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Presentation of the study. Analysed issues. Relevance of the topic. The Legal regulation of gambling differs across Europe and the world. Some jurisdictions have liberal gambling regulation where operators are free to engage in the betting and gaming business, other jurisdictions enjoy a gambling monopoly. Those countries which have state gambling monopolies participate in gambling through state-owned enterprises or through private concession-based operators. The Scandinavian countries also have long standing gambling monopolies and all gambling revenues are returned back into society to finance state budgets or public projects. Having followed the consequent Nordic tradition during the interwar period, after the restoration of independence Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (with certain exceptions) chose a completely different gaming regulatory approach. These jurisdictions chose a fairly liberal and also unique gambling regulation. The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian gambling regulators acknowledge that these countries can not be classified within any gambling legal regulatory system. Certain conceptual problems that are endemic in gaming legal regulation in Lithuania and Baltics were observed by the author while working as a legal practitioner. Since then, through becoming more and more involved in gambling legal regulation and through the observation of foreign law, the author began to think about what might constitute ideal gambling regulation guidelines, and began encouraging the students of Mykolas Romeris University to carry out investigations into ideal gambling legal regulation in their Master theses. In this way, the problem of the selection of the gambling regulatory regime most advantageous to the public came to be crystallised, later forming the axis of this thesis. Is there an ideal legal regulation for gambling at all and what form should this legal regulation take? These reasons led to a comparative legal study – in which the gambling regulatory features in Scandinavia and the Baltic states were compared. As the Scandinavian and Baltic states represent two major approaches to the regulation of the gaming market – a market monopoly (in Scandinavia) and a liberal, competition-based regulation (in Baltic states), the separate issue under investigation were the pros and cons of each of these regulatory approaches. It has to be noted that a gambling monopoly is not just a legal concept enabling the exclusive entity to organize and provide gambling services. The monopoly is also a socio-economic category, whose consequences to the market and the public can be measured. For this reason, the analysis in the thesis touched not only on the legal but also the socio-economic peculiarities of gambling regulation. State and society benefits were also under evaluation, as legally they have to offset an indisputably negative attribute of gambling – it's addictiveness. Thus, this dissertation assesses whether there is a legal basis to assert that the monopoly, based on Nordic gambling regulation traditions, is more proactive (or defective) than the free market based gambling regulations followed in the Baltic States, in terms of the legal, social and economic aspects of these two alternative gaming market regulation methods. The relevance of the study, in particular, is founded on the existing conceptual problems faced by the current Lithuanian legal regulation regarding games of chance. During the nine years of its gambling regulation practice, the Republic of Lithuania has been unable to develop an effective gambling regulatory model that could effectively combine public (society's and state's) and private (gambling operators') interests. The current situation is evidence of the fact that public interest in the gaming sector is not legally covered and protected. The current legislation neither foresees public protection against the harmful effects of gambling, nor regulates public self protection. There are no legal measures of protection in Lithuania that would allow for personal self exclusion from casinos and other gambling venues. The public interest of the government is not protected from the economic point of view. Gambling tax collection and distribution in Lithuania is not effective. Data from 2008 showed that Lithuania had the lowest aggregate gambling tax collection in the region. In contrast, the study showed that the gambling turnover in Lithuania was the largest among the Baltic countries. This shows that the gambling business does not face any real restrictions with regards to its operations. Lithuania lacks legal mechanisms to either regulate the working hours of gaming establishments, or their places of establishment. The dissertation tackles this problem by offering a concrete option - the establishment of a state gambling and lottery monopoly. Monopolistic state participation in the gambling business (the Scandinavian model) guarantees not only the state revenue collected in the form of taxes, it also makes it possible to claim for full gambling generated income (profit). The raising of state revenue is of perpetual relevance to every jurisdiction, especially in the presence of a global financial crisis. The financial difficulties currently met by the Baltic States add additional relevance to this dissertation. The relevance of the thesis is not only contingent on the solution offered to conceptual problems in the field of gambling and the increasing of public revenue. The thesis also evaluates the legitimacy of the monopoly. If sovereign jurisdictions are free to choose a gambling regulatory method, legal problems have occasion to arise when the particular method chosen does not correspond with international