Top Live Casinos in Latvia

The Republic of Latvia is a country located in the Baltic region in Northern Europe. It shares its borders with Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and also has a maritime border with Sweden, which is to the west. Latvia’s population counts 1.9 million residents, with its capital being Riga. The Latvian language is one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are a minority in the country, and they count around 24% of the population.

Latvia is considered to be a developed country, and the high-income advanced economy proves that together with its ranking in the Human Development Index, which is high. Civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance, living standards, and peacefulness are among the values that are highly developed in the country.

Latvia is a member of the big international organizations, such as the EU, Eurozone, NATO, the Council of Europe, the UN, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO.

Latvia reached its independence in 1990, and pretty much instantly the gambling market started flourishing. Until then, the Soviet government had placed a ban on all types of gambling. The first casino in Latvia was opened in 1991, but there were no legislative acts or licensing body at the time, so many of those establishments were operating in a sort of a grey market.

In 1998 the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection Body was formed for the purpose of licensing and regulating all gambling activities in the country. This proved to be the catalyst for casino brands to enter Latvia and to help the government make good tax revenues. Today, Latvia has over 60 land-based casinos.

As for online gambling, it was legalized in 2003, with final regulations being done by 2007. Operators who wish to start online gambling operations in Latvia must meet certain requirements to obtain a license. The most important rule of the lot is that the gambling company must have at least 51% Latvian ownership, and have headquarters on Latvian territory.

So, although online gambling is legal in Latvia, it is only permitted to companies who have a license to operate nationally. The government tries to block unlicensed foreign operators from offering their services and games to Latvian players.

As it is mentioned above, the legislative framework that covers online gambling in Latvia is among the best in Europe, so it is safe to assume that Latvia online casinos have a bright future ahead. One of the sectors in which casino sites are gaining momentum is the live dealer games, their popularity grows with each day passing.

On top of that, the internet connection and availability increase every day in Latvia, so players will be able to gamble and play live dealer games on a mobile phone or a tablet without any interruptions whatsoever.

What is also new and in the process of developing among Latvian online casinos is the possibility of the introduction of virtual reality in the sector. They are testing this technology, and they plan to introduce it as soon as it is developed enough. The market development is also a factor in the introduction of VR, as it becomes more mature, new opportunities will arise – the introduction of VR is one of them.

The government also tries to block foreign online casinos from offering their services to Latvia gamblers, but that is easier said than done, so players do have access to these sites. As for the future, this trend will probably decrease, as the quality of the services of online casinos in Latvia will only get better, and given that the regulative framework is already spot-on, it is expected that this market will only grow and attract new players.

Casinos are completely legal in Latvia, and this includes both online and offline gambling. Live online casinos in Latvia have to be partnered with a land-based operator in the country in order to offer their games to Latvian players.

After gaining independence in 1990, land-based gambling started flourishing, but without any supervision, so the market in which casinos were operating was grey. This all changed when the Lotteries and Gambling Supervision Inspection of Latvia was created, as the licensing and regulatory body in Latvia.

Online gambling was legalized in 2003. Only Latvian operators are allowed to apply for a license, but that doesn’t stop offshore live casinos from offering their games to Latvian customers.

The government and the relevant authorities do everything in their power to prevent foreign operators from entering the market, they shut down every unlicensed live casino they can, and their list of banned live casinos is pretty long, but Latvian players still access these sites on a daily basis, either by using a VPN or by registering to a non-blacklisted site.

Although the law says that players accessing these sites will face punishments, in reality, the government does not usually go after the players, they are more interested in shutting down operators than chasing individuals. With that being said, Latvian live casinos are not short of quality, they do offer quality and quantity when the games are in question and their popularity and improvements grow as time passes.

As the Latvian market develops, the number of live casinos increases, and with that, the quality and the number of their games are getting better. Latvian players can enjoy playing live games from the leading software providers in the market.

• To begin with, any player will be able to enjoy multiple versions of live dealer roulette to play.
• Live blackjack is another popular game, with gamblers able to interact with a live dealer and enjoy the presence of other players.
• Live slots are, of course, one of the favorites here, and they have to be mentioned, together with live baccarat.
• Live poker games are still new and still developing
• But Latvians can try their luck in the Live Casino Hold'em, where there are no other players, the gambler needs to beat the dealer. This is possible through a live stream against the house.
• Texas Hold'em is always popular among gamblers, and that is no exception with the live version of it for Latvian players. The cards will be dealt live to them.

There is no shortage of games available for gamblers in Latvia, the average casino site offers hundreds of top-quality games to choose from. Slot games are extremely popular, both offline and online versions. Latvian players can browse through classic, video, and progressive slots, which have some unique features and bonus structures.

Table games are among the favorites too. There is no shortage of these games in Latvian casino sites, and as mentioned before, these operators partner with the best game providers in the market, so the quality of the games available is a given.

There are several payment methods available in Latvian live casinos upon depositing and withdrawing money. Every transaction is transparent, so operators can keep running safe platforms. These live casinos enable their players to wager using one of the most popular payment options:

• Skrill
• Neteller
• PayPal
• Paysafecard
• Luminor
• Credit/debit cards
• Solo
• Switch
• Entropay

A payment method called Paysera is among the most popular among the Latvian players when making transactions at a live casino. The good thing about this payment option is that it doesn’t come with high commission fees. It also has an app for both Android and iOS.

Traditionally, the majority of live casinos accept e-wallets as a payment option. This is proven to be a safe and popular method, players do not need to go through a complicated procedure to activate it, and it is not connected to any bank account.