Lithuania's ad ban and grey market, with gambling association president Liutauras Ulevičius

Liutauras Ulevičius has spent 19 years in gambling and three years ago became president of Lithuania's gambling business association. In this iGaming Accent episode, host Vakho Mdivani asks him about market structure, a recent advertising ban, comparisons with other regulators and where Baltic gambling is heading.

In this episode

• His association mainly represents land-based businesses. He says online revenue grew by about a third in the latest quarter, while land-based revenue has been flat for five to ten years (4:31, 6:02, 6:32).

• He says Lithuania formally banned most gambling advertising last year yet the market kept growing: about 310 million in gross gaming revenue in 2025, against about 150 million in 2019 (10:30, 11:32, 12:03).

• Betting was exempt from the ad ban, and he says total advertising spend rose. Land-based operators face higher barriers, such as a minimum age of 21 and municipal permits (13:31, 15:30, 16:01).

• He contrasts Britain's process, with inquiry, consultation and parliament over two or three years, with Lithuania, where changes can take two or three months (19:31, 20:02, 20:30).

• On copying Germany's player card, a spending limit shared across operators, he says it works inside Germany but players can turn to unlicensed sites abroad; a survey put about a third of the online market in the grey area (21:33, 22:01, 27:31).

• He expects land-based gambling to shrink to a few casinos per country, notes one operator took about three quarters of Lithuania's 2025 market profit, and sees a possible turn to state monopolies in five to ten years (32:01, 35:32, 38:02).

Interview from iGaming Accent by SBC Eurasia, published on YouTube.