Lithuania introduces new gambling licensing fees

Changes include a new permit fee for casinos, slot venues and bingo halls.

Lithuania.- The Lithuanian government’s Ministry of Finance has approved a resolution introducing changes to state fees, payments and refunds in a range of sectors. In the gambling sector, the changes include new permit fees for casinos, slot venues, bingo halls and sports betting venues.

The land-based gaming venue permit fee for new casinos, slots venues and bingo halls has been set at €1,504, with a renewal of the permit to cost €186. New totalizator betting shops will be charged a smaller €717 permit fee but the same fee for extension.

Amendments or additions to a casino, slots or bingo licence will have a fee of €369. Meanwhile, a remote gambling permit will cost €784.

These are in addition to the fee for approval of gambling licences, which has been modified to €966. There will also now be a €615 fee for the approval of amendments or additions. The government has also increased the licence fees for lotteries from €1,395 to €1,620.

Last month, the Lithuanian Gambling Supervisory Authority issued another warning to the operator Top Sport for a breach of gambling regulations, but this time there was no fine. It warned that Top Sport had not applied sufficient anti-money laundering (AML) controls for slots.

It found lacking internal procedures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in several areas. It said that between January 2020 and January 2023, Top Sport failed to conduct sufficient risk assessments, monitoring and training. However, the regulator said that considering the circumstances, it has chosen only to issue a warning on this occasion.

In the previous month, the regulator had hit the operator with three fines in one week. They included a €15,000 fine for allowing someone to use their payment card to top-up the balances of accounts belonging to two other players.