Latvian Casinos to be Entirely
Regulated Federally
Latvian Prime Minister, Aigars
Kalvitis is decidedly trying to take the middle ground in
appeasing citizens and owners of casinos and gaming
establishments. Kalvitis' latest attempt to ease
disgruntled casino owners after Parliament decided to end
municipality power and take control over the regulation of
casinos which included zoning authority, has been met with a
loud and adamant Thank You.
What Kalvitis did was he
offered to reopen the law that gave regulation over casinos
solely to the federal government. The law, which was
passed on November 17, would have taken away power from cities
and municipalities such as the Riga City Council, which was
good news for casinos like Riga Gambling House.
According to Riga regulations, all slot machines and casinos
would have to be concentrated inside hotels, which would have
drastically limited the amount of business the gaming
operators could do. They would have had to go online in
order to survive.
However, outcries have been
heavily voiced from both Kalvitis' own People's Party and
Latvia's First Party, which has prompted the latest move in an
attempt to find a neutral ground. The majority census is
that the law will remain in effect, and will ultimately give
the government full power over all casinos in Latvia.
With regulation like that it should not be long until online
casinos also become regulated in Latvia.
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