Essential information and facts about Latvia: Capital Riga
Total Area Population Religion
Ethnic Groups Languages
Currency
64,
589sq.km 1,923,559
Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox
Latvian (62%), Russian (25%), Belarusian, Ukrainian Latvian (official), Russian Euros
Unemployment 6 per cent Tourism 1.9 million
Government type Parliamentary Republic Chief of State President Egils Levits (since 2019)
Head of Government Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins (since 2019)
Elections President elected by parliament for four year term (plus second term). Next election due 2023 Prime Minister appointed by President.
Regardless of the loss of tax revenues, the desire to reduce gambling activities in Latvia is strong. Tree quarters of respondents who took part in a study organised by the Latvian Welfare Ministry say there are too many gambling halls in Latvia and many support a motion to shut all gambling halls. Tere have now been recommendations for stricter requirements for gambling halls and casinos.
gambling venue whether it is a betting shop or casino.
In 2018, the 320 gaming halls open at the time paid a gaming hall licence fee of €4,500 each. If they all closed this would result in a loss of €1.44m per year plus a loss of around €36.6m in taxes in total. Meanwhile, the venues employ around 3,750 people across the gambling companies, whilst operators paid out €22.9m in labour taxes and €5.8m in corporate income tax and €5.5m in VAT, all of which are credited to the state budget. Te ban could, of course, see an increase in illegal gambling and tax evasion.
Regardless of the loss of tax revenues, the desire to reduce gambling activities in Latvia is strong. Tree quarters of respondents who took part in a study organised by the Latvian Welfare Ministry say there are too many gambling halls in Latvia and many support a motion to shut all gambling halls. Tere have now been recommendations for stricter requirements for gambling halls and casinos.
Te Gambling and Lottery Policy Guidelines 2019-2026 report proposes a limit on the accessibility of gambling and increasing awareness to gambling addiction. Te proposals suggest a ban on smoking in gambling halls and casinos, stricter restrictions on gambling halls offering free alcoholic drinks and a separation of gambling activities from food services, improving gambling and lottery advertising bans and streamlining the monitoring process.
Te study shows a total of 79,000 people aged between 15 and 64 years suffer from gambling addiction to some degree with around 16,000 at the highest level.
Te Ministry of Health is calling for stricter requirements for gambling halls and casinos and says the amount of people that could be affected by problem gambling in Latvia is around 6.4 per cent.
Te prevalence of Internet and mobile gambling has doubled since 2005 in Latvia and according to the study 70 per cent of 15 year olds surf the internet daily for leisure whilst 31 per cent of young people play computer games daily. Te risk of social network addiction in Latvia is assessed as high with almost 35 per cent of 15 year olds at risk of social network addiction.
A National Development Plan 2014-2020 called Healthy and Able to Work aims to implement effective health promotion and risk reduction measures including the prevention of addiction.
Tere will also be a study called the Prevalence of Process Dependencies in Latvia Population and Risk Factor Affecting it which will evaluate the prevalence of gambling and computer addiction.
THE BIGGER PICTURE Te Latvian gambling market has grown
significantly since the early 1990s and independence. In 1991 the first casino opened and around the same time companies organising lotteries began to set up businesses. Te sector remained unregulated so growth was sporadic and spontaneous.
In 1995, a law was introduced to regulate the gambling sector. Te Law on Lotteries and Gambling was approved by parliament and amended several times over the next decade and then finally replaced in 2006.
Tere are currently 15 gambling operators in Latvia – 11 landbased gaming licences, five betting point operations and nine online licences - plus the state owned company Latvijas Loto (lottery).
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P101
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