Latvia sees slots continue rise

Latvia’s land-based gambling industry saw gross gaming revenue (GGR) increase by 14% in the second quarter of the year in a mixed period for the nation’s land-based industry. The figures, released by the Latvian Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Commission, show that GGR for the entire gaming industry sits at €70.1m for the second quarter compared with €61.3m for the same period last year.

Breaking it down to look at the individual parts of the market, the most impressive gains was seen in the slots, lotteries and betting sectors. Slots are the largest part of the country’s gambling industry as increased their GGR by 15% from €45.5m to €52.5m. This is despite the fact that leading slot machine operators, Novomatic owned Alfor and Admiralu Klubs, have continued to reduce the number of slot machines that are in their shops. The number present in the entire country has gone from 8087 this time last year to 7789 this year.

Betting posted the most impressive percentage increase as GGR rose by 37% from €0.7m to €0.9m and lotteries were up by 12% from €4.2m to €4.6m. Casino tables also showed a modest increase of 10%. The losers in amongst the figures were Bingo (down 6%) and telephone betting that decreased by a whopping 59% from €0.9m to €0.4m

The results come as Latvia is looking to adapt its online and offline gaming laws in order to regulate the gaming industry with plans including ISP blocking of unlicensed sites, the blocking of certain financial transactions and over 21s only.

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