The draft law will still have to be seen by the Parliament.
The aim of the amendments is to promote the protection of public interests by reducing the risks associated with gambling and lotteries, as well as ensuring a controlled, transparent, legal, socially responsible, and non-addictive gambling and lotteries environment.
The draft law provides for stricter age requirements for gambling, raising the age from 18 to 21, as well as an age limit for participation in lotteries for persons under 18 years of age. Until now, there was no age limit for participation in lotteries.
A study by the Ministry of Health concludes that gambling and lotteries in Latvia are mainly played by people aged 25-34. There is a trend towards starting gambling at an increasingly younger age.
19% of 15-24-year-old respondents said they started gambling before the age of 18. That response was recorded by 16% of 25-34-year-olds, 15% of 35-44-year-olds, 14% of 45-54-year-olds and only 9% of 55-64-year-olds.
For all games and lotteries, except bingo halls, the majority of respondents who play them start playing before the age of 20, indicating the presence of specific risks and the higher social, economic, and psychological vulnerability of the younger group of players, according to the annotation to the amendments.
In order to avoid the overly conspicuous facades of gambling venues, the draft law provides for the delegation to the Cabinet of Ministers of regulations setting uniform requirements. These will define what information and to what extent is allowed to be displayed on the facades of gambling venues.
The draft law also provides for the introduction of personalized smart cards for gamblers, which creates more opportunities to identify gambling addictions.
It also plans to restrict the organization of gambling to between 6 am and 9 pm, except for the taking of bets or wagers, and to prohibit the organization of interactive gambling for more than 21 hours in one continuous session or in several separate sessions over a total period of 24 hours. The FM explains that this will restrict a player's prolonged participation in gambling or interactive gambling, minimizing the harm to the individual's health.
