Latvia Maintains its Strong Position in the Internet Gambling Industry

Latvian gambling laws were amended more than 7 years ago to legalize online gambling. This forward-thinking approach to what is proving to be a massive international industry has paid off, and the small Baltic country now enjoys a unique position in the online gambling world.

Latvia’s specialty is live dealer games. These are a fairly new and very exciting technological development in the world of online casino gaming. Live dealer games offer a mix between the virtual world of internet gambling and the live world of land-based casino gambling.

This mix is achieved by combining online gaming with live video feeds of actual table games being operated by actual casino dealers. Right now, Latvia’s capital Riga is home to two of the largest live dealer casino game broadcasting centers in the world. The games run by these live dealer studios are not offered at online casinos in Latvia, but are instead licensed to offshore casinos, which add them to their existing online casino game libraries.

The first live dealer casino studio in Latvia was established by a company called Evolutoin, which provides live dealer games to many online casinos, including Blue Square Casino, G Casino, and Paddy Power Casino. Evolution was relatively unknown when they started a few years ago, but after signing a few big casinos, they watched their company blossom. In 2009, Evolutoin had to double their operations, adding more tables and more dealers to keep up with increasing demand.

After seeing Evolution’s success in the live dealer game market, Playtech jumped on board and set up their own Latvian operations. At the time, Playtech already enjoyed success with live dealer games in Asia, but by creating a new studio in Latvia they were able to tap in to the European market as well. Playtech live dealer casinos include Bet365 Casino, Mansion Casino, Crown Europe Casino, and Winner Casino.