Lithuania says online gambling operators who evade blacklist are smugglers

Lithuania’s gaming regulator has equated attempts to evade the country’s online gambling blacklist with illegal smuggling.

In January, Lithuania’s Gaming Control Authority (GCA) published its inaugural list of gambling sites deemed to be illegally serving the Lithuanian market. On Thursday, the GCA expanded this list and publicly chided operators for attempting to evade the blacklist by altering their domain names.

Joining original blacklist members Betway, TrioBet, Unibet and William Hill are multiple domains associated with PokerStars, MarathonBet, Pinnacle Sports, 188Bet and NordicBet (the latter brand a Betsson offshoot, as is TrioBet).

In a message accompanying the update, the GCA said it had found that some of the original blacklisted operators had been modifying their domains to “circumvent” the GCA’s legally binding IP-blocking orders to local internet service providers.