legal obligations. For example, article 43 of the Treaty on European Community regulates the freedom of establishment within the EC. Article 49 prohibits restrictions on the provision of services to another Member state of the Community. The infringement of the aforementioned articles is often addressed to states in which legal regulation of gambling is based on a state monopoly. The dissertation provides response to the question of whether gambling monopolies are legal. Due to the international nature of the topic of the dissertation, it is relevant not only in Lithuania, but also Latvia, Estonia and those other Scandinavian countries which are currently concerned with the dilemma of maintaining a monopoly or opening it. The last, but most important, elements which determine the permanent topicality of this paper are the legal aspects of gambling addiction prevention that are researched in the dissertation. In all Baltic States, the prevention of gambling addiction is not given adequate legal consideration. Scandinavian countries apply a number of different gambling addiction prevention measures. Public safety and public order are universal legal values towards which special attention must be paid during the process of forming gaming legal regulation. The paper reveals what legal stand is occupied by the Baltic States in comparison to those Scandinavian countries with monopoly based gambling regulation. The paper reveals how the legal basis of all three Baltic jurisdictions can be improved in the context of gambling addiction prevention. In this respect, the paper is also relevant. The objective and tasks of the study The dissertation is comprised of a comparative legal study, whose purpose is to compare monopolistic legal regulation and the liberal legal regulation of gambling in a specific context - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, as well as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian jurisdictions. This specific context – the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, has been chosen due to the fact that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia share a similar history, geopolitical situation, legal system and legal regulation of gambling, even if they are not identical. Latvia and Estonia have monopolized their lottery market, but the rest of the gaming market is liberal. The Scandinavian countries, which are all representatives of state owned gambling monopoly countries, have been chosen as they are close Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian neighbours, whilst their social protection system and social policy are perhaps the best in Europe. These are social welfare countries whose social welfare indices, according to the classification of the Nobel Prize winning economist Amarta Sen, are among the highest in the world. Therefore, the aim of the study was to reveal the effectiveness and appropriateness of gambling legal regulation in Lithuania and other Baltic states, by first comparing these countries to each other and then to Scandinavian countries which are famous for their social well-being. In order to meet the study objective the following tasks have been set: 1. To disclose the concept, nature, evolution and characteristics of the legal regulation of gambling. To disclose social costs management in the Nordic and Baltic countries. 2. To compare gaming regulatory features, including the practice of gaming regulatory institutions, liability against infringement of gambling legal regulation and gambling taxation in Nordic and Baltic countries. 3. To compare gaming safety measures applied in Nordic and Baltic countries The novelty of the study. The scientific value of the dissertation. This is the very first legal dissertation in Lithuania on gambling. The countries under investigation (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia) are also lacking any single comparative legal study on gaming regulatory issues. This is the first scientific work to analyze the pro et contra of market competition and monopoly-based gambling regulation. Only one study, which was performed by the Comparative Law Institute of Lausanne (Switzerland) under assignment of the European Commission: \"Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union. Final report.\" can be held as inter-related to the cur

Presentation of the study. Analysed issues. Relevance of the topic. The Legal regulation of gambling differs across Europe and the world. Some jurisdictions have liberal gambling regulation where operators are free to engage in the betting and gaming business, other jurisdictions enjoy a gambling monopoly. Those countries which have state gambling monopolies participate in gambling through state-owned enterprises or through private concession-based operators. The Scandinavian countries also have long standing gambling monopolies and all gambling revenues are returned back into society to finance state budgets or public projects. Having followed the consequent Nordic tradition during the interwar period, after the restoration of independence Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (with certain exceptions) chose a completely different gaming regulatory approach. These jurisdictions chose a fairly liberal and also unique gambling regulation. The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian gambling regulators acknowledge that these countries can not be classified within any gambling legal regulatory system. Certain conceptual problems that are endemic in gaming legal regulation in Lithuania and Baltics were observed by the author while working as a legal practitioner. Since then, through becoming more and more involved in gambling legal regulation and through the observation of foreign law, the author began to think about