Gambling ban for maintenance debtor introduced in Latvia

As was announced recently, the Parliament in Latvia has decided on a complete gambling ban for maintenance debtors. The gambling firms should, in the future, be duty bound to assure that all gamblers with maintenance debts not be allowed to participate in any gambling activities nationwide.

The Saeima, the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, has approved a draft law which consequently will ban maintenance debtors from taking part in any gambling activities. At the beginning of the pandemic, the government had already banned all gambling activities for all the people living in the country. We had reported about a temporary Ban on Online-Gambling in Latvia. After the measures were relaxed once again after several months, now one wants to proceed specifically and is targeting a ban on gambling by maintenance debtors.

Maintenance debtors are strongly limited

In Latvia, there have long been strict restrictions on maintenance debtors. Those who do not pay support for their child, must then prepare themselves, not to be able to own a particular vehicle and also not to be eligible for a weapon licence. Further to this, in the future, maintenance debtors will be hindered from spending money on free time activities or entertainment. This refers, for example, to money, which flows into slot machines or in other type of gambling.

The new law provides for a complete ban of relevant debtors from participation. Only when it has been proved, that the maintenance debts have been paid, are gambling providers allowed to reaccept the gamblers. This counts both for land-based casinos, as well as for the online casinos in Latvia. The law should come into force in the beginning of April of this year. Before this, the Latvian Committee of Human Rights had already shown huge praise for the planned change in the law.

How should gambling companies recognise maintenance debtors?

The Latvian government is requesting the local gambling firms that they recognise maintenance debtors and ban them from gambling. For this aim, an own register is being planned, where the data of the maintenance debtors is kept. The gambling providers can then refer to this register to synchronise the data of their customers to it. In this way, they can find out if a customer has maintenance debts and for this reason can ban him from gambling. It is being planned, that the gambling firms themselves ban the respective players.

Conclusion

It is expected that there is more agreement on the fact, that a maintenance debtor should not make use of his or her available money for gambling.  The law planned for Latvia has however the consequence, that the data of the maintenance debtors has to be synchronised to that of the gambling providers. Without such a register, the gambling providers would not have the possibility to identify and assuring that the people can be excluded from gambling. In Latvia however, maintenance debtors are not only restricted in the field of gambling. They are also not allowed to have any inappropriate costs for other free time and entertainment activities.

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