Casino licence in Latvia: IAUI, VID and what it means for players

What a Latvian licence actually means

When an online casino holds a Latvian licence, the company behind it is a Latvian legal entity, usually an SIA, registered and taxed here. That has practical consequences for the player that go well beyond a logo in the footer.

• Local rules apply. The operator follows the Gambling and Lotteries Law, including the minimum age of 18 and identity checks before payouts.
• There is a regulator to turn to. If a payout or a bonus dispute goes nowhere with the casino, you can take it to the Latvian supervisor under Latvian law.
• Payments run through Latvian channels. Licensed sites work with Trustly and bank link payments from Swedbank, SEB, Citadele and Luminor, which is a big part of why they pay out quickly.
• The self-exclusion register is checked. Licensed operators must refuse anyone listed in it.
• The operator pays Latvian tax. The gambling tax on interactive gambling went up from 12% to 15% in 2026.

Advertising is restricted too. Licensed operators cannot market gambling freely in Latvia, although since 1 April 2026 betting brands may again show their logos in adult sport, which is why you will see Tonybet and Optibet names around football, hockey and basketball again.

For an up-to-date overview of which brands currently hold a licence, the list of licensed casinos on latvijas-kazino.eu is a handy companion to the official register.

From IAUI to VID: who supervises casinos in 2026

For years the regulator was the IAUI, Izložu un azartspēļu uzraudzības inspekcija, the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection. That is why most players and most reviews, mine included, still talk about an IAUI licence.

Law amendments adopted on 3 December 2025 changed the structure. Since 1 April 2026 the IAUI has been merged into VID, Valsts ieņēmumu dienests, the State Revenue Service. VID now:

• issues and supervises gambling licences;
• keeps the official list of licensed operators, published as “Licencētie azartspēļu organizētāji”;
• runs the self-exclusion register;
• maintains the blocked list of illegal domains and companies.

For a player, nothing about an existing licence has changed. A casino licensed by the IAUI before April is licensed now, with the same licence numbers. The only practical difference is where you look: the official information sits with VID. So when I write “IAUI licence” in a review, read it as an IAUI licence that has been supervised by VID since April 2026.

How to check a casino on the VID list

Checking a licence takes two minutes, and I think it is worth doing before the first deposit at any site you do not already know.

1. Find the company name. Scroll to the footer of the casino site. A licensed operator names its Latvian company, for example SIA Optibet or SIA Viensviens for 11.lv.
2. Note the licence numbers. Latvian online casinos usually show two references: a licence for organising gambling and a separate one for interactive (online) gambling, marked TI.
3. Open the VID list of licensed operators. Search for the company name rather than the brand, because some brands run under a company with a different name. Betsafe is the clearest example: its licence is held by SIA Latsson Licensing, which also covers triobet.lv.
4. Compare the domain. The website you are on should be the one the licensed operator uses. A familiar brand name on an unfamiliar domain is a reason to stop.

If the company is not on the list, the site is not licensed in Latvia, however polished it looks.

The 12 Latvian-licensed casinos on this site

These are the twelve licensed brands I review, with the company and the licence numbers as they appear on the VID list.

The owners behind these companies vary a lot. Optibet and Laimz belong to Entain through Enlabs, and X3000 and 11.lv to Paf, as explained in the X3000 casino review and the 11.lv review. Betsafe is owned by Betsson, LVBet by Fairload Limited of Malta, which I cover in the LVBet casino review. Fenikss, Klondaika and Spēlēt are Latvian-owned, with Fenikss part of Alfor and its 55 halls; the Fenikss review has the detail. Tonybet, founded in 2009 by the Lithuanian poker player Antanas Guoga and headquartered in Riga, is another long-standing name, set out in the Tonybet casino review. Joker.lv is linked to SIA Joker Ltd, a long-term partner of the Czech Synot group, as I note in the Joker.lv review. For how these twelve rank against each other, see my ranking of the best casinos.

The self-exclusion register

Latvia has a single national register for players who want to block themselves from gambling. Its official name is “No azartspēlēm un interaktīvajām izlozēm pašatteikušos personu reģistrs”, and it is now run by VID.

• The minimum period is 12 months.
• It covers all gambling, online and land-based alike.
• You can sign up online at any time of day at registrs.iaui.gov.lv, logging in with Latvija.gov.lv authentication, or in person at a VID client centre or at any gambling venue.

I mention it here because it is part of what the licence system provides, in the same way as the complaint route or the identity checks. It is a practical tool, available to anyone, and the online sign-up means it takes a few minutes.

Every licensed operator checks new and existing accounts against the register, so one entry applies to all twelve sites in the table above and to the halls run by Fenikss, Klondaika and Olympic Casino.

Tax on casino winnings

The rule for players is simpler than most people expect. Winnings of up to €3,000 per tax year are exempt from personal income tax. Above €3,000 per year the winnings are taxed as income.

The same rule applies whichever licensed casino the money comes from, and wins at several sites count together towards the one annual limit. A €2,000 win at one casino and a €1,500 win at another in the same year already take you past it.

The threshold is per year, not per win, so several medium wins add up. My practical advice is to keep track of what you withdraw over the year, and if you go past €3,000, check with VID how the excess should be declared. Your casino account history, which every licensed site lets you view, is the easiest record to work from.

What a licence does not guarantee

A Latvian licence tells you who the operator is and which rules it plays by. It does not make every licensed site equally good, and I would not treat it as a quality score on its own.

• Bonus terms still differ a lot. Among the twelve licensed sites, wagering runs from 30x at Laimz and Betsafe to 40x at Klondaika, Joker.lv, LVBet and Spēlēt. On a €100 bonus that is the difference between €3,000 and €4,000 of turnover.
• Payout speeds vary. Stated withdrawal times go from under 4 hours at X3000 to within 24 hours at the slower sites.
• Products are not the same. Some brands are full sportsbooks with a casino attached, others, like Laimz, are casino and bingo only.

That is why the licence is the first filter in my scoring, not the last one. Once a site passes it, the bonus maths, payout speed and game library decide where it lands.

The VID blocked list

Alongside the list of licensed operators, VID publishes “Bloķētie komersanti”, the list of blocked businesses. It has two parts.

• Blocked domains. Around 4,270 unique domains of unlicensed gambling sites, with the list last updated on 2 October 2026. Latvian internet providers restrict access to them.
• Blocked companies. Operators that Latvian banks and payment institutions may not serve.

Galaktika N.V., the Curaçao company behind Monro, Lex, Drip and 1GO, has been on the blocked-companies list since a decision of 6 May 2020, and the domains of its casinos are on the domain list. That is why those brands frequently change address and why Latvian bank payments are not available there; my guide to payment methods explains what they use instead.

What changes when you play on a foreign site

The four foreign casinos I review, the Monro Casino review and the Drip Casino review among them, hold a Curaçao licence, not a Latvian one. In practice that means three things. Their sites are reached through changing mirror addresses because the main domains are blocked. Payments go through cards, e-wallets and crypto instead of Trustly or Latvian banks. And in a payout dispute there is no Latvian regulator to take the case to, only the Curaçao licensing system.

They also sit outside the Latvian self-exclusion register, which only licensed operators check. In return they offer things the licensed sites do not: 150% bonuses up to €600, 5,000+ slots and crypto games. Which side of that trade suits you is a personal decision; my foreign casinos guide sets out the numbers so you can make it with the facts in front of you.