what might constitute ideal gambling regulation guidelines, and began encouraging the students of Mykolas Romeris University to carry out investigations into ideal gambling legal regulation in their Master theses. In this way, the problem of the selection of the gambling regulatory regime most advantageous to the public came to be crystallised, later forming the axis of this thesis. Is there an ideal legal regulation for gambling at all and what form should this legal regulation take? These reasons led to a comparative legal study – in which the gambling regulatory features in Scandinavia and the Baltic states were compared. As the Scandinavian and Baltic states represent two major approaches to the regulation of the gaming market – a market monopoly (in Scandinavia) and a liberal, competition-based regulation (in Baltic states), the separate issue under investigation were the pros and cons of each of these regulatory approaches. It has to be noted that a gambling monopoly is not just a legal concept enabling the exclusive entity to organize and provide gambling services. The monopoly is also a socio-economic category, whose consequences to the market and the public can be measured. For this reason, the analysis in the thesis touched not only on the legal but also the socio-economic peculiarities of gambling regulation. State and society benefits were also under evaluation, as legally they have to offset an indisputably negative attribute of gambling – it's addictiveness. Thus, this dissertation assesses whether there is a legal basis to assert that the monopoly, based on Nordic gambling regulation traditions, is more proactive (or defective) than the free market based gambling regulations followed in the Baltic States, in terms of the legal, social and economic aspects of these two alternative gaming market regulation methods. The relevance of the study, in particular, is founded on the existing conceptual problems faced by the current Lithuanian legal regulation regarding games of chance. During the nine years of its gambling regulation practice, the Republic of Lithuania has been unable to develop an effective gambling regulatory model that could effectively combine public (society's and state's) and private (gambling operators') interests. The current situation is evidence of the fact that public interest in the gaming sector is not legally covered and protected. The current legislation neither foresees public protection against the harmful effects of gambling, nor regulates public self protection. There are no legal measures of protection in Lithuania that would allow for personal self exclusion from casinos and other gambling venues. The public interest of the government is not protected from the economic point of view. Gambling tax collection and distribution in Lithuania is not effective. Data from 2008 showed that Lithuania had the lowest aggregate gambling tax collection in the region. In contrast, the study showed that the gambling turnover in Lithuania was the largest among the Baltic countries. This shows that the gambling business does not face any real restrictions with regards to its operations. Lithuania lacks legal mechanisms to either regulate the working hours of gaming establishments, or their places of establishment. The dissertation tackles this problem by offering a concrete option - the establishment of a state gambling and lottery monopoly. Monopolistic state participation in the gambling business (the Scandinavian model) guarantees not only the state revenue collected in the form of taxes, it also makes it possible to claim for full gambling generated income (profit). The raising of state revenue is of perpetual relevance to every jurisdiction, especially in the presence of a global financial crisis. The financial difficulties currently met by the Baltic States add additional relevance to this dissertation. The relevance of the thesis is not only contingent on the solution offered to conceptual problems in the field of gambling and the increasing of public revenue. The thesis also evaluates the legitimacy of the monopoly. If sovereign jurisdictions are free to choose a gambling regulatory method, legal problems have occasion to arise when the particular method chosen does not correspond with international legal obligations. For example, article 43 of the Treaty on European Community regulates the freedom of establishment within the EC. Article 49 prohibits restrictions on the provision of services to another Member state of the Community. The infringement of the aforementioned articles is often addressed to states in which legal regulation of gambling is based on a state monopoly. The dissertation provides response to the question of whether gambling monopolies are legal. Due to the international nature of the topic of the dissertation, it is relevant not only in Lithuania, but also Latvia, Estonia and those other Scandinavian countries which are currently concerned with the dilemma of maintaining a monopoly or opening it. The last, but most important, elements which determine the permanent topicality of this paper are the legal aspects of gambling addiction prevention that are researched in the dissertation. In all Baltic States, the prevention of gambling addiction is not given adequate legal consideration. Scandinavian countries apply a number of different gambling addiction prevention measures. Public safety and public order are universal legal values towards which special attention must be paid during the process of forming gaming legal regulation. The paper reveals what legal stand is occupied by the Baltic States in comparison to those Scandinavian countries with monopoly based gambling regulation. The paper reveals how the legal basis of all three Baltic jurisdictions can be improved in