Olympic Casino, Tete-a-Tete Casino and Baltic Bet Fined €25K

The Lithuanian gambling regulator continued to dish financial sanctions to operators found in violation of the country’s ban on gambling promotions enforced last year, adding three more to the list of sanctioned companies.

Encouraging Gambling Is Prohibited

The sanctions issued by Lithuania’s Gambling Supervisory Authority to Olympic Casino Group Baltija, Tete-a-Tete Casino and UAB Baltic Bet followed in the footsteps of recently imposed sanctions to Unigames, Betsson, Amber Gaming, and Top Sport.

Similar to Betsson and Top Sport, the newly fined operators will have to pay €25,000 ($27,000) each for their violations of Article 10 (19) of the country’s gambling regulation related to encouraging participation in gambling. Unigames and Amber Gaming were dished with fines of €12,662 ($13625) and €6,789 ($7,205), respectively.

Olympic Casino was sanctioned for featuring on the parent’s Olybet.lt website a range of promotional slogans that encourage consumers to participate in its online casino games. All advertisements in breach of the regulation should be removed until June 27 as the operator received a stern warning that in case further similar breaches appear, its license may be suspended. Olympic Casino Group Baltija’s license will be up for renewal later this year.

The same deadline of June 27 was also given to Tete-a-Tete Casino, which was also found in breach of the ban on gambling promotion, having published promotional slogans on its CBet.lt website that urge Lithuania players to bet in violation of the regulations. Tete-a-Tete Casino is also having its license expiring this year.

The third operator which was sanctioned, Baltic Bet, was considered in breach of the regulations for promoting gambling on its Optibet.lt website and was ordered to remove the slogans urging people to bet or face license suspension.

Sanctions May Be Appealed

The Gambling Supervisory Authority noted that all three sanctioned operators have the option to appeal the sanctions. All three were fined previously for various gambling regulation violations in the past.

Olympic Casino received a similar €25,000 ($27,000) fine in March for promoting a poker tournament on its website, while Baltic Bet and Tete-a-Tete Casino were sanctioned last year, in October and March, for organizing gambling outside of gambling regulations and for unreasonable online gambling limits, €12,450 ($13,396) and €15,000 ($16,140), respectively.