A new “pandemic” is raging in Lithuania. Covid has been replaced by the virus of gambling and lottery advertisements. Every day, Lithuanians are constantly encouraged to gamble through powerful channels. Recent data shows that gambling operators are investing more and more money in advertising. Last year, gambling and lottery ads in Lithuania accounted for the largest share (almost 31%) of all ads, outpacing the equally growing, but less rapid, volume of medical and financial services ads. It has already been widely publicized that gambling advertisements even appeared in the TAMO electronic school diary. A Lithuanian man who lost €50 000 has also taken the Lithuanian State to court to hold it accountable for his gambling addiction due to excessive advertising. A recent opinion poll has revealed that there is too much gambling ads and that the number of gamblers in Lithuania is increasing every year. We looked at how these markets are evolving, what lies ahead and the scale of their advertising.
When we started to address this topic, it was as if we stirred up a hornet’s nest: some interlocutors attacked and reproached us for our choice of topic, others refused to answer our questions, and others were suspicious of whether we were not doing the bidding of specific market players of this market. This only goes to show that this market is not sufficiently transparent and that there is a lot of silence in it, as interviewees allow themselves to question the work of the professional independent media, which defends democratic values.
The Gambling Association made promises but did not provide answers
The National Gambling and Gaming Association (lit. NLŽVA) did not respond to the questions, although its President Evaldas Magelinskas promised to comment on several occasions. The association has its own YouTube channel, where it has already published 20 programmes on the market, which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. However, the association has only 20 followers on its Facebook account.
The NLŽVA has repeatedly commissioned advertisements on News radios, E. Magelinskas, who spoke in the studio, said that due to the allegedly inadequate legal regulation of the gambling market, the Lithuanian budget has lost €250 million in revenue over seven years. These are not official figures. Mr Magelinskas has said in public that the association he leads does not receive proper attention from the Seimas, the Gambling Control Authority (GCA) and the Parliament for the problems they raise, and will therefore call for a parliamentary inquiry, and that the gambling and gaming market may be demonized.
We did not get any answers to the questions from Samoilas Kacas, the owner of Tete-a-tete, one of the largest slot machine chains in Lithuania. This businessman’s name appeared in the 2021 pre-trial investigation. The businessman was detained, suspected of bribery and influence peddling, and in 2022, the investigation against Kacas was dropped after it was found that no criminal offence had been committed and the suspicion against Kacas was dropped.
Nevertheless, during the preparation of this article, some came forward to answer the questions and provide their insights in a detailed and prompt manner.
“There is too much gambling advertising for the public”
While alcohol and tobacco advertisements are banned by law in Lithuania, gambling advertisements have some restrictions, but can feature gambling brands. This exemption provides an opportunity for businesses engaged in this activity to encourage people to gamble. Flashy advertisements reach us everywhere: on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor billboards, in cinemas, on the internet. We can see it on petrol pumps too.
According to a 2022 “Vilmorus” poll, 50% of respondents to the question “What is your opinion on gambling advertising?” said “There could be no advertising” and 33% said “There could be less advertising”. “This suggests that there is too much gambling advertising in the public domain”, says Arnoldas Dilba, Head of the Legislative, Personnel and General Affairs Division of the Gambling Control Authority.
As Giedrė Juronienė, Head of Advertising and Communication Monitoring Research at “Kantar”, a market research company, points out, both last year and in 2021, the lion’s share of advertising money has been spent by the organizers of gambling and lotteries on television.
Gambling and lottery advertising has shot up significantly
PlanetNews has received the latest data on advertising volumes in Lithuania for 2022. It has turned out that the gambling and lottery segment advertising in 2022, compared to 2021, has grown by almost 31%, significantly surpassing the retail advertising volumes, which grew by 3%, as well as the advertising volumes for medicine (which grew by 12.5%) and financial services (which grew by almost 9%).
According to Juronienė, the largest increases in advertising expenditure in the gambling category last year were achieved by “Lošimų strateginė grupė” and “Amber Gaming”, those are Betsafe and 7bet brands. “Broken down by product group, casino advertising expenditure grew the most last year,” says Kantar’s Head of Advertising and Communication Monitoring Research.
