Online revenue outweighed a decline in land-based gambling.

Lithuania.- The Lithuanian Gaming Control Authority has reported that gambling revenue in the country reached €116m in the first half of 2024. That’s a rise of 12.6 per cent year-on-year.

Growth was driven by the online gambling market, where revenue rose 12.5 per cent to €72.2m. Player spending increased by 8.7 per cent to €1.05bn.

Category A online slots, which have unlimited winnings, generated €53.5m from player spending of €627.7m, which marked a rise of 6.2 per cent. Revenue from Category B slots, which have a maximum stake of LTL1  (€0.3) and wins of up to 200x bets, was level with last year. Meanwhile, online table games generated €6.7m, up 11.7 per cent.

As for sports betting, revenue rose 1.6 per cent to €19.3m. Wagers were up 2.4 per cent at €289m.

It was a different story for land-based gambling, where revenue continued to decline. The total figure was down 4.4 per cent at €34.7m. Player spending was down 5.6 per cent year-on-year at €217.8m.

Category B slot machines generated €14.4m, down 6.5 per cent, although revenue from Category A slots was up 5.3 per cent year-on-year at €7.9m. Table games revenue fell 9.1 per cent to €8m and sports betting revenue fell 6.4 per cent to €4.4m.

Lottery revenue, which is not included in the overall revenue totals for gambling, reached €32.7m. This was up 6.2 per cent. Ticket sales were up 4 per cent at €70.9m while player winnings rose by 2.3 per cent to €38.1m. 

Tax revenue from all gambling verticals combined totalled €37.6m, with €24.1m from gambling operators and €13.5m from lottery.

In June, the Lithuanian parliament voted in favour of a proposal to increase the tax on gambling operators by 2 percentage points from 2025. Introduced as amendments to the Law on Lottery and Gambling Tax, the proposal received 72 votes in favour and nine abstentions.

The move will increase the income tax levied on slots, table games, bingo, betting and online gambling from 20 to 22 per cent.