the context of gambling addiction prevention. In this respect, the paper is also relevant. The objective and tasks of the study The dissertation is comprised of a comparative legal study, whose purpose is to compare monopolistic legal regulation and the liberal legal regulation of gambling in a specific context - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, as well as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian jurisdictions. This specific context – the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, has been chosen due to the fact that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia share a similar history, geopolitical situation, legal system and legal regulation of gambling, even if they are not identical. Latvia and Estonia have monopolized their lottery market, but the rest of the gaming market is liberal. The Scandinavian countries, which are all representatives of state owned gambling monopoly countries, have been chosen as they are close Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian neighbours, whilst their social protection system and social policy are perhaps the best in Europe. These are social welfare countries whose social welfare indices, according to the classification of the Nobel Prize winning economist Amarta Sen, are among the highest in the world. Therefore, the aim of the study was to reveal the effectiveness and appropriateness of gambling legal regulation in Lithuania and other Baltic states, by first comparing these countries to each other and then to Scandinavian countries which are famous for their social well-being. In order to meet the study objective the following tasks have been set: 1. To disclose the concept, nature, evolution and characteristics of the legal regulation of gambling. To disclose social costs management in the Nordic and Baltic countries. 2. To compare gaming regulatory features, including the practice of gaming regulatory institutions, liability against infringement of gambling legal regulation and gambling taxation in Nordic and Baltic countries. 3. To compare gaming safety measures applied in Nordic and Baltic countries The novelty of the study. The scientific value of the dissertation. This is the very first legal dissertation in Lithuania on gambling. The countries under investigation (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia) are also lacking any single comparative legal study on gaming regulatory issues. This is the first scientific work to analyze the pro et contra of market competition and monopoly-based gambling regulation. Only one study, which was performed by the Comparative Law Institute of Lausanne (Switzerland) under assignment of the European Commission: \"Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union. Final report.\" can be held as inter-related to the cur

The Internet gambling problems, analyzed in this article, lead to exploration and comparison of the alternatives of the Internet gambling regulation and its prohibition, taking into account the experience of United States of America, which prohibited Internet gambling in 2006. The ineffectiveness of the prohibition is analyzed in this article, while looking for the most effective measures of control over Internet gambling, as well as for the measures securing the most vulnerable social groups against negative impact of gambling. The results of the research have encouraged drafting of an ideal theoretical concept of Internet gambling control. Legal regulation on Internet gambling, applicable within the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, is not progressive; the local Law on the games of chance currently bans all gambling activities, except for the ones explicitly described in the law, but participation in Internet gambling is not prohibited. The ambiguity of the law leads to an inability of the National gaming control commission to deal with foreign Internet gambling providers. Thus, there is an objective need for creation and implementation of new and effective Internet gambling regulation. Finally, the article deals with Internet gambling prevalence and its regulation tendencies in the world that are important indicators for the Lithuanian legislator, which accordingly is being encouraged to take some regulatory steps, dealing with Internet gambling.

The Internet gambling problems, analyzed in this article, lead to exploration and comparison of the alternatives of the Internet gambling regulation and its prohibition, taking into account the experience of United States of America, which prohibited Internet gambling in 2006. The ineffectiveness of the prohibition is analyzed in this article, while looking for the most effective measures of control over Internet gambling, as well as for the measures securing the most vulnerable social groups against negative impact of gambling. The results of the research have encouraged drafting of an ideal theoretical concept of Internet gambling control. Legal regulation on Internet gambling, applicable within the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, is not progressive; the local Law on the games of chance currently bans all gambling activities, except for the ones explicitly described in the law, but participation in Internet gambling is not prohibited. The ambiguity of the law leads to an inability of the National gaming control commission to deal with foreign Internet gambling providers. Thus, there is an objective need for creation and implementation of new and effective Internet gambling regulation. Finally, the article deals with Internet gambling prevalence and its regulation tendencies in the world that are important indicators for the Lithuanian legislator, which accordingly is being encouraged to take some regulatory steps, dealing with Internet gambling.