Lithuania Mandates Gambler’s Cards to Limit Betting Losses

(AsiaGameHub) –   In Lithuania, all individuals who wish to engage in betting will be required to use an official identification card issued by the government.

This new identification system will be created using both physical cards and online (digital) access to a central database containing information regarding every player’s amount spent on gambling. The card will be tied to each player’s unique national identification number and provide easy communication between gaming operators and regulators about player gambling activity.

When any player reaches their assigned debt limit per the rules established by the government, the system will communicate to the operator that the player has reached their limit and is no longer able to place bets on any gambling device until their 30-day period resets. In this way, both the operator and regulatory agencies will have real-time access to a player’s gambling activity and will be able to respond to any signals indicating that a player is at risk of losing more money than they can afford.

Monthly Loss Limits and Age Regulations

Since 2020, there has been extensive debate about the implementation of strict limits on how much money a person may gamble in Lithuania. In early 2024, a parliamentary committee that oversees state budgets made a recommendation to include maximum loss limits within the framework for the entire country’s gaming system. Under the proposed legislation, a player’s total loss per month to a total amount set by the government for that month and all subsequent months. If the player loses more than the maximum amount allowed, that player will be unable to place bets until the end of the 30-day period of monitoring has been met.

Previously, there were inconsistent regulations when it came to the legal gambling age for different games and methods of betting now that it has all been made uniform to the age of 21. In addition, beginning in Summer of 2025, there will be a prohibition on public gambling advertisements and promotion due to new regulation changes.

Addiction Prevention and Combatting Unregulated Platforms

These regulations were put in place because of increasing concerns about betting-related addiction, specifically online betting. As part of a formal study, Parliament looked at the potential negative impact of online gambling on society and determined this was a major issue facing…now with the goal of using ID cards to help social services identify people who have an increased risk of developing an addiction, so they can offer them support, and newly passed laws to improve controls regarding cash transactions at brick-and-mortar locations, there will also be improvements on the monitoring authority of the national governing body

Lithuania’s efforts to combat unregulated offshore platforms are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Authorities have recently implemented new measures that will help block payments to these platforms and more effectively monitor/pay for gambling through regulated channels. The goal is to develop more powerful technical barriers to illegal online gambling while amending the laws governing the removal of improperly licensed websites from local internet service providers, to allow for quicker removal.