Lithuania Fines Olympic Casino for Illegal Promotion

Olympic Casino, a gambling company operating in the Baltics, has once again gotten in regulatory trouble in Lithuania. The operator was found guilty of incentivizing people to bet through a commercial, which is strictly forbidden in the country.

Olympic Casino Invited People to Play

Lithuania’s Gambling Supervisory Authority, the country’s gambling regulator, found out that Olympic Casino featured an advert on its website where it promoted Setanta Sports, a sports television network operating in the Baltics. However, the operator took it a step further and prompted sports enthusiasts to wager on sports as well.

The commercial in question invited sports enthusiasts to watch famous sports events such as the Spanish La Liga soccer championship, the Italian Serie A league and other famous events such as WTA tennis. It promoted Setanta Sports as a premium provider of sports broadcasts, covering most of the famous sports games.

The advert would have been fine if Olympic Casino didn’t invite players to “become a part of the game” before listing the full details of how players can make deposits and wager on the platform.

The Operator Was Slapped with a Fine

According to the Supervisory Authority, Olympic Casino’s advert breached Article 10, Paragraph 19 of Lithuania’s gambling laws, which states that companies shouldn’t encourage people to gamble.  Since this advert doesn’t abide by gambling laws, the regulator issued a fine of around $25,700 to the operator.

The regulator slammed the operator for using sports broadcasts to surreptitiously market its products to sports fans in the country. The regulator said that it is clear that Olympic Casino didn’t merely want to inform customers about the opportunity to watch sports on Setanta Sports, but actively promoted its gambling products, incentivizing people to wager.

Still, the Supervisory Authority noted that Olympic Casino can still appeal this decision if it believes that its advert didn’t promote gambling.

This is not the first fine that Olympic Casino has been fined by the Lithuanian regulator. This May, for example, the operator received a similar fine for once again promoting gambling on its website and encouraging Lithuanians to play casino games. Two months prior to that, the operator was also slapped with a $25,700 fine for advertising a poker tournament on its website and actively encouraging people to take part in the event.

However, Olympic Casino is not the only operator to breach Lithuania’s regulations. In August, the authority cracked down on Betsson and Tete-a-Tete Casino. The first site invited people to play by sending out promotional emails, while the latter took bets from foreign customers.