“Today I invited members of the Seimas to co-sponsor legal amendments that have been drafted, which would prohibit gambling advertising. It is important that colleagues from different political groups, who share a similar opinion about the problem, would join the initiative,” Lingė wrote in a post on Facebook.
Chairman of the Seimas Committee on Budget and Finance expects debates in parliament to be heated and opponents to claim that the bill would destroy sports and the media, yet he believes the law is needed to safeguard people.
The politician noted that as of now 15,813 people have asked to be included in the non-gambling list, but he believes the measure to be insufficient as it is possible to be removed from the list and continue losing money.
According to him, time has come to admit that gambling is an addiction like alcohol and tobacco consumption, and thus advertising regulations should be essentially identical in these areas.
The MP notes that gambling companies spent EUR 13 million on advertising and support last year, which helped boost revenue to EUR 222 million in 2023, compared with EUR 103 million in 2020.