Last year, while gambling and lottery advertising budgets increased, other segments, on the other hand, saw a decline in advertising volumes: for example, mobile phone advertising budgets fell by 15%, soft drinks by 12% and food and beverages by 12%.
A man who gambled away his money sued the government
Andrius Krištapavičius, a lawyer, talks about the impact of gambling advertising. He has represented a client who lost a large sum of money and sued the Lithuanian government for the money he lost because of gambling ads.
“My client, an IT specialist, lost around €50 000 in six months. He would spend his entire paycheck on it, and his salary was considerable. My client, who spends a lot of time on the computer as a result of his work, said that he was simply being attacked by gambling advertisements. He eventually stopped gambling for a while but started receiving SMS messages encouraging him to gamble again.”
The gambler was unable to get the government to take responsibility for his gambling: the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania dismissed the complaint, and the Constitutional Court did not accept the complaint. “There must be an unconditional ban on advertising gambling and lotteries, just as there is a ban on alcohol and tobacco advertising. Although the state registers problem gamblers to prevent them from entering gambling venues, this does not work when it comes to online gambling,” the lawyer notes.
Biggest lottery win was €24 million
According to the Lithuanian Lotteries Association (lit. LLA), the biggest lottery winnings (“Olifėja” Ltd. and “Euloto” Ltd.) amounted to €24 million; the ticket was purchased in Vilnius in January 2022. There are also lottery wins of €13 million. The two companies mentioned above distribute around 120 cars per year, and in 2018, 2020 and 2021 players won one apartment each.
According to Andrius Karaliūnas, President of the LLA, there is no restriction on the advertising of lotteries. “Although some may think that lotteries and gambling are the same, they are actually quite different games. Yes, they involve gambling, but the amount of gambling in lotteries is very minimal. Lottery advertising, which has been allowed since the start of lotteries in the 1990s, has not led to rampant participation in lotteries by the entire population. And gambling advertising is in principle prohibited by law (with some exceptions). However, the data on participation in gambling clearly outstrips the data on lottery participants”, says Karaliūnas about lotteries.
Online gambling is on the rise
The Gambling Control Authority regulates the gambling and lottery markets in our country. The Office has already published the latest data on the situation in the country for the past year. Online gambling with category A machines generated the most revenue (almost €75 000) in 2022, while €32 000 came from gambling with category B machines. Online betting operators generated almost €35 thousand.
The trend is clear; online gambling is increasing (globally too). It is true that all types of gambling: gaming tables, category A and B machines, betting, grew last year, albeit not as fast as online gambling. In 2022, 241 illegal online gambling domains were blocked on the instructions of the GCA (1145 such domains have been blocked between 2019 and the end of 2022).
There are currently 12 gambling companies and 4 lottery companies operating in Lithuania (in 1993 there were over 10 lottery companies). There are currently 193 gaming machine parlors, 16 casinos, 99 betting shops, 10 totalizator shops, and 10 companies licensed to organize remote (online) gambling.
Last year, gambling operators were fined €315 000 (€114 000 in 2021) for various infringements. According to the data available, the developers of these businesses paid more than €40 million in taxes to the national budget last year (€23 million in 2021).
The number of gamblers increases every year
Summarizing the annual results, A. Dilba, Head of the Legal, Personnel and General Affairs Division of the GCA, notes that the supply and development of gambling and lotteries in Lithuania is in line with general European trends: interactive, attractively designed gambling and lotteries are becoming increasingly popular, and bets are being offered for betting events on E-sports.
“Mobile apps are becoming more and more popular, and we are seeing an increase in the popularity of live casino gambling and a decrease in the number of gambling parlors and outlets. There is also a growing supply of new virtual reality (VR) sports betting”, says the GCA representative.
According to a recent study conducted by market research company “Vilmorus” for GCA, the number of gamblers in the country is growing: 12% of Lithuanians gambled in 2022 and 10% in 2021. Last year, 47% of respondents reported participating in lotteries. In contrast to gambling, participation in lotteries is higher among older people (50-59 years) in district centers and rural areas (53%).
Although lotteries, like gambling, are also organized on the internet, the vast majority of those who participate in lotteries buy their tickets in stores, spending between €1 and €5 per shopping trip (73% of respondents). The percentage of those who believe that participation in a lottery can be addictive is 39%.
