05-12-2022
Regulator's Warning Message Regarding Illegal Online Offers
The Gaming Control Authority under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania (GCA) regulating gambling in the Republic of Lithuania warns gambling operators, not being licensed in Lithuania for gambling activity, about their illegal remote gambling activity, breaching national regulation.
In Lithuania, only properly licensed companies having special permission for this activity are authorized to offer online gambling in Lithuania. Companies, being not licensed for gambling activity in Lithuania and having not the mentioned permit but offering their services in Lithuania, shall be treated as illegal gambling operators. The order of gaming operation is established in the Gaming Law of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter - Gaming Law).
After having identified the fact of illegal remote gambling activity in the Republic of Lithuania, the GCA is authorized to take measures established in the Gaming Law (payment blocking and DNS blocking).
The illegal gambling operators are also entered into the List of illegal online gambling operators (Blacklist) which is published on our website and regularly updated adding new blacklisted subjects and domains.
It should be noted that the provisions of national legal acts do not provide for the possibility to remove the reference to the subject (gambling operator) from the Blacklist, if the subject was identified as illegal gambling operator in Lithuania, the domain was blocked and blacklisted. The only possibility to be removed from the Blacklist is to receive a license and permit to organize remote gambling in Lithuania, as it is established in the Gaming Law.
GCA strongly recommends the online gambling operators to review all their activities related to remote gambling in the Republic of Lithuania and take action to ensure that such services are not available for Lithuanian customers. We also recommend the games creators / gambling platforms also payment institutions to make sure that your services are not used in Lithuania by any business in Lithuania unlicensed company as it may cause possible reputational subsequences in the future.