Latvia to pay €7.3M in claims over COVID-era gambling ban

February 12, 2025

Latvia to pay €7.3M in claims over COVID-era gambling ban

Nearly five years after Latvia’s Parliament imposed COVID-19 containment measures, the government faces financial consequences as gambling operators seek compensation for losses incurred during the restrictions. According to Latvian Television’s “de facto” programme, companies have collectively filed claims amounting to €7.3 million.

Initially, lawmakers had only halted physical gambling operations, but a later amendment—backed by the opposition Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) and two independent MPs—extended the ban to online gambling as well.

The legal dispute originates from a law passed on 20 March 2020, which instructed the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspectorate (IAUI) to suspend all gambling licenses, including online gambling. While the original vote halted physical gambling operations, a later amendment—backed by the opposition Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) and two independent MPs—extended the ban to interactive gambling. At the time, MP Viktors Valainis (ZZS) argued that “money should stay within the people’s wallets at this time.”

Interaktīvo azartspēļu organizētāji par nepamatotu viņu darbības ierobežošanu 2020. gada pavasarī valstij kompensācijās pieprasījuši vairāk nekā septiņus miljonus eiro. https://t.co/GTxgafBdVh pic.twitter.com/JoGEIooG81
— De Facto (@ltvdefacto) February 9, 2025

Court rulings in favour of operators

The restriction lasted 63 days before the Constitutional Court ruled it invalid in December 2020, stating that it was unlawful from the start. Following the court ruling, gambling operators began seeking compensation for financial losses. Six other operators submitted claims within a year, and the IAUI received requests totalling €7.3 million in the final months of 2024.

As explained by sworn lawyer Lauris Liepa, the damages claimed by the operators included three components. He added, “The first part is lost profits. So, everything that the company could have predictably earned, and that was not made up by the company itself but was determined by independent international auditors. The second element, of course, was the fall in the value of money and the third element was the legal costs, which, of course, could have been dispensed with if, even at the end of 2020, after the Constitutional Court’s judgment, the public administration had the opportunity to immediately negotiate with the gambling companies and say – yes, we saw, the Saeima (parliament of the Republic of Latvia) was wrong, let’s pull that money out of the budget,” Liepa said, adding that the public administration “chose to fight in the courts and lose predictably”.

Decisions expected by March

Two compensation decisions have been finalised so far. LLC Alfor’s original claim of €656,000 was reduced to €453,000, while Olympic Casino Latvia’s request saw a reduction of nearly €300,000. Decisions on the remaining claims are expected by the end of March.

Meanwhile, the capital city of Riga has announced plans to reduce the number of gambling venues in the city, aiming to ban them from most urban areas. Earlier in August 2024, Latvia also raised the minimum gambling age from 18 to 21 as part of broader efforts to strengthen consumer protection.