Lithuania's Seimas Takes Up Mandatory Player Card and Cashless Gambling Bill

Every bet in Lithuania would run through a personal card tracking deposits, winnings and limits across all operators, and cash would leave gambling venues. The bill cleared its first Seimas vote on 10 November, but the card would not arrive until 2029.

• The Seimas voted 34 to 0 on 10 November to take up amendments making a player card compulsory for all land-based and online gambling in Lithuania and ending cash at venues
• The card would record each player's deposits, winnings and chosen limits across every operator and channel
• Operators would set income-based deposit limits, and a player choosing a monthly loss ceiling above €20,000 would have to document their finances or be barred
• Most changes would apply from May 2027 and the card and cashless rules from January 2029, as the coalition also works on a progressive gambling tax
• A 2024 law required the Government to submit a player card bill by 1 January 2026

The Seimas Accepts the Player Card Bill for Consideration

The Seimas voted on Tuesday 10 November to take up amendments to the Gambling Law and to the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, by 34 votes with none against and no abstentions, the public broadcaster LRT reported, citing BNS. Vice-Minister of Finance Rūta Carik said the changes would create a safer, more responsible gambling environment. The Seimas is due to consider the amendments again on 17 December.

The gambling regulator, Lošimų priežiūros tarnyba (LPT), published a notice on the proposal the same day. In the statement, as carried by the news agency ELTA, LPT head Virginijus Daukšys said the aim was to reduce the accessibility of gambling and its harm to mental health. "For this to be implemented in practice, the player card becomes the essential tool," he said, in our translation, adding that dropping cash at venues would reduce money laundering and other risks.

What the Card Would Do

Everyone who wants to gamble, at a venue or remotely, would need a player card. According to the Finance Ministry, it would centrally record what a player pays in and wins, online or in person, with one operator or several, along with their chosen money and time limits and any restrictions.

Operators would have to set daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits based on a player's income and financial capacity. "If the maximum amount a player chooses to be able to lose in a month exceeded €20,000, they would have to submit documents showing their financial capacity. If they did not, they could not gamble," the ministry said, in our translation. All payments would move to official payment systems, and the authorities would be able to block not only illegal gambling sites but also sites that advertise them. Most amendments would take effect in May 2027, and the card and cashless provisions from the start of January 2029.

A Bill the Seimas Asked For in 2024

Law No. XIV-3080 of 7 November 2024, which rewrote much of the Gambling Law, already defined a player card as one issued personally to each player, recording deposits and winnings. It required the Government to submit a bill introducing a unified card by 1 January 2026.

On the ministry's figures, operators took €4.89 billion in stakes in 2025 and paid out €4.6 billion, both up 15%, and players lost €274 million. By 31 October 2026 the register of people who have restricted their own gambling had received more than 101,000 requests, of which about 22,000 are active.

Advertising restrictions took effect on 1 July 2025 ahead of a full ban in 2028, LRT reported, citing LPT. When the ministry first proposed the card in April, Mindaugas Ardišauskas, head of the Responsible Gambling Business Association, told LRT Radio he backed the aim but doubted the mechanism, warning of "large costs for the state and for business" and a drift to illegal sites.

The Card Turns Self-Exclusion Into a Cross-Operator Ledger

The bill's real target is the gap Kristupas Vaitiekūnas, then described by LRT as finance minister, set out on LRT Radio in April: a player hits a limit at one operator and simply moves to another. The register stops those who ask to be stopped; the card would stop those whose combined play crosses their own limits. LRT reports that the system would let LPT follow money flows and tie them to a named person.

The €20,000 Threshold Is Generous, but the Data Is the Point

A €20,000 monthly loss ceiling is high in a market where players lost €274 million in a year, so few will face the documentation test. The heavier burden is the income-based limits operators must set for every player, and the shared data that makes them enforceable. The ministry has said the card is complex to build, which is why it gets a transition period.

A 2029 Start Leaves a Long Window for Critics

The bill reached the Seimas more than 10 months after the 1 January 2026 deadline set by the 2024 law, and the card is over two years away. Operators will use that time to argue the illegal-market case, and the bill's power to block sites that advertise illegal gambling would add to the blocking LPT already uses against offshore operators such as Polymarket.

Lithuania has set out a single card that would follow every euro a player stakes, online or in a hall. Whether it works depends on keeping players inside a system that will not exist until 2029.