Not enough help for pathological gamblers
The GCA keeps a record of gamblers who have signed applications prohibiting them from gambling: about 30 such applications are received daily. Looking at the overall long-term statistics, 89% of applications were made by men, 11% by women; 88% were signed by people under 40. The Register of Restricted Gamblers (in operation since 2017) currently has a total of 13,000 valid applications, the number of Lithuanians who currently identify themselves as addicted gamblers.
How are pathological gamblers treated? Is there enough help for them in Lithuania? These are also the questions we asked GCA representatives. It turned out that only a small proportion of pathological gamblers use the effective Minnesota program in the country’s Addiction Centers, and that motivation to change is very low.
Why is this? “For some it is a lack of trust in public institutions, for others it seems that their problem will resolve itself without going to gambling venues. On the other hand, we need to look at the extent to which health institutions or mental health centers are prepared to work with gambling addicts. In Lithuania, addiction counselors are available, but they specialize only in alcohol and psychoactive substances. Counselors should also develop competences in gambling issues and could motivate gamblers to seek help and support them on their road to recovery. We also miss a clearer state approach on this issue. If we refer to the work of the Commission for the Prevention of Addictions, gambling does not seem to be on its agenda. It would be important to talk not only about help for addicts, but also about prevention, which is just as important,” observes psychologists working for the GCA.
Aims to demystify these businesses
When referring to gambling and lottery markets, interviewees mention the words “demonized”, “toxic”, “demystified”. The gambling business, it is argued, has been demonized until it has become toxic. “Decision-makers do not want to delve into the realities of the business, but one after another legislative initiative after another comes along that does not address any specific problem but destroys the business. I miss consistency in regulation”, says A. Karaliūnas, the head of the LPA.
The Responsible Gambling Business Association (ALVA) launched a year ago and headed by Algis Čaplikas, an ex-parliamentarian, ex-minister, lobbyist, business and political consultant, also criticizes the government’s policy on these issues. The association includes all major gambling operators – five companies.
“The gambling business in Lithuania is shrouded in various myths and legends and demonized,” says Čaplikas. “Our members are people who run their businesses with integrity, pay their taxes to the state, initiate and support various social initiatives, and manage large companies. The market is becoming more transparent, and one of the most important tasks is to curb the illegal gambling market. The GCA blocks those sites, but they are reappearing, that is not enough. It is also very important to understand that gambling is not an opportunity to make money, it is just a pastime, a way of spending your free time.”
The Parliament avoids topics about gambling
Matas Maldeikis, a Member of the Seimas representing the TS-LKD party, says that in the Parliament there is a tendency to avoid talking about lotteries and gambling, “as if it were a “dirty business”, although there is a lot of lobbying.
As a reminder, this MP’s name was caught up in a bribery scandal. In 2021, a story was widely publicized when Kęstutis Motiečius, an assistant to another MP Mindaugas Puidokas, offered Maldeikis a bribe of 50 thousand euros as an incentive to make specific decisions in the Seimas on gambling. There were indications that this money may have been provided by influential gambling businesses. The court fined Motietis €5000 for trading in influence.
Speaking to the news portal PlanetNews about gambling and lottery advertising, Maldeikis does not believe that new restrictions are needed at this time. “For me, as a member of the Seimas, there is not enough evidence at the moment to suggest that there should be any more restrictions on such advertising than there are at present,” the MP said.
Humorists reminisce about illegal bets
Gambling is discussed in a variety of formats – for instance, on one of Lithuania’s most-watched humorist podcasts, “Vėl tie patys” (eng. the same ones again). In one of the episodes, comedians talk about their experiences of visiting a betting shop.
Famous humorists have said that when they were teenagers, they used to be able to place bets at betting shops, even though the law forbids it. It was not difficult to do so: for a fee, their adult friends would place bets.
We don’t see “success stories”
According to the latest scientific data, around 5.8% of the adult population on the planet may have a gambling problem, but only 0.2% of these people seek help.
Unfortunately, Lithuanian society does not see so-called success stories, where people who have recovered from gambling talk about their experiences and their life without gambling. There are only anecdotal stories about problem gamblers: such as the head of a charity organization losing most of their donations, and taxi drivers sleeping in their cars after losing their apartments. To quote one casino croupier: “Who do you think gambles here from Monday to Tuesday?”
