Online Gaming in Lithuania

In 2011, Lithuania's gambling regulator brought a case against TEO – a telephone company controlling most of Lithuania's high-speed DSL lines – to force TEO to block all international online casinos, bingo halls, sportsbooks and poker rooms. TEO refused to implement the request, stating it would not participate in censorship. The Vilnius City Court ruled that TEO had no obligation to block websites hosted on networks it does not own or control. Past Lithuania Constitutional Court rulings state that public information may be prohibited, censored or restricted only in cases of national emergencies, and internet casino websites do not pose a level of threat that can be viewed by a reasonable person as a national emergency.

In January 2016, the Lithuania Gambling Control Authority began taking steps to prevent online gaming providers not licensed in Lithuania from operating in the country by limiting their financial transactions with local financial institutions. Since then, Lithuania has maintained a blacklist of unlicensed gambling websites, ordered ISPs and payment providers to block access and transactions, and imposed fines on unlicensed operators targeting Lithuanian players.

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