Lithuania will proceed to tighten its gambling laws to strengthen problem gambling controls and ‘prevent irresponsible behaviours’.

On Friday, 8 November, the Seimas (parliament) approved ‘new provisions’ to be added to the Gambling Law of the Republic of Lithuania.

Headline measures saw ministers approve of Lithuania enforcing a new ‘consolidated gambling age’ of 21 years, to be effective from 1 July 2025.

The raising of Lithuania’s legal gambling age from 18-to-21 had been sanctioned by the government in January, with the schedule of Gambling Law amendments to be determined by the Seimas. Previously, the government had only enforced the 21+ age restriction on casino venues.

From 1 July 2025, a new gambling age limit of 21 years will be applied as a ‘centralised control’ on all gambling activities (land-based and online) except for the draws of Lithuania’s national lottery.

New ‘centralised controls’ will require Lithuanian gambling venues to employ a qualified and dedicated staf..

GamCare has issued an announcement that its Safer Gambling Standard services will cease by the end of this year.

First launched in 2019, the UKAS-accredited certification has served as an independent quality standard to measure the scale and effectiveness that gambling companies put towards the protection of people from gambling harm.

After an internal review in December 2023, GamCare’s Board took the decision to place the standard’s activities under a new home, external to the charity.

However, it has now been established that no such organisation has been found despite a number of discussions, forcing GamCare to completely suspend the Safer Gambling Standard.

GamCare maintained that it will continue its commitment to its work of reducing gambling harm, with all of its other services remaining unaffected going into the new year, including its 24/7 National Gambling Helpline.

“Our core focus at GamCare will continue to be the provision of high-quality, accessible support to t..

GambleAware’s newly published independent evaluation report has revealed a big improvement in gambling harm awareness within local communities.

Setting out achievements and learning from the first year of its Community Resilience Fund (CRF), the report was produced by Ipsos and New Philanthropy Capital and has been described as a new way of commissioning gambling harms awareness and support services.

It was designed to provide funding to organisations GambleAware had not previously funded, and to support learning about which methods may work for different groups.

Anna Hargrave, GambleAware Chief Commissioning and Strategy Officer, commented: “Gambling harm can affect anyone, but we know certain communities are at higher risk of experiencing harm. These are the people we wanted to reach with our Community Resilience Fund.”

The CRF provided grants to 21 community-based organisations in England, Wales, and Scotland to deliver gambling harm support and raise awareness.

The group det..