The government of Lithuania has approved the passage of a new bill that will force licensed lottery operators to pay/include a 13% tax on each lottery ticket sold to help raise funds for national sports organisations and athlete development.

As reported by LRT. Lithuanian MPs backed amendments to the laws on Lottery and Gambling Tax to change the previous 8% allocation of budget and 5% tax to a 13% direct tax.

The changes will come into effect from July 2022, allowing the government to fund sports in the lead-up to the World Championships in late 2022 and the 2024 Olympics.

The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee and the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee will be directly funded from the government budget, meaning lottery organisers will no longer be obliged to allocate 8% of their revenue from sold tickets directly to sports.

Currently, Lithuanian sports expect to receive €20.9m in funding in 2022, however, with the tax changes that figure is expected to increase by ‘several million’.

Lithuania’s National Lottery operator Olifėja currently has a five-year contract with Scientific Games for instant ticket printing that includes the option to extend for a further two years.

In 2019, Olifėja’s instant game retail sales topped €56m and the deal with SG saw the operator increase its instant game retail sales by over 5000%.