.
The inspection notes: because gambling halls were closed for more than four months in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic, and then interactive gambling was closed for two months (almost eight months in 2021),
it is not possible to objectively compared the industry’s financial indexes of 2021 and 2022.
Compared with 2019, gambling industry’s turnover went down by 11.4% and profits went down by 13.8% last year.
Composed information indicates that gambling in Latvia is organised by 19 companies. Eight of them manage gambling halls and casinos, four businesses operate betting venues, and 17 manage interactive gambling. There are 2 722 people employed in various gambling companies.
Data indicates that between December 2019 and December 2022 the number of gambling halls in Latvia has gone down from 310 to 203. The number of slot machines has gone down from 8 720 to 4 999. At the end of 2022 there were two casinos and 70 betting venues in Latvia. A total of 74 gambling licences were annulled in 2022, including 58 gambling hall licences, one casino licence, one bingo hall licence and 14 betting venue licences.
Last year the state budget received EUR 39.880 million from gambling and lotteries tax and duties. This is equal to 97.3% of what the state budget had received in 2019. The biggest drop when compared with 2019 was observed for gambling tax – EUR 31.6 million or 91.4%. As a result of increased turnover from lotteries, the amount of tax paid from lotteries to the state budget reached EUR 4.269 million, which is 37.8% more when compared with 2019.
The inspection notes that the state duty fee has increased from streaming and interactive gambling due to increased demand for licences. This was EUR 4.007 million, which is 8.9% more when compared with 2019. Gambling and lotteries paid EUR 39.306 million to the state budget in the form of general corporate taxes, which is 27.1% more when compared with 2019.
The inspection is also responsible for the issue of licences for other goods and service lotteries. In total 425 goods and service lottery permits were issued in 2022. Prizes worth EUR 1.149 million were offered there. The state budget received state duty fees of EUR 273 000.
The inspection notes that, according to outlooks from British gambling research agency H2 Gambling Capital, in 2022
Latvian illegal interactive gambling accounted for 26% of the total supply of gambling,
which is 6.4 percentage points less when compared with 2021, when this index was 32.4%.
Continuing measures to limit unlicensed interactive gambling websites, in 2022 the inspection made 558 decisions on blocking illegal websites. This applied to 560 domains owned by 35 legal persons.
Since 2014 a total of 3 058 domains offering unlicensed gambling have been shut down in Latvia.
Information compiled by the inspection also indicates that a total of 40 589 new people had registered with the Register of self-excluded persons between the start of 2020 and 31st of December 2022. The restriction term has ended for 14 839 persons. 25 750 persons remain banned from gambling and interactive lotteries.
Since May 2021 the people registered with Maintenance Guarantee Fund’s special register are not allowed to participate in gambling and interactive lotteries. An average of 10% of persons included on this register want to engage in gambling but are not allowed.
Also read: Latvian Saeima considers unblocking Riga’s development plan