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.